Playing The Angel
by Depeche Mode

Album
Playing The Angel by Depeche Mode
Year: 2005
Release date: 2005-10-14
Overall rank: 2,444th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 242 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2005 (49th)
Award Top albums of of the 2000s (398th)
Award Best albums of all time (2,444th)

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Depeche Mode bestography

Playing The Angel is ranked 7th best out of 47 albums by Depeche Mode on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Depeche Mode is Violator which is ranked number 94 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 12,081.

Depeche Mode album bestography « Higher ranked (1,687th)
Some Great Reward This album (2,444th)
Playing The Angel Lower ranked (2,596th) »
Memento Mori

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Playing The Angel track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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#
Track
Rating/Comments
1.
A Pain That I'm Used To
Average Rating: 80 (50 votes)Comments: View 0
2.
John The Revelator
Average Rating: 80 (50 votes)Comments: View 0
3.
Suffer Well
Average Rating: 81 (51 votes)Comments: View 0
4.
The Sinner In Me
Average Rating: 79 (47 votes)Comments: View 0
5.
Track pick (860 - 105 votes)
Precious
Average Rating: 86 (105 votes)Comments: View 1
6.
Macro
Average Rating: 76 (43 votes)Comments: View 0
7.
I Want It All
Average Rating: 77 (44 votes)Comments: View 0
8.
Nothing's Impossible
Average Rating: 79 (47 votes)Comments: View 0
9.
Introspectre
Average Rating: 74 (41 votes)Comments: View 0
10.
Damaged People
Average Rating: 74 (43 votes)Comments: View 0
11.
Lilian
Average Rating: 79 (48 votes)Comments: View 0
12.
The Darkest Star
Average Rating: 77 (44 votes)Comments: View 0

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Playing The Angel rankings

Playing The Angel rankings summary
Overall rank: 2,444th | 2000s rank: 398th | 2005 rank: 49th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)

Playing The Angel collection

Playing The Angel ratings

Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 242 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 242 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 !		09/28/2026 21:02 luukvdschepop  Ratings distribution  79475/100
 
75/100
 !		09/07/2026 10:06 DrTchock97  Ratings distribution  74876/100
 
70/100
 !		06/06/2026 16:22 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  16,48670/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 11% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.5/100, a mean average of 74.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.8.


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Playing The Angel favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite  | Show all 28 members

Jemegra
oliojr98
mash
invincible93
Robmc70
Yannlebrac
MaxStorm98
Pepeov
inVINCEable
Brandonjtg

Playing The Angel forum mentions

This album has been referenced 14 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From pedro1976 09/04/2026 12:07 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“1300”
View topic (6 mentions) →

From BestEverAlbums 08/18/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5408): By Vasco
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by Vasco () 1. by (1994) 2. by (1979) 3. by (1977) 5. (2012) 7. (1982) 9. by by (1990) 12. by (1989) 14. by (2023) 15. (2019) 16. (1998) 17. by (2013) 20. by (1973) 21. by (2024) 22. (1992) 23. by (2022) 24. by (2006) 25. by (1975) 26. by…”
(1 mentions across Chart of the Day topics)
View latest topic →

From NoisyBeast 04/18/2024 14:17 in What album are you listening to right now?
“What album are you listening to right now?”
View topic (5 mentions) →

View all forum mentions

Playing The Angel comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 9 comments |
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
90/100
From 06/15/2019 07:54 | #237550 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Hugely underrated. One of, if not, their best album. Strong from start to finish, the complete Depeche Mode sound.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 4
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Rating:  
80/100
From 09/23/2014 22:45 | #122545 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
A great album; better than anything U2 or R.E.M. have done this century. Precious might be their best single since Enjoy the Silence. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 2
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Rating:  
70/100
From 06/08/2016 15:27 | #168192 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
One of those Depeche Mode albums that starts strongly but runs out of steam towards the end. Playing The angel, sees the band trying hard, and some of it works fine in, John the revelator(based on an old blues song), suffer well, and, precious. Maybe the album could have been shortened by a couple of tracks down to ten. Still, when it's good, playing the angel, is fine, but it's just not often enough. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 1
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Rating:  
80/100
From 02/20/2013 14:50 | #65601 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
one of the best albums of Depeche Mode
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Rating:  
40/100
From 05/08/2012 08:04 | #41821 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
A few moments of brilliance, but it feels somewhat uninspired. This album was really good the first time I heard it but never again.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 1
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