Precious

Martin Gore wrote this song about his divorce from Suzanne Boisvert, and the impact it had on their children. Gore said that his marriage had become "a charade," and felt awful about letting it get to that point: I thought we'd manage But words left unspoken Left us so brittle There was so little left to give

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.