Dec 082023
 
iron chic enjoy the silence cover

Iron Chic are a punk band from Long Island who have been releasing music for about 15 years, including three albums and about twice as many EPs. Their latest single includes the latest in the hundreds of covers of “Enjoy the Silence.”

Despite the fame and iconographic status of “Personal Jesus,” Depeche Mode never had a bigger hit than its follow up, “Enjoy the Silence.” Originally a ballad, it was famously transformed into the song which became a hit by then-member Alan Wilder. It is far and away their most-covered song, with something like 100 more covers than “Personal Jesus,” a consistent cover favorite ever since it was released.

The original opens with looped wordless voices, or keyboard approximations of voices, faintly over a beat but Iron Chic replaces them with ringing chords and pummeling bass before a guitar starts to play the main melody. Lead singer Phil Douglas speak-sings the lyrics pretty much in line with the original vocal melody.

The cover is mostly pretty faithful but with a few surprises. A staccato, noisy, muted guitar fill here, an unexpected pause there. It very much is a “noisy rock cover” of a Depeche Mode song. But the deep-in-the-mix guitar fills add a lot of unpredictable texture and Iron Chic’s version very much succeeds as a loud rock version. It’s pretty conventional, sure, but it satisfies. It’s a fun cover, with enough subtle changes to make it stand out.

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