new introductory bit here.
This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.
note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.
New Order was formed by the three remaining members of Joy Division (Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris) following the 1980 suicide of their frontman Ian Curtis. The band spent the next thirteen as one of the biggest cult bands in England, with a number of smash hits and an army of critics proclaiming them one of the most important acts in rock.
They had to fight a couple of years to get there, however. 1981's debut Movement got wretched reviews and only dented the top 30. They added Gillian Gilbert on keyboards to augment their live sound at poorly-attended and harshly criticized reviews. None of their early singles made the top 20, and it wasn't until they recorded the weird, marching dance number "Blue Monday" in New York with Arthur Baker that anything changed.
"Blue Monday" was an enormous hit, hitting #9 and selling strongly for years afterward. The new synth-and-bass sound put the band in the forefront of every rock movement, from nightclubs to rock weeklies to student discos to US college radio. It would prove to be New Order's highest singles peak for some time, as their albums, including 1983's Power, Corruption & Lies and 1985's Low-life made the top 10 while their singles oddly floundered.
Low-life, released in the US through Quincy Jones' Warners label Qwest, starts with the oddball "Love Vigilantes," which features Hook's distinctive bass driving a story about a soldier's ghost. After that unusual opening, the rest of the album is a fabulous meshing of Sumner and Hook's instruments over lush synths and programmed drum tracks; a sound not like anything on the US charts. Hook's unmistakable clean bass is brought to the forefront on such stunning numbers as "Elegia" and the single "The Perfect Kiss." Bernard's voice tends to waver and threatens to break entirely in parts, but he keeps it together for the ominous "Sub-culture," one of the band's strongest moments.
Brotherhood, like its predecessor, sold well (#9) without any hit singles, so it was to some surprise when New Order was back in the top five with 1987's "True Faith," a little pop masterpiece which revived their sagging profile and even made the US top 40. A perfectly timed double-LP of 12-inch remixes, Substance, was right behind it, making UK #3 and proving the fuel for New Order's three year run as one of the biggest acts for the college radio/Post-Modern MTV crowd, even crossing over to the pop charts again a few more times with a 1988 remix of "Blue Monday" and 1989's "Round and Round," from their fifth LP (and first UK #1) Technique. The band closed out the decade by providing the theme to England's World Cup squad in 1990. "World in Motion" stampeded to #1 and can still get a gang of drunks singing. (Reissued in 2002 alongside a few other soccer anthems, "World in Motion" again made the charts.) Following this, the band agreed to a few years off, during which Sumner formed Electronic with Johnny Marr, Hook formed Revenge, and Gilbert and Morris, by now a couple, formed The Other Two.
The band reconvened in 1993 for an album that screams for one fewer mix and a few more drafts on the lyrics. Republic is almost passionless and hurried; even Peter Saville's normally exquisite sleeve design seems slapdash. It opens with its only great track, the huge-sounding "Regret," but the other songs, when they're not anonymously unmemorable, sound like retreads of earlier New Order tunes. The album sold very well and "Regret" was one of several charting singles, but it is widely regarded as their worst effort.
The band elected to spend some time apart after this album, with Sumner returning to Electronic, and Hook forming Monaco. London Records decided to spend a period from Christmas 1994 into the summer of 1995 issuing some exploitative releases, including a pair of hits albums and a variety of remixed singles. Most interesting of these was "Nineteen63," originally the B-side to "True Faith," which was issued in a remix by Arthur Baker, who had originally twiddled the knobs on "Blue Monday."
New Order reconvened for a one-off concert in 1999 before spending almost a year in the studio. The resulting LP, oddly not labelled a "comeback" despite an eight-year gap between records, was called Get Ready and appeared in the summer of 2001. The album has its defenders, who call it another successful collection of timeless New Order material. The problem is that time has blunted the impact of New Order's sound. Nobody made records like them in 1985; everybody makes records with this sonic palette today. To hear a band sound unnecessary is a depressing event, and the most that New Order offers that is new is some guest vocals by the Smashing Pumpkins' singer Billy Corgan, who joined them on tour after Gillian bowed out to care for her and Stephen Morris's young child.
New Order has remained active in the year since the album's release, by touring to promote their three top 30 UK singles and the 2002 reissue of "World in Motion." Meanwhile, the British film 24 Hour Party People told the story of their former label Factory Records, helping to introduce their classic material to a new audience. (7/02)
NEW ORDER: Peel Sessions (1990, ***)
Eight songs from a pair of performances for BBC Radio, the first recorded January 1981 and the second 18 months later, recommended for fans of their pre-"Blue Monday" sound.