“Suffer Well” by Depeche Mode
Songs with notably rely on religious symbolism, are by that very nature open to various interpretations. And so it seems with “Suffer Well”. For instance, when the vocalist gets to referring to ‘an angel leading him when he was blind’, and the narrator rather opting to go “back” from whence he came, such an allegory can potentially hold significant weight not only based on religious understandings of such terms but also moralistic ones.
However, that is not to say that this piece is indecipherably deep. Rather it appears to be generally based on another concept commonly found in religion, that of keeping personal suffering in context in terms of how it contributes to the overall goal of achieving inner peace.
When was “Suffer Well” released?
Depeche Mode released this on the 27th of March, 2006. It was a single from their famous “Playing the Angel” album .
Writing and Production Credits
The song was written by the band’s lead singer (Dave Gahan), with assistance from Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott.
It was produced by the band with support from Ben Hillier.
Genre(s) of “Suffer Well”
To the best of our knowledge, “Suffer Well” can be grouped into any of the following music genres:
- Electronica
- Electronic rock
- Industrial rock
- Dance-rock
Grammy Nomination
At the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007, “Suffer Well” was nominated for “Best Dance Recording”. However, it lost the award to “SexyBack” by Justin Timberlake. Other songs that competed in the said category include the following:
Chart Performance
- Belgium – 7
- Denmark – 1
- Finland – 6
- Hungary – 1
- Italy – 5
- Poland – 3
- Spain – 2
- UK – 12
- US – 1
The “Playing the Angel” Album
Depeche mode released the dance-rock song, Suffer Well, in 2005 as the third single from their bestselling album Playing the Angel.
Mute Records along with Reprise Records and Sire Records released the album in the United States and globally on October 13, 2005.
The album contains thirteen songs ranging from dance-rock to electronic rock to synth-pop music genres. The band’s founding member, Martin L. Gore, wrote all songs except for the following songs:
- Nothing’s Impossible
- I Want It All
- Suffer Well
Playing the Angel was included in the 2005 Top Album charts of many music platforms and magazines such as Playlouder, Q Magazine, Popnews, Eins Live, and Plattentests. It also received high review scores from numerous music critics. A number of news outlets, including The Times rated it as a 4 out of a 5-star album.
The album reached the seventh position on the Billboard 200 chart and peaked at the sixth position in the UK. It was number one on Billboard’s Top Dance Albums chart and topped the weekly album chart of over a dozen European countries. In addition, it received multiple gold and platinum certifications from over ten countries.
