Sophomore single from Depeche Mode's current "Playing The Angel" album finds Madonna's current cohort Stuart Price offering the lead mix under his Jacques Lu Cont guise where he turns in a busily ominous Electro mix and dub that, while an ambitious attempt that does utilize the guitar tracks well, still sits rather uneasily with the song itself. The Goldfrapp Remix, while not club-friendly, is still a gorgeous electronic marvel that heavily synthesizes Dave Gahan's vocals and turns track into a delicately beatless confection that only builds up the guitars at the very end. Possibly the most radical remixes come from Bitstream, their experimental Spansule Mix features a Industrial beat under a darkly stark arrangement while their Threshold Mix is a grinding, skittering semi-dub that stutters the vocals to the brink of indecipherability under a flailing sets of spacey synth lines. The best thing on this single is the beautifully understated bonus track "Newborn," a gently mid-tempo dance track that would have made a wonderful addition to the already excellent "Playing The Angel" full length.
