Enigmatic goth icon Siouxsie Sioux has released her first new recording in nearly a decade — a new cover of Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger,” recorded as a duet with Iggy, for an ice cream commercial.
Siouxsie is of course plenty familiar with “The Passenger,” covering the song in 1987 with Siouxsie and the Banshees. The new version is unlike either the band’s horn-fueled cover, or Iggy Pop’s thrumming punk original; instead, it’s a moody, downtempo ballad that erupts with cinematic and orchestral splendor as Siouxsie and Iggy deliver fittingly dramatic vocal performances.
If you want to hear this new version of “The Passenger” though, you won’t find it on any streaming services. For now, it’s only available on YouTube, in the elaborate ad for Magnum ice cream bars’ new “Pleasure Express” campaign. (Get it — express, like a train, passenger, things of that nature?)
In a press statement, Iggy Pop heaped praise on Siouxsie, saying she “can sing like a bird,” and adding: “I’ve always thought she was a great lady. Her version of the song was already special, but what happened here, singing together, is really unique. Like ‘Volare,’ the orchestral treatment and marriage of voices flies free, in a spirit of joy.”
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Siouxsie added: “I love this song, and I’ve always loved Iggy’s voice. I adore how instinctive and spontaneous it all feels and to hear my voice with Iggy’s is such a dream” (via Brooklyn Vegan).
This version of “The Passenger” is the first recording Siouxsie has shared since 2015, when she dropped “Love Crime,” which appeared in the series finale of the TV show Hannibal (that was, in turn, her first song since the release of her 2007 solo album, Mantaray). Last year, Siouxsie played a handful of live shows — mostly in Europe, outside an appearance at the Cruel World festival in California — marking her first gigs in a decade.