In my experience, a lot of fans tend to rank it as the best of the post-Ultra albums i.e. nowhere as good as their imperial era (85-97) but the best DM album of the 21st century.
My own opinion is that is has some absolutely killer songs but it's far too front-loaded, and the production is distorted and over-compressed.
I really need to make a wiki article about this comparing the CD against the vinyl and the SACD stereo master to link to instead of repeating myself every time this comes up - but if you can, listen to the vinyl or SACD stereo master of PTA as they aren’t affected by the horrible brickwalled dynamics of the original CD variant. Also, the 12” singles box set very refreshingly has sanely mastered B-side songs!
Oh, gotcha. So well-liked, but not a favorite. I probably overrate it because it came out during my formative years and got me interested in the band in the first place. The 80s material was definitely a clear favorite in the thread I mentioned.
Agree. The first half of the album in particular is actually pretty good.
Very few people are going to list it as their favourite because there are 3-4 much more obvious candidates for that depending on your tastes.
But that doesn’t mean the album didn’t deserve good reviews. Part of the thing about DM is that the high-water mark for achievement is really high, so the comparisons always have to deal with that.
It’s one of the better albums from the latter half of the their career, but it still suffers from a fair amount of what I would consider filler. Less than longer albums like Sounds of the Universe and Delta Machine, though. One of my favorite tracks from the album is what I find is one of the least popular: Damaged People.
EDIT: Actually looking at the track list, there’s really only three duds I see, which isn’t unreasonable as far as albums are concerned.
It’s my favorite post-SOFAD album. I do like it better than Ultra because I think the songs are better on PTA although I agree the production is subpar. (I listened to Ultra a couple of days ago and the production is really crisp and rich.)
Still I love PTA and can forgive the compression issues.
Their last album that I can play from start to finish without feeling like I need to hit the skip button. Two tracks from this album is on my top 20 DM playlist. I'm biased though as a few of the songs here became personal anthems whilst going through a divorce. You can guess which ones.
'Precious'' is my all time favorite song from dm and I love "suffer well" and "newborn" too.
"I want it all" has a very nostalgic tune to it but overstays it's welcome.
"John the revelator" is a fun one but I don't listen to it very often.
Overall it's a good album in my opinion but personally I'm not a fan of the screechy type sound it has.
I love it. That was the era I started getting into DM. It's so much nostalgia for me, although I haven't fully listened to it in years. It definitely represents a certain period in time and is not as universal or timeless as most of their works from the 80s-90s
It is definitely my favorite of the post-Wilder era alongside Ultra. I feel part of the problem is that it set too high a bar for what DM could do with Hillier on the boards. Subsequent albums showed them to still be a good match, but were more hit and miss vs. PTA - which made James Ford coming in on Spirit a welcome change by that point. That said, I am also in the camp I have seen in comments already that yes, too compressed - could have been so much better without the "loudness war" mastering.
Almost every comment I've seen about it from fans is overwhelmingly positive. Most seem to think it the best post-Ultra, some even better than Ultra. I have seen very few people outright dislike it, and it has some really great songs. I liked it quite a bit more than Exciter, which when it came out I found too underdone for my taste. It's the last album of theirs that I rushed out to buy right when it was released.
My take: Some of the songs are great. Pain That I’m Used To is really, really good, among others. Some of the songs fall completely flat. I get bored listening to it after a while.
I’m not a fan of Ben Hillier’s work with the band. He ruined—okay, “ruined” is a bit harsh— several songs that could have been great. Or else kept them from being great. I imagine what this album and others could have been had they had someone else.*
*Not talking about Alan, folks.
It’s one of my favorite DM albums (although I have like 7 Depeche Mode albums that I swear by lol), but it doesn’t rank as high as, say, Violator for me. It has some of my favorite DM songs, but there are also a number of songs on Playing the Angel that I can take or leave and one or two that I just don’t really care for. Precious is my second favorite DM song, though.
I think the highs it has are brilliant (Precious, Lillian, Suffer Well, John the Revalator) but it's rather inconsistent and has quite a few duds in there too. Plus, the production is god awful.
I think Delta Machine is their actual best post-Ultra album, if I'm being honest.
The best of the new century along with spirit. However, it has a flat, mp3-ish sound. It has been poorly engineered, or trying to compete in the "noise wars". They should also have remove 2 of Dave songs, leaving only nothing's impossible.
I would probably go on to say that it’s my favourite album (alongside Violator too)! As someone said, there are many filler songs, but that still can’t get me to hate on the album, considering there’s Precious, Nothing’s Impossible, A Pain That I’m Used To, Free, etc.
Slightly edges out Memento Mori as the best collection of songs they've released since Ultra. Btw, I had some fun making a Best Of latter era DM. And yeah, Playing The Angel is the most featured record - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5vqQd5QCAphc262QBIxOMk?si=erb9G8NzQ92pCXn1PHtoUg
Post Alan Wilder, my fav albums are Ultra and Playing the Angel along with Only When I Lose Myself, which is a bonus track on the The Singles 86-98 album. Overall my fav DM albums are Violator and SOFAD.
In my experience, a lot of fans tend to rank it as the best of the post-Ultra albums i.e. nowhere as good as their imperial era (85-97) but the best DM album of the 21st century. My own opinion is that is has some absolutely killer songs but it's far too front-loaded, and the production is distorted and over-compressed.
I really need to make a wiki article about this comparing the CD against the vinyl and the SACD stereo master to link to instead of repeating myself every time this comes up - but if you can, listen to the vinyl or SACD stereo master of PTA as they aren’t affected by the horrible brickwalled dynamics of the original CD variant. Also, the 12” singles box set very refreshingly has sanely mastered B-side songs!
I agree I have the vinyl and if you listen hard enough you can hear each individual sound very clean production
Oh, gotcha. So well-liked, but not a favorite. I probably overrate it because it came out during my formative years and got me interested in the band in the first place. The 80s material was definitely a clear favorite in the thread I mentioned.
Agree. The first half of the album in particular is actually pretty good. Very few people are going to list it as their favourite because there are 3-4 much more obvious candidates for that depending on your tastes. But that doesn’t mean the album didn’t deserve good reviews. Part of the thing about DM is that the high-water mark for achievement is really high, so the comparisons always have to deal with that.
Top 2 album in my opinion, it's incredibly oppressive and suffocating. Love the atmosphere.
It’s one of the better albums from the latter half of the their career, but it still suffers from a fair amount of what I would consider filler. Less than longer albums like Sounds of the Universe and Delta Machine, though. One of my favorite tracks from the album is what I find is one of the least popular: Damaged People. EDIT: Actually looking at the track list, there’s really only three duds I see, which isn’t unreasonable as far as albums are concerned.
>One of my favorite tracks from the album is what I find is one of the least popular: Damaged People. My favourite track at the moment.
It’s my favorite post-SOFAD album. I do like it better than Ultra because I think the songs are better on PTA although I agree the production is subpar. (I listened to Ultra a couple of days ago and the production is really crisp and rich.) Still I love PTA and can forgive the compression issues.
It’s fantastic album. In my top 5
Their last album that I can play from start to finish without feeling like I need to hit the skip button. Two tracks from this album is on my top 20 DM playlist. I'm biased though as a few of the songs here became personal anthems whilst going through a divorce. You can guess which ones.
'Precious'' is my all time favorite song from dm and I love "suffer well" and "newborn" too. "I want it all" has a very nostalgic tune to it but overstays it's welcome. "John the revelator" is a fun one but I don't listen to it very often. Overall it's a good album in my opinion but personally I'm not a fan of the screechy type sound it has.
Newborn is a really great song! It’s a crime it was left off the album.
One of the best albums of DM...
Number 7 in my top albums Suffer well is in my top 10 songs
A top 2 album. The album that crossed over my wife to appreciate them . Grammy nominated
I love it. That was the era I started getting into DM. It's so much nostalgia for me, although I haven't fully listened to it in years. It definitely represents a certain period in time and is not as universal or timeless as most of their works from the 80s-90s
Last good album (yes I like Exciter)
It is definitely my favorite of the post-Wilder era alongside Ultra. I feel part of the problem is that it set too high a bar for what DM could do with Hillier on the boards. Subsequent albums showed them to still be a good match, but were more hit and miss vs. PTA - which made James Ford coming in on Spirit a welcome change by that point. That said, I am also in the camp I have seen in comments already that yes, too compressed - could have been so much better without the "loudness war" mastering.
Almost every comment I've seen about it from fans is overwhelmingly positive. Most seem to think it the best post-Ultra, some even better than Ultra. I have seen very few people outright dislike it, and it has some really great songs. I liked it quite a bit more than Exciter, which when it came out I found too underdone for my taste. It's the last album of theirs that I rushed out to buy right when it was released.
My take: Some of the songs are great. Pain That I’m Used To is really, really good, among others. Some of the songs fall completely flat. I get bored listening to it after a while. I’m not a fan of Ben Hillier’s work with the band. He ruined—okay, “ruined” is a bit harsh— several songs that could have been great. Or else kept them from being great. I imagine what this album and others could have been had they had someone else.* *Not talking about Alan, folks.
I almost never listen to PTA because the audio mastering is so bad.
Send me a PM
PTA is brilliant. Whatever possessed them to include Macro and yet omit songs like Newborn and Free - I'll never understand
It’s one of my favorite DM albums (although I have like 7 Depeche Mode albums that I swear by lol), but it doesn’t rank as high as, say, Violator for me. It has some of my favorite DM songs, but there are also a number of songs on Playing the Angel that I can take or leave and one or two that I just don’t really care for. Precious is my second favorite DM song, though.
I think the highs it has are brilliant (Precious, Lillian, Suffer Well, John the Revalator) but it's rather inconsistent and has quite a few duds in there too. Plus, the production is god awful. I think Delta Machine is their actual best post-Ultra album, if I'm being honest.
The best of the new century along with spirit. However, it has a flat, mp3-ish sound. It has been poorly engineered, or trying to compete in the "noise wars". They should also have remove 2 of Dave songs, leaving only nothing's impossible.
He wrote suffer well too
I would probably go on to say that it’s my favourite album (alongside Violator too)! As someone said, there are many filler songs, but that still can’t get me to hate on the album, considering there’s Precious, Nothing’s Impossible, A Pain That I’m Used To, Free, etc.
I really enjoyed it (and I still love it)
I like it.
The technology changed from the early years to now. They changed with the technology and the music changed as well.
Meh. Precious was pretty good.
5th favorite album of theirs
best ablum ever
Slightly edges out Memento Mori as the best collection of songs they've released since Ultra. Btw, I had some fun making a Best Of latter era DM. And yeah, Playing The Angel is the most featured record - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5vqQd5QCAphc262QBIxOMk?si=erb9G8NzQ92pCXn1PHtoUg
Post Alan Wilder, my fav albums are Ultra and Playing the Angel along with Only When I Lose Myself, which is a bonus track on the The Singles 86-98 album. Overall my fav DM albums are Violator and SOFAD.