Playing the Angel is the eleventh studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was first released on 13 October 2005 through Mute Records internationally, and through 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 debuted at number six on the UK Albums Chart, selling 32,505 copies in its first week. In the United States, the album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 98,000 copies. Both peak chart positions are improvements on the band's previous album, Exciter, which charted at number nine and eight, respectively, although Exciter attained larger US first-week sales of 115,000 units. Playing the Angel had sold 418,000 copies in the US as of November 2007. By January 2007, the album had sold 1.6 million copies worldwide (excluding the US and Canada), according to EMI.