ENJOY THE SILENCE 04

Depeche Mode

Always a bad sign that is, putting the year after the name of the song. It usually means the song's either been bunged out with some rather lacklustre remixes or it's a re-recording not fit to clean the boots of the original. It's especially worrying because Enjoy the Silence is still the greatest song I've ever heard - it must be good, it won a Brit Award. Mind you, some of the remixes that came out at the time of the original release were a tad disappointing (and I'm going to include the 15 minute four-mix-medley that was The Quad: Final Mix in that list although the etched 12" admittedly looks pretty damned cool) so perhaps I shouldn't judge too harshly just yet. The first good sign is the sheer number of mixes being released - twelve across no fewer than three CDs and three 12"s released over the course of a month. The law of averages says there has to be something good there, but wait! It gets better! You know how these remix singles generally seem to contain hundreds of remixes of the same song? Gets a bit dull when Track 5 starts to blur into Track 2 and the same blinking lines are sung over and Over and OVER again, doesn't it? Well, that's not the case here. Twelve remixes there may be, but they're not all of the same song. Halo was dished out to Goldfrapp and they've gone down the Felt Mountain route with it, turning it practically into a lullaby (a nice one, mind). Something To Do (an under-rated classic if you ask me) has been reworked into something you can actually dance to properly, World In My Eyes has been taken apart and somebody called Rex the Dog has been brave enough to have a go at overhauling Photographic (so old it's from the Vince Clarke era) and has only ended up with one of the best remixes of the lot. Little 15 now sounds a bit Jean Michel Jarre and somehow gets away with it and Clean has been reworked by Colder into something so dark and moody it's practically pitch black. As for the title track, well, the results vary. Mike Shinoda (he of Linkin Park) has added guitars and drums but stopped just short going completely down the rock route (shame really, on the remix album there's a fantastic rock mix of Nothing). Ewan Pearson and Richard X's remixes unfortunately sound a little similar to each other in places, they're still good but if you've heard Richard X's stuff before you'll have an idea of what to expect and that's exactly what you get. The best mix of the lot is done by Timo Maas and he's done a sterling job, it has to be said. It's the sort of thing you'd chill out to after listening to seven hours of hard house or trance, the upbeat almost-but-not-quite-dancey sound of the original has been toned down and aside from the vocals and a couple of - until now - minor parts it's a brand new song. Being a fan of the song anyway, I recommend this single very highly, but even if I wasn't, this is precisely how a remix single should be done.

I DISAPPEAR

The Faint

A mate of mine has been telling me for ages how good The Faint are and that I'd probably like them, but I've never got round to hearing them properly until now. It's a bloomin' good job I've got my finger so firmly on the pulse of popular music or I'd be annoyed. He was right, though. On the evidence of this, The Faint are good and I probably will like them, so that's that sorted out. If you imagine Franz Ferdinand and Atomic-era Blondie merged together you'll have only the roughest idea what this sounds like. Grungy guitars, something close to a disco beat and what sounds a lot like an '80s synthesiser that was picked up off a car boot sale, that's this single. This should be a big hit, but I said that about Client and they only got to No.68. Told you, finger on the pulse, that's me.