One of my favorite bands is Depeche Mode. While I think their last album, Playing The Angel, is one of their best since Songs Of Faith And Devotion, I have always stuggled to listen to it. If that doesn't make sense then I'll explain.
My first impression when I bought the CD was 'Bloody hell, that's loud.' Despite repeated listening I'd always struggle to get to the end of the album - I found it very tiring to listen to, and would usuallly turn it off two thirds of the way through. I could never quite figure out why.
Then I found two web pages that describe the problem. Both pages describe how the album has been ruined by over compression, in a bid to make the album appear as loud as possible. Take a look at the diagrams included in the links, and you will see how over compressed the album is.
What I find most amazing is the band letting the album be released like that. After spending a good few months recording and mixing the songs, I would have thought they would immediately notice how the CD mastering had ruined all their hard work.
Fed up with the CD, I resorted to downloading a FLAC rip of the vinyl version of the album - what a difference! It is now possible to hear the detail in the songs - as vinyl cannot cope with the extreme levels used on CDs, it has been mastered at a much more sensible level without all the compression.
I don't normally download music torrents, but I made an exception in this case - after having paid for an unlistenable CD, I don't feel I am ripping anyone off by downloading another copy of the same album.
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