Playing the Angel is the eleventh studio album by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was first released on 17 October 2005 by Mute Records in the United Kingdom, and a day later by Sire Records and Reprise Records in the United States. It was supported by the Touring the Angel tour and the four singles "Precious", "A Pain That I'm Used To", "Suffer Well", and "John the Revelator" / "Lilian". The album reached number one in over 10 countries and entered the top 10 in the United Kingdom and United States. Playing the Angel is the first Depeche Mode album to feature writing contributions from lead singer Dave Gahan. He wrote the lyrics to "Suffer Well", "I Want It All" and "Nothing's Impossible", while Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott wrote the music. Gahan is the lead singer on all songs except for the instrumental "Introspectre", and Martin Gore-sung tracks "Macro" and "Damaged People". Gahan also sings backing vocals on "Macro". Tracks recorded during the Playing the Angel sessions that did not make the album include "Martyr", which was originally planned to be the lead single but was eventually deemed too poppy for the album and saved for The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1. Other songs include "Free", which ended up on the "Precious" single and the Japanese version of Playing the Angel. Lyrically, some of the themes that appear quite often are faith, sin, pain, and suffering. Gore said that the track "John The Revelator" talks about faith but claims that