PTA is the album everyone looked forward to, for we had not heard from Depeche Mode since the Album Exciter in 2001 and its tour. The first single ‘precious’ was released last month and I have to admit that I suspected an ‘Exciter II’ with fragments of the 80’s sound of the band. Precious is a nice song and probably hit material, but not at all representative for the album.

The opening song ‘a pain that I’m used to’ reminds me a lot of ‘dead of night’, but it misses the dynamic and frivolity (lyrics) of that song and is therefore a bit disappointing. John the revelator, with references to the old blues song (http://www.harptab.com/lyrics/ly5019.shtml) is a very catchy song, where the lie of being sure about religion (or way of life) and carrying that out as the truth is exposed. At least that’s what I make of it. ;-)

‘The Sinner in me’ is excellent in using the instruments and sounds to accompany the icy voice of Dave and the disturbing lyrics. The beautiful backing vocals only add up to that atmosphere. “Macro vision” is just great, actually one of my favorites. Nice and broody, you can almost feel the moist heat coming out of the stereo.

‘Damaged People’ and ‘Darkest Star’ fit perfectly to the album. Sensitive songs with an Utra-esk sound and I have no complaints about that.

Dave shows the extraordinary capability of his singing in every single song and his contribution with three songs written by him is promising. ‘Nothing’s impossible’ is astonishingly good, ‘Suffer Well’ sounds like a standard DM song, nothing more, nothing less and ‘I want it all’ could have been a Paper Monsters song, only lifted to a higher level at the end when Martin takes care of the backing vocals. This proves that the talents of the separate members work at best when combined. The highlight is ‘Lilian’, a song that has it all: Pace, persuasion, heart and rhythm.

Playing the Angel is an album I suspect most DM fans are very happy with. After ‘Exciter’ we were ready for an album with a bite and that’s what we got.