New Order's first or Joy Division's last. Either way, it's both band's worst album.
For all purposes, we'll just call this Joy Division's third album, because, for better or for worse, that's ultimately what it is. Between Martin Hannett's (by this point) familiar production and Bernard Sumner's purposely muffled, Ian Curtis mimicking vocal performance (especially on "Doubts Even Here"), the band, while doing so competantly, is going through the motions. Not to say there's nothing good to be found here. But for fans of "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Blue Monday," there's not much here that they will find familiar. If it were Joy Division's true third album, it would be disappointing. But, on the other hand, die hard fans of that band will probably find this is the only album they can tolerate by the former Division. There are some fine moments when the album is taken at surface value and evaluated on 'take it or leave' terms: "Dreams Never End" sounds like a great sequel to "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Chosen Time" would've fit right in on Closer. But, even at its best moments, it's hard not to judge the material on 'what if' terms. It's admittedly unfair, but in the bigger picture, it's a weird, out-of-place record in the band's discography.
~Austin
The NEW AND IMPROVED New Order!
At the very first second of this record, New Order, as they would come to be known at the height of their popularity, is born. Peter Hook's melodic lead bassline introduced the band's trademark in one fell swoop and the record is kicked off with one of the band's best album openers and all time best songs on "Age of Consent." The song is absolutely brilliant, bringing in the slight dance beat and off key, bizarre lyrics (Bernard Sumner had found his own unique voice by this point, complete with what would become his trademark impenetrable lyrics) over a melodic backdrop that I would quickly label as new wave version of Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' productions. And the album just goes from there, ascending and ultimately removing the Joy Division cloud that had loomed over the band's previous record. Some tracks on the album take on a heavy electronic sound, sounding a little bit at points like Kraftwerk. Other highlights include the lush "Your Silent Face" and one of the band's best album closers "Leave Me Alone." Most of the songs are very dancefloor friendly, but the album never once becomes stale or reptitive. There's not a bad song on the record and it's not a stretch at all to understand why most fans consider this New Order's real first album.
~Austin
Nothin' new... but that's OK.
This album is much like Power, Corruption & Lies in the way it's sequenced: it's bookended by two more brilliant guitar driven, song oriented gems ("Love Vigilantes" and "Face Up") between which are a slew of brilliant dance happy pop songs. Sure, it's formulaic, but when things are as good as they are here, it's more than excusable. This is where New Order find their vintage sound once and for all. Just as consistent as their previous album, it puts up a fine argument for being even better than that record. It's one of their most synthesized albums with songs like "The Perfect Kiss" (a dancefloor anthem that's actually a well constructed pop song, no foolin') and the moody monster "Elegia." But it's also balanced out very well with songs like the afformentioned "Love Vigilantes" and the near epic guitar rocker "Sunrise" (one of my all time personal favorites by the band). This is the kind of record a band or artist makes when they're in that untouchable streak zone. The kind of record that you may often forget about, but still never fails to impress when you do listen to it. And it's super fun.
~Austin
As far as songwriting goes, this is the band's best album, hands down.
Probably the least electronic album in the group's discography, it's also one of their least liked, for some reason. I certainly have gotten a lot out of it myself. To me, it's one of their most perfectly balanced between the dancey, synth pop band New Order and the hook happy alternative rock band New Order. For the dancers, it's got the big hit "Bizarre Love Triangle" but for the other kids, there's pretty much the rest of the album. Peter Hook makes reference to an old Joy Division song on "Broken Promise" and the song is one of the band's most rockin' moments. In other territories, there's the sugary sweet pop moment "Weirdo" and another one of the group's trademark great openers with "Paradise." But the real suprising point of this record is its excellent and concise songwriting. There's a big importantance placed on developing the songs here and it shows when tunes like "As It Is When It Was" start off with an honest to goodness acoustic guitar. The lines between the dance happy side and the rockin' side of the band are blurred to more success than ever with one of their all time best songs "All Day Long" and the infamous closer "Every Little Counts." Overall, one of the band's most unfairly overlooked albums, and arguably their best set up until this point. Excellent.
~Austin
Great double album of singles and their b-sides.
In 1987, the band released this compilation album of all of their singles and their b-sides. Because the group released singles that often didn't show up on their albums, this is an invaluable compilation. You get to hear the earliest, most Joy Division moments the band had to offer mold into the New Order sound that would become familiar within the album's first four tracks. Only three of the album's songs also appear on other albums, but they appear here in their exntended mix forms so they differ and are so good to begin with, you won't mind hearing them again. The b-sides consist mostly of dub instrumentals, but the ones that aren't are, in typical New Order fashion, great. Overall, the album (depsite being a compilation) stands up on its own as one of the group's best and offers the most representative exmaple of the New Order sound.
~Austin
The best dance/pop/rock album ever?
The band took its longest break ever between albums and when they finally released Technique in the summer of 1989, it was just as satisfying and rewarding as it was good. The two leadoff singles "Fine Time" and the downright infectious "Round & Round" made the album seem like more of a dancefloor-aimed effort than it really was. It blurs the lines between dance pop and alternative rock more than ever before with songs like the catchy beyond belief "Mr. Disco" and the misleading opening seconds of the epic and arguably the album's highlight, "Vanishing Point." It also contained some of the group's best straight up guitar rock moments with "All The Way" (complete with a Cure reference in the bassline) and one of their all time best album closers, "Dream Attack." Overall, this is probably the best record the band will ever make and, considering their track record up until this point, a stunning climax. Excellent.
~Austin
New Orders takes on the 90's with mixed results.
It's not that this album sucks, it's just that it's kind of so-so and meandering. The songs are all there and probably would have been better had they not been as overproduced as they are. It came after their longest break ever between albums (four years) and legal battles with their previous label, Factory records. The long break coupled with the fact that this was the follow up to their best album makes the album somewhat of a disappointment. But, even though it's got some good stuff on it, it's just alright in the long run.
~Austin
Live gig from 1987. The band is in fine form, Bernard Sumner is not.
This live recording is of historical importance because it features the debut performance of "True Faith," which sounds just fine. Bernard Sumner however, starting out off key but listenable, ends up getting drunker as the night goes on and finally tops it off with a tasteless explicative on "Age of Consent." The band is in top form, however so most fans will find this live recording of interest.
~Austin
ABOUT THE ALBUM'S AVAILABILITY...
This was initially released in the UK only and then in the US and then it was paired with Joy Division's The Complete BBC Recordings album into a mini box set, entitled Before & After - The BBC Sessions, where it is currently in print.
Seven years later and they duet with Billy Corgan. But wait, it's not as bad as it sounds!
As New Order gets older, they take more and more time between each successive release. Seven years after their last album, they finally released Get Ready in the summer of 2001. Surprsingly, it offers up a set of ten classic sounding New Order songs. It starts out as strong as any New Order album from their prime with a great 1-2-3 combo of "Crystal," "60 Miles An Hour" and the Billy Corgan featured "Turn My Way" (Corgan actually sounds good along side Sumner, surprisingly). From there on out, it's a mixed bag of dance songs and classic New Order rockers. Some of the material takes a little getting used to as the band embraced the advanced technology of the day and it results in an updated sound for them. It's the most song-oriented album they'd produced since their 80's heyday and that shows up on the two closers "Close Range" and the acoustic ballad "Run Wild." It's hard to call the album a return to form because they've been gone for so long, but in the end, it's a surprising return nonetheless.
~Austin
If you mention Joy Division one more time, I'm never coming back here!!!
