A Pain That I'm Used To

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1. A Pain That I'm Used To
List of Playing The Angel songs
2. John The Revelator
A Pain That I'm Used To
Single-APTIUT.jpg
Song A Pain That I'm Used To
By Depeche Mode
Songwriter Martin L. Gore
Produced by Ben Hillier
Recorded at Sound Design (Santa Barbara)
Length (mm:ss) 4:11 (album version)
3:23 (radio edit 1)
3:27 (radio edit 2)
Tempo 108 (verse)
110 (chorus)
112 (drop) BPM
Time signature 4
4
Key B♭ Major
Programmed by Dave McCracken
Richard Morris
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 12 December 2005
Live performances as Depeche Mode 482 times *
Total live performances 482 times *

"A Pain That I'm Used To" is a song from the 2005 album Playing The Angel by Depeche Mode. It was released as a single on 12 December 2005.

Notes

Ben Hillier told Home:

"Getting the verses of ['A Pain That I'm Used To'] right was really difficult. The choruses always worked very well, and the riff sections always worked very well. We had all sorts of things going on on the verse. We probably did 6 or 7 different versions of that before we settled on the final one. Not radically different versions, but yeah..."

From an interview with programmer Dave McCracken for Home:

"'A Pain That I'm Used To' was really hard, the chorus was brilliant, but the verses didn't work, we did several versions of that. Actually, Ben is probably right [in the above interview for HOME], it was [indeed] pretty hard."

Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher told the November 2005 of Keyboard magazine:

Gore: "[The analog bass in the intro] was one of the most difficult things to get right."

Fletcher: "That song did start in Santa Barbara. It went through lots of stages. We were settled on the basic arrangement – the 'siren' intro, then pulsating bass, then Dave [Gahan] comes in with the opening line – the rhythm just never seemed to groove properly. Otherwise, this may have been our easiest album to make other than Speak and Spell."

Hillier told the same magazine:

[The Voyetra-8 is] that bottom end on ["A Pain That I'm Used To"].

Lyrics


A Pain That I'm Used To

I'm not sure

What I'm looking for anymore

I just know

That I'm harder to console

I don't see who I'm trying to be

Instead of me

But the key

Is a question of control


Can you say

What you're trying to play anyway

I just pay

While you're breaking all the rules

All the signs that I find

Have been underlined

Devils thrive on the drive

That is fuelled


All this running around

Well it's getting me down

Just give me a pain that I'm used to

I don't need to believe

All the dreams you conceive

You just need to achieve

Something that rings true


There's a hole in your soul

Like an animal

With no conscience

Repentance unknown

Close your eyes

Pay the price for your paradise

Devils feed on the seeds

That are sown


Can't conceal what I feel

What I know is real

No mistaking the faking

I care

With a prayer in the air

I will leave it there

On a note full of hope

Not despair


All this running around

Well it's getting me down

Just give me a pain that I'm used to

I don't need to believe

All the dreams you conceive

You just need to achieve

Something that rings true


Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©2005 EMI Music Publishing Ltd., Assigned by Grabbing Hands Music Overseas Ltd. All rights reserved.

Music video

Live performances

Main article: Available recordings of "A Pain That I'm Used To"
Main article: List of dates where "A Pain That I'm Used To" was played

Trivia

  • 'A Pain That I'm Used To' was featured in season one episode fifteen of the Fox television series Bones.
  • A unique instrumental version featuring a cold outro ending on the "siren"-like musical part that omits the synth arpeggio that is present in other versions of the track was featured in a trailer for the 2010 Walt Disney film The Sorcerer's Apprentice starring Nicolas Cage.


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Leave In SilenceGet The Balance RightEverything CountsLove In ItselfPeople Are PeopleMaster And ServantBlasphemous Rumours / SomebodyShake The DiseaseIt's Called A Heart
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