eine sehr interessante und „lust auf mehr“ machende review von playing the angel::)
Quelle: EW3-Forum
I’m VERY excited! I’ve just listened to the whole album and want to share it with you.
Please understand that I’ve just listened to the album once, except for a couple of songs I listened to twice. And this is a VERY HARD album to listen. The production is so heavy and dark that you can’t really get into the songs until many listenings I think. So my point of view can (and will) change in the future.
For those who are expecting an album like Precious, FORGET IT. It has nothing to do with it. No 80’s sound, no synth-pop, no obvious hit singles. Actually, Precious is possibly the more different first-single to the the rest of the album in DM career.
There are no pop songs, don’t expect nothing similar to Violator, SOFAD or BC. Of course there are good melodies and great choruses, but they are behind a wall of synths and darkness that create some of the most agressive DM moments. All of this, I repeat, after one listening.
DM did it again. They did a completly different album. Different to other bands and themselves, but sounding Depeche.
Nothing similar to Exciter, for those who disliked it (I loved it).
According to what I’d read about PTA, I expected it to be more organic, with lots of guitars and maybe more real drums. It’s more organic than Exciter (that’s easy), but there are not so much guitars, it’s more heavy-electronic oriented. There are not click-drums, but not many heavy drums either.
These are my first impressions (and sorry for my english, I wish I could do better descriptions):
01 A pain that I’m used to
The synth in the beginning reminds a little to Dead of night. It’s a very dark song, quite uptempo and with a little NIN feel. It will be a single. Actually, is the kind of song we’d normally expect as a DM comeback single. I bet it will be the first song on the tour. Great one!
02 John the Revelator
Strange song. Ìt starts with an Ultra feel loop, but much faster than any other song in that album. Lots of heavy synths and Dave singing is strong and agressive. The strange thing is the american-rockabilly touch of the vocal melody, but it works contrasting with the darkness of the production. Possibly a single too.
03 Suffer Well
Nice guitars and very dark and quite fast again. The chorus is specially nice.
04 The sinner in me
Great song. Once again, very very dark, but this time is a slow one. Dave voice is deep and low, really emotive, fitting perfectly with the analog synths and the electronic drums. The chorus is awsome, and, in the middle of the song everything stops and then an amazing long instrumental part starts, finishing with a final chorus once again.
05 Precious
The same version as the leaked one. Don’t expect anything different. Though the video clip one was a rough mix, there are no noticeable changes on levels or additional parts. Of course, it grows as this is the final mastered version and sounds 1000 times better than the mp3. The most accessible song by far, maybe the only one. Nothing to do with the rest of the album.
06 Macro
Mid-tempo track. Back to the dark sounds, specially the drums. Martin sings really good, sounds powerful and clear. The melody is rather strange, though the chorus is brilliant. Nice nice one.
07 I want it all
Slow drums, somehow similar to the Exciter sound or to Bjork’s All is full of love. Lots of synth arrangement. One of the weakest in this first listening, but will possibly grow.
08 Nothing’s impossible
Mid-tempo dark (very very dark) song. Dave voice is really moving, once again in his classical low tone. In some parts the voice has some kind of vocoder (or other similar fx) which sounds cool. The synth parts are really great. One of my favourites (by now).
09 Introspectre
Wayne’s possible favourite. A 1:30 long instrumental interlude! Simple but nice. I think it works. Sounds like a mix between Ultra and pre-86 period. The future intro of the tour?
10 Damaged people
The other song with Martin on vocals. This is really beautiful, with a very classical-retro vocal melody (don’t really know how to describe it) over a strange harmony and synth arrangements. GREAT song.
11 Lillian
Very different from the rest. Uptempo song, Dave’s voice has been filtered and sounds exactly like The Bravery singer in Honest Mistake. Don’t know if I liked it or not, but I see it as a potential single.
12 The darkest star
I may be wrong, but I’d say this is the song that Martin told Fletch it was the best he’d ever written. It’s very soon to make such a judgement, but after 2 listenings this is the one I liked more by far. It starts like an Exciter song, but then a piano appears, everything turns incredibly dark, Dave sings brilliantly and really moves you. The backing vocals by Martin are simply unbelievable!!! I’m very shocked at this time with darkest star. It has the „Playing the angel“ words in the lyrics.
That’s all.
Though I can’t confirm it 100%, it seems that one of the b-sides is called Marta (or Martha).
*ho*, die spannung steigt! :)
florian
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German people travel everywhere!