A pleasant surprise

Apart from the 1989 classic 101, I don't usually bother much with Depeche Mode's live albums. They're usually just fine, but the songs are better without Dave Gahan's rock star theatrics. I gave this one a listen to gain a better sense of the recent Depeche Mode live sound. Not much has changed in terms of their live performance, but the song selection was on point. They included all three of my favorite songs from the underrated Playing the Angel album, thus earning my seal of approval right there. The album includes four additional studio recorded songs left over from the Memento Mori sessions. They're interesting and a nice bonus, but the Memento Mori album didn't suffer any from their exclusion.