Playing the Angel

iTunes Review

Twenty-five years and 11 studio albums and Depeche Mode still matters. Once underground/alternative masters of the dark end of the synth-pop dance floor, DM is now one of the world’s most successful electronically engineered groups. While the music world has caught up to their technologically driven impulses, it hasn’t learned how to successfully replicate the human ingenuity that powers them. You still need the trio of Gore, Gahan, and Fletcher to run the program. Playing the Angel, the follow-up to their 2001 studio release Exciter, delivers all the expectant drama that made the band favorites of introverted malcontents for three decades. Producer Ben Hiller (Blur, Doves), who admitted to not being a fan of the band’s music before working with them, pushes the group up a few beats to give them a newfound sense of urgency (“A Pain That I’m Used To,” “John the Revelator”), but the trio still drapes their crestfallen images in beautiful electronic hues (“Precious”). Dave Gahan aids main songwriter Martin Gore with three tracks of his own that fit snugly within the group’s internal angst. No amount of worldly success can temper this group’s alluring dark side.