6 weird and wonderful Ghosts Again (Depeche Mode) Cover Versions

If immit­a­tion is indeed the highest form of flat­tery, then Depeche Mode must be very pleased indeed. Within a day or two after the release of their single 'Ghosts Again', I spot­ted at least three dif­fer­ent cov­er ver­sions in my Facebook timeline. Now, that the new single 'Wagging Tongue' is out, I decided to do a little dig­ging on both Bandcamp and YouTube and will share with you the best cov­er ver­sions of Ghosts Again I could find.

By the way, the inter­net sug­gests that a group of ghosts is called either a fright, a fraid or a knight of ghosts, so maybe this would made a cool title for a future Depeche Mode cov­er song compilation?

1. Tiny Magnetic Pets – Ghosts Again

For those of you who don't know, Tiny Magnetic Pets are an Irish 3‑piece New Wave Synth band con­sist­ing of Paula Gilmer, Sean Quinn and Eugene Somers. They are based in Dublin. Their influ­ences include Kraftwerk, Gary Numan and OMD.

The reas­on they chose to cov­er Depeche Mode's Ghost Again? "We loved it, so we decided to cov­er it," was what they said on their social media. What oth­er reas­on do you need, eh? TMP's ver­sion stays close to the ori­gin­al but Paul's vocals lend the track a softer, more dreamy quality.

2. Parralox – Ghosts Again (Remix Cover)

'Parralox' from far away Australia cel­eb­rate 15 years since the band was first formed in Melbourne in 2008. They describe their sound as "a mix of '80's dance pop and mod­ern EDM/electronic styles by the likes of Stuart Price, Trevor Horn and Goldfrapp", so it's not much of a sur­prise that their ver­sion of the Depeche Mode song is more uplift­ing, infused with a touch of Italo Pop.

Parralox' ver­sion of Ghosts Again fea­tures on their recent album "Holiday Remixed Vol.1", which was released on May 5th 2023.

3. Color Theory – Ghosts Again

Despite the rather goth cov­er art, Color Theory's ver­sion of the Depeche Mode song sits some­where between the first two. Dreamy, yet poppy.

Color Theory, aka synth artist Brian Hazard who is based in Los Angeles has gained more than 15 mil­lion plays across stream­ing plat­forms with his own dis­tinct­ive brand of mel­an­choly synthpop.

4. Hidden Souls – Ghosts Again

Guillermo "William" Pardo Neira from Hidden Souls describes their sound as clas­sic Synth Pop, some­where between Camouflage and De/Vision, but with a touch of some­thing that can be found in every Hidden Soul's track. By that I mean a dark, gloomy atmo­sphere, which infuses the song both music­ally and lyrically.

Their cov­er of Ghosts Again can be found as the b‑side of their latest single "Sinking in Despair". The band decided to cov­er the song, because they felt that the ori­gin­al by cult band Depeche Mode was miss­ing some­thing and felt some­what unfin­ished. After watch­ing the beau­ti­ful video for the first time, William had the feel­ing that both the lyr­ics and the music needed a new end­ing. So he decided to write new, addi­tion­al lyr­ics and even changed the song's end­ing. Now the song really changes into a dark lul­laby towards the end.

5. Leaether Strip – Ghosts Again

Now for some­thing dif­fer­ent. Leaether Strip are known for their more aggress­ive elec­tron­ic sound, which fits best some­where in the EBM or Electro-indus­tri­al genres. With that in mind, their cov­er ver­sion of Ghosts Again is sup­pris­ingly soft and introspective.

The song can be found on their band­camp page and has not yet been oth­er­wise released.

6. Jason Mysteria – Ghosts Again

Jason Mysteria is a 1980's ana­chron­ism in music. His synth pop sound is influ­enced heav­ily by genres such as New Wave, Top 40 Pop, and R&B Dance. He uses vin­tage syn­thes­izers & older record­ing equip­ment to achieve his sig­na­ture sound. Here's what he says about his Ghosts Again cov­er ver­sion: "This is my more upbeat cov­er of Depeche Mode's new single "Ghosts Again". This ver­sion has a little vibe of myself, New Order, and Pet Shop Boys as well. As always, I play all instru­ments on real syn­thes­izers by hand with no auto­t­une vocal technology."

What do you think? Do you have a favour­ite? Can't stand the lot because the ori­gin­al is always bet­ter? Found anoth­er cov­er ver­sion worth check­ing out? Let me know in the com­ments!

More Depeche Mode

Do you love 'Depeche Mode' like we do? Then you'll be inter­ested in our Depeche Mode album rank­ing in the art­icle 'What is the best Depeche Mode album of all-time?'.

Further you might like to read our art­icle about 'The best Depeche Mode trib­ute com­pil­a­tions'. To hon­our the band, we also have released two trib­ute com­pil­a­tions in 2017. Check out these unique and awe­some cov­er ver­sions from recent Depeche Mode Hits: