Shudder to Think have unveiled a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Something to Do,” which—following the release of the title track last month—serves as the second single to be released from the post-hardcore band’s first new project in nearly three decades. The three-song Who Sent You? EP arrives in full this Friday via Dischord Records.
On release day, the band will also perform in Philadelphia ahead of additional stops in New York City and Los Angeles. Regarding the decision to cover Depeche Mode’s “Something to Do,” the band shared a lengthy statement, which you can check out below along with the song itself. You can also pre-order Who Sent You here.
“For some of us, the album Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode represents the pinnacle of their brilliance and creativity.
“Not that they didn’t make insanely wonderful music - singles and albums both - after that, but SGR was the crescendo of their first phase, where indelible pop hooks collided with kid-in-candy-store synth experiments, and impossible yearning fumbled with the bra clasps of the blackest bedroom malaise. After that, their albums became more mature and refined, less messy.
“There’s a garish audacity to Some Great Reward that perfectly soundtracked a kind of suburban teenager, wild on the inside, about to burst, misunderstoooood, romantic as fuck.
“The song ‘Something To Do’ kicks off the album, and it’s a semi-forgotten (relative to other DM singles), under-appreciated banger about being young, angsty, bored, and horny (‘put your leather boots on’) in an old, run down industrial town. It’s about being miserable and making your own fun - dangerous and thrilling, but in that young way where consequences haven’t yet revealed themselves (those would come on later DM records).
“When we were making the new Shudder album, ‘Something To Do’ came on the (satellite) radio and jogged Craig’s sense-memory back to sixteen, on a family trip to Israel, in love and hate with everyone and everything, candy-flipping the cassette in his Walkman from Some Great Reward to XTC’s English Settlement and the great Dukes Of Stratosphear. A girl named Robin and a girl named Julie..
“Anyway, we HAD to cover it.
“So, minutes after finishing basic tracks for the final song on the album, we quickly learned its structure and let it rip, maybe three takes, no corrections.
“Our pal (and Craig’s brother-in-law), the great Thomas Lennon, happened to be visiting and stood in a circle with us while we threw it down. Tom’s a big Depeche Mode fan and a big Shudder To Think fan, so his energy and enthusiasm completed the circuit and gave us just the energy we needed.
“Often at the end of a project there’s magic gunk left at the bottom of the fuel tank, like potent resin at the bottom of the bowl. This was that.”
