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Hear Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Killers Cover U2

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Three more covers of songs from U2’s 1991 pivot-into-artsiness Achtung Baby recorded for British music magazine Q‘s compilation commemorating the album’s 20th anniversary have arrived online. We’ve already heard Jack White tear into “Love Is Blindness” and Garbage put their brooding electro-rock spin on “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.” Now come contributions by Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, and the Killers.

None of the new versions are huge revelations, but they’re all pretty worthwhile for Achtung Baby fans. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor lends unexpected tenderness to opener “Zoo Station,” playing up the track’s vocals and swathing them in warmly buzzing electronics rather than the original’s clanging and distortion. Depeche Mode bring their melodramatic grandeur and moody synths to “So Cruel.” And the Killers hint at piano-pop at the outset of their cover of guitar-delay anthem “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” but wind up playing the song relatively straight, if slightly slower.

Hear all three tracks below (via Consequence of Sound). AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered is available in the issue of Q that hit newsstands today; U2’s aptly extravagant Achtung Baby box set arrives on October 31.

Nine Inch Nails, “Zoo Station”:

Depeche Mode, “So Cruel”:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/m1E5a3-oHrA

The Killers, “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)”:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tNXsjs6ED5Y