DEPECHE MODE - PRECIOUS 

Released: October 3, 2005

Charted:  UK: #4   US: #71 

"Precious" is a song from their 2005 studio album, “Playing the Angel”. It was released by Mute, Sire, and Reprise Records as the album's lead single. Martin Gore was going through a difficult time in his life. He had recently gone through a divorce, and he was going through a custody battle for his children. During this time, Gore was feeling very vulnerable and was exploring his emotions through his music. The result was the song “Precious”. The song was a way for him to express his regret and longing for the love he had lost.

The song speaks to the universal human experience of love and loss. We all have regrets about things we could have done differently in our relationships. Precious reminds us of the value of the love we have in our lives and how important it is to cherish it.

Although this is a very personal song for Martin Gore, it was sung by their main vocalist, Dave Gahan, which was standard procedure for the band. The “Playing The Angel” album was a turning point though, because Gahan wanted to write half the songs on the set; he settled for three after their producer, Ben Hillier, talked him down.

Martin Gore explained the meaning behind this song: "Well, my private life is pretty crappy. I'm about to divorce my wife, the situation has been going on for sixteen months. My life is certainly not a walk in the park. I also have three children. And 'Precious', the single, is a song that describes exactly this situation. But there are other divorce songs on 'Playing The Angel'. 'Precious' is about how my children cope with the divorce - which isn't very well. But the song ends with the verse "I know you learned to trust / keep faith in both of us". All of our songs, even the most depressive ones, contain hope."

Producer Ben Hillier said about this song: "The two songs on 'Playing The Angel' that are closest to the demos are 'Precious' and 'Macro'. Apart from that, everything else kinda changed quite a lot really. I mean, both of those demos were absolutely excellent, especially 'Precious', I thought that was really good but it just needed to have a bit more dynamic and sort of drive to it." Martin Gore added: "The main piano motif that goes throughout 'Precious' was on the demo, and remained intact for the version on the record."