Suffer Well
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3. Suffer Well List of Playing The Angel songs |
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Suffer Well
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| Song | Suffer Well |
|---|---|
| By | Depeche Mode |
| Songwriter | Dave Gahan Christian Eigner Andrew Phillpott |
| Produced by | Ben Hillier |
| Recorded at | Sound Design (Santa Barbara) |
| Length (mm:ss) | 3:49 |
| Tempo | 131 BPM |
| Time signature | 4 4 |
| Key | E Minor |
| Programmed by | Dave McCracken Richard Morris |
| Original programming | Christian Eigner Andrew Phillpott |
| Engineered by | Ben Hillier Richard Morris |
| Mixing assistance | Devin Workman Kt Rangnick |
| Mastered by | Emily Lazar |
| Mastering assistance | Sarah Register |
| Recording assistance | Nick Sevilla Arjun Agerwala Rudyard Lee Cullers Devin Workman Kt Rangnick |
| Art direction | Anton Corbijn |
| Design | Anton Corbijn Four5one.com |
| Photography | Anton Corbijn |
| Recorded | January - July 2005 |
| Originally released | 27 March 2006 |
| Live performances as Depeche Mode | 124 times * |
| Total live performances | 124 times * |
"Suffer Well" is a song from the 2005 album Playing The Angel and is the first Depeche Mode single to have been written by Dave Gahan. It was released as a single on 27 March 2006.
Notes
Dave Gahan told The Wave Magazine in 2005:
"There's a song I wrote on the new album called 'Suffer Well'. When it started out, it was a much slower song and we just decided to go in a really pop way with it. Which is a contrast to what it’s saying lyrically, which is: Suffer well, because whatever it is you’re suffering, if you suffer well enough, you won’t have to suffer anymore. It’s something that was said to me a long time ago, which I did not understand. A guy who was sitting with me and had a lot more experience in life – an older gentleman – said, 'You know, David, suffer well.' And I was like, 'What the fuck are you talking about? Thanks a lot, man!' It came back to me a few years ago, what he was really saying: Suffer well, and if you suffer well enough, you can move on."
Dave Gahan told M6's TV show 'Focus Rock' in October 2007:
"I really like 'Suffer Well' actually, [the music video is] fun. And that was was quite a challenge to make, there. The song is about, in, what you believe to be suffering, is where you grow and learn about yourself. Sometimes it's difficult, if you really wanna grow. So once a friend of mine said to me years ago, when I was complaining about life or whatever, my life, he said to me very calmly, "You know David, just suffer well." And I was so angry, I was like... But years later, it made sense, it made a lot of sense."
When Ben Hillier was asked in 2017 how much 'Suffer Well' has been changed from the demo, he replied:
"From what I can remember, we sped it up a bit and put the drum groove on. I think Martin came up with guitar riff but it may have been on the demo and he also tweaked the chords in the chorus. Dave kept working on the vocals up to the last minute to get them just right."
"Simlish" version
A version of Suffer Well with vocals re-recorded in the constructed language Simlish, as used in the Sims video game series, was included in The Sims 2: Open for Business expansion pack, released in 2006.
The song appeared on the game's "New Wave" radio station. The song differs from the album version by featuring vocals by Dave Gahan which were entirely re-recorded in Simlish. It appears that Martin Gore did not re-record any backing vocals in Simlish for the chorus for this version of the song.
The original 128kbps MP3 extracted from the video game's files is available to listen to below, and is likely to be the highest-quality version of the audio attainable:
An Electronic Arts press release titled "EA and Depeche Mode Collaborate on Signature Song for The Sims 2 Open for Business; Chart-Toppers Depeche Mode and The Sims Team Up to Make Beautiful Music in Simlish!" mentions:
Depeche Mode's lead singer, David Gahan, said, "Depeche Mode has always been open to new ways of sharing our music, but re-recording a Simlish-language version of 'Suffer Well' just sounded completely bizarre. Of course, that's why couldn't resist doing it."
GameSpot reviewer Ryan Davis mentioned in his review of the video game's expansion pack that "it is nothing short of surreal when you hear David Gahan singing a song off Depeche Mode's latest album in simlish."
Music video from The Sims 2
A music video for the Simlish version of Suffer Well was created by Electronic Arts using footage recorded in the The Sims 2: Open for Business video game expansion pack and showcases some of the newly added business gameplay.
The video features dramatic footage of a protagonist Sims character assembling a sentient robot to help operate her business. The robot seems to fall in love with the owner, but the protagonist does not reciprocate. The protagonist is shown pursuing another love interest, who appears to later perish in a building fire. Distressed, the protagonist seems to reconsider her feelings for the robot and attempts to pursue the relationship, but now the robot does not reciprocate, and the protagonist is shown to be upset. The story is interspersed with Sims re-creations of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Andrew Fletcher performing the song. There are also some scenes of what seems to be another Sim's business which produces the robots, likely to help depict the new gameplay elements of the game.
A shorter edited version of the song is used for the music video which cuts out the third verse and most of the instrumental ending. The song's duration in the music video is 2:21, whereas the audio version found in the video game is 3:50.
The music video was originally available on TheSims2.com but is no longer available. An archive.org capture is available of the web page, but the video does not play directly on that webpage. Fortunately, the "high" quality version of the music video from the website was captured and has been re-encoded for web viewing below.
Technical note: the video embedded above was re-encoded from Sorenson 3 codec to H264 using high quality settings to minimize further quality loss and allowing playback in modern browsers. The audio of the original file was already AAC, so it was simply passed-through, and no re-encoding was performed. You can download the original .MOV file from archive.org if you wish to view the highest quality version.
The music video also appeared on depechemode.com at some point, but it seems to have been re-encoded and upscaled to 720x480 from the original 320x240 resolution and is of lower quality than the version from TheSims2.com.
Lyrics
Suffer Well
Where were you when I fell from grace
A frozen heart an empty space
Something's changed and it's in your eyes
Please don't speak you'll only lie
I found treasure not where I thought
Peace of mind can't be bought
Still I believe
Just hang on
Suffer well
Sometimes it's hard
It's hard to tell
An angel led me when I was blind
I said take me back I've changed my mind
Now I believe
From the blackest room I was torn
You called my name my love was born
So I believe
Just hang on
Suffer well
Sometimes it's hard
It's hard to tell
Songwriter: Dave Gahan / Christian Eigner / Andrew Phillpott
Publishing Information: ©2005 JJSR Productions Inc. / Universal Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Music video
Live performances
- Main article: Available recordings of "Suffer Well"
- Main article: List of dates where "Suffer Well" was played
