Enjoy the Silence

Gore's demo was a ballad for harmonium and voice. He said the song was about a feeling of wanting nothing else, so satisfied that even words are an intrusion. Wilder heard it as an up-tempo dance track, and he and Flood asked the others to leave while they built that version. Gore objected, saying serenity does not go with a disco beat, and sulked for two days. Once Gore recorded the guitar riff, Fletcher said, it came together in about an hour, and he later called it "one of the most magical moments" he had with the band. Kevorkian mixed it first, but Miller made the final mix, which Wilder liked less.

The single came out on 5 February 1990 and reached number 6 in the UK within a week. In the US it reached number 8 on the Hot 100 that July, their highest-charting single there. It won Best British Single at the Brit Awards. Anton Corbijn's video shows Gahan dressed as a king, carrying a deckchair in search of a quiet place to sit, in locations including the Alps, the Algarve and Balmoral. Billboard ranked it first on its 2017 list of the top 20 Depeche Mode songs, and Rolling Stone placed it at number 415 on its 2021 list of the 500 best songs.

Remix

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park remixed the song and played most of the instruments on Enjoy the Silence 04, released on 18 October 2004, which reached number 7 in the UK.