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Anberlin enjoys the silence with Depeche Mode.

It's been almost 30 years since new wave peaked. It started to decline when Depeche Mode came along. The quartet, and later trio, from England have been without a doubt, the most successful, longest-lived and most influential band to come out of the new wave movement. They've had 45 songs on the UK Singles chart, but never had a number one hit. This earns them the distinction of having the most charted singles without having any of them reach number one. They've also had two albums reach #1 on the UK charts, and one that hit the top spot on the US charts. According to Mute Records, Depeche Mode has sold over 72 million albums worldwide.

The only one of Depeche Mode's 45 charting singles to crack the top 10 in the states was "Enjoy the Silence." It was the second single on their seventh studio album, Violator, and was more popular than the album's first single, "Personal Jesus," which didn't break the top 10 on the UK Singles chart. "Enjoy the Silence" was originally intended to be a slow-paced ballad, but after the band's keyboardist Alan Wilder heard a demo of the song, things changed. Wilder thought the song would sound better as an up-tempo track, but the band's songwriter Martin Gore didn't want to budge. The solution was to let the rest of the band decide. As a result, Gore sulked for a while and then finally came around and contributed a key element to the original recording, the main guitar riff that is heard throughout the song.

Florida rockers Anberlin are known by their fans for busting out covers at their live shows, and have recorded a few for compilations and albums as well. They've covered acts from the Smiths to the Cure to Bob Dylan and Radiohead, and those are just the ones that have been recorded. At their live shows, you never know what's going to come up. The 2006 compilation, Punk Goes 90's included their cover of "Enjoy the Silence." The song is almost identical to the original recording. However, it's been given a face-lift to be updated for contemporary audiences. Stephen Christian's voice is much brighter and a bit cleaner than Dave Gahan's, and the new recording features almost no electronics. Guitars are exchanged for keyboards and the electronic drum beats of Depeche Mode are replaced with actual drums. The verses and early choruses still maintain the hollow, ethereal quality of the original quality, but when Christian and Anberlin kick things up, the song becomes much more exciting than what Depeche Mode recorded three decades ago.

Posted by Cory Roop on Jun 09, 2008 @ 12:00 am