‘NEVER ENOUGH: VERSIONS’ becomes punk classic with features, fused genres
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In September 2025, Baltimore-based punk band Turnstile made headlines when lead singer Brendan Yates started a mosh pit at its NPR “Tiny Desk Concert.” Yates jumped from a cluttered desk across the office space, crowd surfing as the raggedy ceiling scraped at his knees. The crowd below Yates made the confined space their home, screaming the lyrics of “BIRDS” as sweat dripped down their faces.
It was reckless yet enigmatic and lively — exactly what Turnstile’s discography encapsulates.
Since Turnstile’s “NEVER ENOUGH” was released in June 2025, the album has become a defining rock album of the 2020s, not only for the genre, but for the fanbase it’s created through it. So far, the band has amassed 2.9 million Spotify listeners.
When the band announced on Instagram on Aug. 21 that it was releasing a reimagined edition of the album, called “NEVER ENOUGH: VERSIONS,” it excited fans across the nation, with the post receiving over 130,ooo likes. However, it also begged the question: how the heck is Elton John going to pair with a punk song?
Released on Friday, “NEVER ENOUGH: VERSIONS,” Turnstile’s sixth album, features new covers of its songs by artists like John, Alex G and Faye Webster throughout 22 tracks. Although some songs had multiple versions on the album, each cover brought a captivating new take on the original. While the collection of covers is a refreshing showcase of how music doesn’t have to be bound by one genre, it also shows how crucial individuality is to making a preexisting song one’s own.
Bridging genres — especially with one as individual as punk — can be difficult. Under the alias Porches, Aaron Maine’s cover of “NEVER ENOUGH,” the title track and opening song, does a great job keeping the passion of the song while making it his own.
Opposed to the grittiness of the original song, Maine didn’t use the loud electric guitars and the strike of drums, instead featuring his unrefined voice with a light, acoustic guitar and a soft violin in-between. When listening to other songs in Maine’s discography, the cover feels like a black sheep. The song feels unrefined,but at the same time, it’s vastly different in style even from Turnstile.
Standalone from the album, “NEVER ENOUGH” is a raw, vulnerable ballad that emulates what it feels like to be young, making it my favorite song on the album. It holds a similar weight and emotion to the original version, but when listening, you’d never guess its origins are in the punk sphere.
“In the right place, at the right time / And still, you sink into the floor,” Maine sings, his voice subtly cracking throughout the verse.
Similarly, electropop singer Slayyyter delivers a dance-worthy performance on her cover of “BIRDS.” The original “BIRDS” is such an addictive song partly because of its build up to the chorus. The original track begins with roughly 40 seconds of static and cowbells before a breakout into a rough and powerful metal anthem. In Slayyyter’s version, she completely changes how the song leads into the climax, instead starting where, in the original track, Yates begins to sing.
“Finally, I can see it / These birds are not meant to fly alone,” Slayyyter sings.
However, Slayyyter screams more than she sings in this track, screeching more aggressively as the beat rises. The track includes a snippet of Yates shouting before shifting into a hyperpop-style club mix with a blasting-synth bass.
Slayyyter’s cover stays true to the grit and power of the original, yet can be easily recognized as Slayyyter’s project. She’s not trying to completely copy Turnstile’s style, nor is she disregarding the original version’s emotion for the purpose of staying true to her typical electro-club style. She’s creatively making the piece her own, which is why the song is such a standout.
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Surprisingly, “NEVER ENOUGH: VERSIONS” contains a plethora of DJ and dance electronic music features. Electronic artists like Four Tet and KETTAMA both brought house beats to their separate versions of “LOOK OUT FOR ME,” completely turning Turnstile’s heavy rock sound on its head. While both Four Tet’s version and KETTAMA’s cover are enjoyable, the use of dance beats to remix the song gets repetitive as the album persists.
Club and rock music complement each other so well because of their foundations as sounds of dance. Yet, it becomes overly repetitive when half of the songs in this album extension follow that formula. These two covers are indistinguishable from each other, making it difficult for each musician’s cover to stand out from the rest of the album.
While the album includes features of well-known vocalists like John and Hayley Williams, their chosen songs on the album, to me, played poorly into their vocals.
On John’s version of “SEEIN’ STARS,” Yates and John share a duet, with minimal changes made from the original. John’s voice was so out of place in the song that it didn’t mesh well with the instrumental. The cover felt sterile and was a disappointing inclusion, especially considering John’s musical presence.
Williams’ performance in her cover of “CEILING” was lukewarm compared to the strong vocals usually found in her own music. The song was well-produced and beautiful, but Williams was almost unrecognizable as a vocalist. It felt like the song choice didn’t compliment her vocal power. Her voice would’ve been more evident if she’d covered songs like “LIGHT DESIGN” or “DREAMING.”
Genres don’t have to be so clear-cut. When songs are covered effectively, they can be transcended seamlessly, and “NEVER ENOUGH: VERSIONS” demonstrates that. However, the album also shows how thin the line between interpretation and imitation can be when it comes to song covers.
