Let's just call a spade a spade: 2001's Exciter was by far the worst Depeche Mode album to ever be released, and I don't care what fanatics think, it sucked ASS. Other than first single "Dream On," Exciter was a train-wreck that featured Martin Gore's worst lyrics to date, uninspired vocals by Dave Gahan and less than stellar production that missed Alan Wilder's presence more than ever (and let's not pretend that Andrew Fletcher actually does anything productive shall we?). It was no surprise to anyone that serious talks of breaking up were in the works shortly after. Solo albums by Gahan and Gore in 2003 seemed to fuel even more rumors that DM was done for.

All of which makes the existence of Playing The Angel all the more curious. How would Depeche Mode handle coming back from all the internal rumblings and grumblings of the last four years? Let's not even start to kid ourselves. I refuse to be one of those critics that falls over himself to spew forth that this is a grand return to form and their greatest album since…whatever. Playing The Angel is certainly no Violator or Songs Of Faith And Devotion (their most sorely overlooked album). Hell, this album isn't even up to par with something like Ultra. But it is something that Exciter wasn't and that's fairly decent.

If I could have just listened to the first three tracks of Playing The Angel ("The Pain I'm Used To," "John The Revelator" and "Suffer Well") and then been allowed to shut it off, I would have been inclined to opine that Playing The Angel was actually great. "The Pain I'm Used To" and "John The Revelator" are reminiscent of the best aspects of Songs Of Faith And Devotion (harder electric guitars and "Condemnation" style gospel choirs respectively) and "Suffer Well" with Gahan's voice in top form, steady rhythm guitar, and Gore's excelling backing vocals, may just be the best DM song of the last ten years. Even first single "Precious" isn't half bad when you get right down to it.

But after that frontloaded set of goods on Side A however, Playing The Angel is pretty lackluster. The rest of the album suffers from murky, self-indulgent production just like Exciter did, and also like Exciter, the songs sung by Gore ("Macro" and "Damaged People") stink right through the plastic lining on the CD. "Lilian" is the best song Side B has to offer, but it isn't good enough to wade through the muck you have to go through to get there. Playing The Angel does have its moments, but I still say Depeche Mode should get on their hands and knees and beg Alan Wilder to come back. It's not like his band Recoil is doing anything spectacular these days either.