Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel (W/Dvd)
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Free Music Notes for Playing the Angel (W/Dvd)
Free Music Review: They just keep going and going
Hit: 4 Stars
Back in the day I was the biggest DM fan in town. I listened to all five of their albums over and over again. Then the big hit People are People came out. It was over. Pop music had caught up with Depeche Mode. I went to see them live on that tour and was shocked to see them not acting like the cerebral techno artists that they sounded like. David Gahan was jumping around the stage like Michael Jackson. I moved on to more experimental bands. I didn't lose track of them I just didn't take them seriously anymore. Spin the clock ahead 20 years and I see them on Fuse TV looking very much their age and missing Alan Wilder. (He is now doing Recoil, check him out) They played the video for Precious. I was astonished. They had been broken. The "Music for the Masses" mentality was gone. I bought the album right away. I was so glad to hear music made by an older, wiser DM. They seem to realize that they have enough money and now they can go back to using their talents and not worry about making a hit record. I rank this new album up there with the first five. It is the record that should have come after Black Celebration. The last half of the eighties and the whole nineties decade were just a bad DM dream. (Okay, Violator was pretty good) but other than that they were just another pop band. The only thing that might make them better now is to bring back in Vince Clark. Wouldn't that be something?
P.S. Be careful buying the import with the DVD. Mine is in PAL and will not play on my TV's NTSC DVD player.
Free Music Review: Back To Basics and Better For It
Hit: 4 Stars
Coming off their trademark interminable wait and the underwhelming "Ultra" and "Exciter", Depeche Mode's latest offering sidles, slips and smashes its way back into familiar territory.
At first listen, it's both brash and engaging; Accessible enough to draw you in, but challenging to the point of requiring repeated listenings to grasp. A beautiful and bittersweet return to form!
Free Music Review: Long time DM fan
Hit: 4 Stars
No matter what others may say, Depeche Mode music is still unique and special, including this album. Not too many other bands stick together for so long and are still able to create quality music.Free Music Review: Depeche Mode are in "Money Mode"
Hit: 3 Stars
"Playing The Angel" is worth 3 stars - not as good as "Violator" but better than "Exciter" (which is a very ironic name for this most lack-luster LP). Now the rant for DM completist:
"Precious" has been released as a single some 7 times already. The best format as a U.S. Promotional CD Single containing all 8 (current) remixes: [Victor Calderone & Quayle Mix], [Sasha's Spooky Mix - Edit], [Sasha's Gargantuan Vocal Mix - Edit], [DJ Dan 4 A.M. Mix], [Michael Mayer Balearic Mix], [Misc. Full Vocal Mix], [Misc. Crunch Mix], and [Motor Mix]- but don't get too excited as it's still missing at least one B-Side. The next best format is a tie, both the U.K. Promotional CD Single and the U.S. Commercial CD Single contain 6 of the 8 above remixes. They are both missing the [Victor Calderone & Quayle Mix] and the [DJ Dan 4 A.M. Mix] (a huge void as these two remixes are arguably the best released thus far!). Next are the two U.K. CD Single releases: one with the [Album Version] & [Sasha's Spooky Mix - Edit] and the other with [Sasha's Gargantuan Vocal Mix - Edit], [Misc. Full Vocal Mix], and the B-Side [Free]. I'm not going to bother to comment on the video and/or DVD released overseas containing the "Precious" video.
So, if you are a monster Mode collector perhaps you purchased things in order based on their release date. You may now own U.K. CD's 1 + 2 along with the U.S. CD single. First step, re-sell your U.K. CD1 Single as you have all that and more on the U.S. CD single - keep CD2 'cause you need the B-side [Free] that is missing from the U.S. CD Single. Next go to ITunes and download the [Victor Calderone & Quayle Mix] along with the [DJ Dan 4 A.M. Mix]. Confused?...don't have ITunes?...then go on eBay and hunt down the U.S. Promotional CD Single (make sure your PayPal account has $100 plus in it) and buy it. If all goes well, you'll be up to date with Mode's new singles/songs just 2 days after the new album's release and out about $138.00 (plus shipping and handling mind you). Don't be patient and wait two years for the Seventh Black Singles Box that will ultimately be released - buy it now!
Now for the album. "Playing The Angel" is available in 6 formats. The U.S. with the standard 12 song listing. Another U.S. - Limited Edition (CD + DVD) with the 12 song CD and separate DVD containg the video for "Precious", "Clean (Bare)", making of doc. plus the 12 songs in 5.1/DTS. The U.K. gets the same releases except the "Limited Edition" is an SACD - wow!? Japan gets all 12 songs plus a 13th for the song "Free" (hey wasn't that on the U.K. CD Single also?! and what happened to the Japanese "Limited Edition"? What if I want to spend $68 for that import release?). ITunes has all 12 songs for downloading plus a 13th for the song "Clean (Bare)" (wait isn't that on the "Limited Edition" U.S./U.K. DVD/SACD respectively?!) One more quasi-release Mode put out there, just for fun, was the "Precious Sampler" CD - go and fetch that one on eBay if you have $200 plus you don't know what to do with because it has the "hard to find" song "Clean (Bare)" on it [remember - it's on CD format in this sampler...not DVD/SACD format so it's "cooler"!)
I'm sure my complaints are unwarranted and I must be exaggerating something in the above remarks - there is no way Depeche Mode is to blame for any of this non-sense. As I grow older and become the ultimate Bong/Mute/Mode CD collector I'll just go bankrupt and move in with my parents. Can't wait for them to yell upstairs: "You're 39 year's old and still listening to "Depeachy Mode" you loser!"
Free Music Review: DM fans, try something new!
Hit: 3 Stars
To borrow from "People are People":
Synth-pop is Synth-pop
so why should it be,
we all listen to Depeche Mode
exclusively?
This latest offering from DM is OK, but please do yourself a favor and try something new, like:
Iris - "Wrath"
The Dignity of Labour - "S/T"
The Echoing Green - "The Winter of our Discontent"