Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 17/10/05
Label: Mute

Artists as dramatically different as Marilyn Manson, Johnny Cash, Derrick May and Goldfrapp have acknowledged their contribution to the annals of contemporary music, but Depeche Mode haven't always enjoyed such favour. In fact, from the beginning of the 90s, a paradigm shift in the UK saw their saturnine synth pop running directly counter to the prevailing trends first of grunge and later Britpop and, in this country at least, the attitude has increasingly become one of mild surprise that the band is still around.

Now, however, album number 11 sounds surprisingly vital and de nos jours, thanks to fashion having recently swung Depeche Mode's way once more. "Playing The Angel" is a marked improvement on their last effort, 2001's patchy "Exciter" and harks back in some ways to "Black Celebration", with producer Ben Hillier's fondness for analogue synth sounds and rough, almost abrasive texturing playing an important part.

It's a significant album, too, in that singer Dave Gahan has brought songs to the communal table for the first time. After releasing an (essentially) solo LP in 2003, he decided that his continuing membership of Depeche Mode depended upon being allowed to add his name to the composition credits and in fact "Suffer Well" - one of his three contributions - is among the album's strongest tracks.

"Pain and suffering in various tempos" is the wry tag-line printed beneath the album's tracklist and, since Martin Gore has been writing about the misery of relationships for a quarter of a century, there's little likelihood of fresh turf being turned now. Still, the fact is that general gloom and despondency suit Depeche Mode very well. The alarmist clanging of "A Pain That I'm Used To" provides a startling opener, but lead single "Precious" is quintessential Depeche Mode, with its digital disco pulse and dark, orchestral synths.

In "I Want It All" (another Gahan effort), subtly crunched electronica and moody atmospherics are set against the kind of sweet, spangled melody knocked out by INXS at their peak, while "John The Revelator" suggests John Lee Hooker trapped in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but adds swathes of icy synths. "Suffer Well" is carried along on a terrific, cantering beat and a grungy, simulated guitar line. Only the exaggeratedly portentous chords of "Damaged People" and the New Age claptrap that fills the ungainly "Macro" let the side down.

Twenty five years on, then, and Depeche Mode sound - if not ahead of the pack - then very much à la mode. Credit where credit's due.

    by Sharon O'Connell