My favourite song of all time?

mp3 : New Order – Age Of Consent

It’s now 40 years since it was released, so I can’t ever see it being displaced by anything else.   It makes the ‘faves’ thing a New Order double, as Temptation topped the 45 45s@45 rundown in 2008, and would still sit at the top if I were to go through things again right now.

Neither Movement nor Power Corruption and Lies, the first two albums released by New Order, contained any singles. It was very much an artistic decision, but looking back on things, it really does feel like something of a missed opportunity.   Let’s imagine that they were prepared to issue a 45 exactly a week in advance of the release of each album….I won’t dare suggest there would be a second 45 lifted from either as a way to boost sales, purely on the basis that with just eight tracks on both records, there would be a massive loss of credibility from issuing 25% of the album as singles.

Here’s how the singles discography could have looked.

March 1981 – Ceremony
September 1981 – Procession/Everything’s Gone Green
November 1981 – Dreams Never End
May 1982 – Temptation
March 1983 – Blue Monday
May 1983 – Age Of Consent
August 1983 – Confusion

But looking at this shows the dilemma.  In terms of how the band’s sound was developing and evolving, Age of Consent would really have needed to have been the follow-up single to Temptation and issued in advance of Blue Monday, otherwise it might have been seen by some critics as New Order rejecting the club/dance sound in favour of a return to the instruments more associated with Joy Division.

But I have no doubt whatsoever, that if Age of Consent had been a stand-alone 45, it would have been a big success.  After all, it should be remembered that each of Ceremony, Procession/EGG and Temptation all reached the Top 40 at a time when the band were still very much an unknown quantity with much of the record-buying public.

JC

New Order‘s 4 x CD box set Retro was released in 2002.

Each of the CDs has a theme.  CD1 is Pop and was curated by the journalist Miranda Sawyer.   CD2 is Fan and its tracks were chosen by a friend of the band,  John McCready.   CD3 is Club with the responsibility for the selection falling to Mike Pickering of M People/Factory Records/Hacienda fame. CD4 is Live was put together by Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream.

It’s a nicely packaged artefact, complete with a 72-page glossy booklet, packed with snippets of info/commentary and some tremendous photos from throughout the band’s career to that point in time.  It is all dedicated to Rob Gretton, the band’s manager whose initial idea it had been for the box set but who passed away some three years before it eventually saw the light of day.

The photo above provides details of the contents of CD3.  Here’s three of them for your enjoyment.

mp3:  New Order – Confusion (Koma & Bones Mix)

This is substantially different from the original version recorded and mixed by Arthur Baker back in 1983.  This one dates from 2002 and it enjoyed a vinyl and CD release via Whacked Records.  It’s got more of a classic New Order sound to it than the original.

mp3: New Order – Paradise (Robert Racic mix)

Robert Racic, who passed away from illness at the age of 32 in 1996, was an Australian DJ and record producer.   He gave the remix treatment to the opening track on the 1986 album Brotherhood where it was used the following year as a b-side on the Factory Records Australasia remix release of True Faith.

mp3:  New Order – Fine Time (Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley remix)

Steve Hurley is a Chicago based DJ/producer who came to prominence in the 80s thanks to his then unique mixing styles which went beyond the normal skill set of house DJs.  He also has the distinction of being at the helm of Jack Your Body, which was the UK’s first ever house music #1 single.   His remix of the first 45 to be lifted from Substance Technique in 1989 was originally available on the CD version of the single.

Happy to take requests for any of the others for a future posting if there’s any interest.

JC

New Order – Technique (1989)

Again, I’m falling back on an old post.  It’s one that got a fair bit of positive reaction which pleased me no end, more to do with the fact that I’m not alone in considering Technique to be the high point, albums wise, from New Order. What now follows is adapted from something I posted in April 2015, but slightly amended to take out a reference as to how the album was promoted, based on a correction provided via the comments section.

AS OWNED ON VINYL, CD AND CASSETTE

There is someone I know who thinks New Order should have disbanded in around 1985 as the music they have made since then has betrayed everything that Joy Division stood for.  Despite holding such strident and unacceptable views, he remains a dear friend…and besides it gives us one more thing to argue over.

Me?  I’ve never hidden from the view that it took until 1989 for their masterpiece to emerge….and while there has been the occasional nugget of gold since then, I’d have been happy if this had been their last ever record.

It’s worth recalling that the release of Brotherhood in 1986 had disappointed many fans. It was, in the main, a lacklustre affair and indeed was shown up as such when the compilation LP Substance was issued the following year. The one hope was that the Greatest Hits package featured two amazing new songs – True Faith and 1963, the former a wonderful dance track driven largely by Steve & Hooky and the latter a gorgeous pop number with Barney at last penning lyrics which made sense and had a semblance of a story line.

But post-Substance, the band seemingly disappeared off the radar, and some folk (including your humble scribe) thought we’d seen the last of them.

In the days before t’internet, you had to rely on the music papers for news/info on your favourite bands. One week, I read a snippet that New Order had gone to Ibiza to record a new LP. Months passed. Nothing. More months passed. Still nothing, and I assumed that somehow I had missed the news that the band had broken up.

Then, out of the blue in late 1988, a single was released. It was called Fine Time, and it was really quite different from anything else they had ever previously released being, for the most part, an instrumental, and which was very clearly aimed at the dance market. And I loved it.

The album kind of sneaked out in January 1989, at a time when the UK was at its most cold, miserable and wet. But this album made you forget all that.

It was everything that fulfilled the promise of True Faith/1963. There were immense dance numbers, there were songs of love, joy and happiness, and there were songs about having your heart broken into many pieces. Every song could have been a single. No, that’s not true. Every song could have been a #1 single.

Thankfully, the album did sell in reasonable quantities, but not enough to arrest Factory’s eventual decline into receivership/administration. It did however lead to New Order being asked to take the sound of Technique into the football world when they penned the England Squad’s 1990 World Cup Anthem, World In Motion, which finally gave the band the #1 hit they had been chasing for a few years.

2023 addendum (1)

And yes, as with The Orange Juice, it is an album I have on cassette, CD and vinyl, albeit the vinyl is a 2015 reissue on London Records.   But in writing this piece, it hit me that I should treat myself to an early birthday present and so I’m going to hunt down a vinyl copy on Factory Records.  I’ll do a further addendum once I’ve completed that mission.

Addendum 2

Picked up a superbly clean copy on Factory for £18 on Discogs….one where the gradings proved to be conservative.  As ever, I ended up with a few other things to save on P&P, one of which was a vinyl copy of the debut Lloyd Cole solo album for £3 which feels like a real bargain with the current cost of second-hand vinyl.

Addendum 3

With apologies for failing to have a tune when the post was first published.  Poor technique on my part.

mp3: New Order – Vanishing Point

JC

I couldn’t help but steal today’s title from Reg the Rocket Man.

TVV turns sixteen years old today.  I’d love to be in a position to have all the archives available for browsing back through, but Google/Blogger unceremoniously removed all traces of the original blog back in July 2013 before I could back things up.

A lot has changed in terms of music blogs since 2006.   Indeed, a lot has changed in terms of music and how we all go about ‘consuming’ it these days.  TVV began for a number of interlinked reasons, some of which were to do with my own mental wellbeing having just suffered a career setback at work (which turned out in due course to be a blessing), but deep down it was all about me wanting to delve into my old vinyl and rip some songs into an mp3 format so that they could perhaps be heard again for the first time in decades.

It was also about wanting to find some sort of audience with whom to share my lifelong obsession with music, and in particular that period from the late 70s into the mid 80s when so much of what I had been immersed in, was still, many decades later, incredibly important and vital to me.  I had no idea really what to do with this new blog, but after a hesitant start, I got into a routine, helped along by many people from all parts of the world who supported and encouraged those early efforts with advice and words of thanks through the comments section, but if you had told me back then that TVV would still be on the go in 2022, I’d have found it hard to believe.

The old blog had, give or take, 2,500 posts before it was taken down.  The new blog isn’t far short of 3,500 posts.    Not all the posts have been original as a fair number have appeared more than once, and of course TVV does rely on a fair amount of guest postings.  But let’s say 5,000 original posts, at a (conservative) average of 1,500 words, means I’ve written something in the region of seven and a half million words for the blog….I’m just hopeful that a few of them might have made some sense.

Many friends have come and gone, as can be reflected by the amount of former/extinct blogs that are listed among the indices.  The past year or so has seen a few more of the long-time bloggers decide that, for one or more reasons, it was time to ease themselves away from their keyboards and go and out to do something less boring instead…….if any of you who are in that position ever have an urge to come back with some thoughts, views and opinions without the pressure of looking after your own place, then there will always be a warm welcome among these pages.  I’ve never knowingly turned down any offer for a guest posting, (albeit some have lain unwittingly unattended to within the Inbox for a period of time), and I don’t intend to start now.

TVV has brought me so many happy moments these past sixteen years. It’s also been a place from where I’ve been able to catapult into other situations within the music industry/business, from which I have forged friendships with a decent number of incredibly talented and creative people along the way. I think I’m a better person than I was back in 2006, and much of that is down to being part of the collective and community that has developed and grown via this little and fairly insignificant corner of the internet.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of TVV in whatever shape or form.  No targets are set, but if I’m still doing this in another sixteen years time, then I’ll be in my mid-70s (age wise) but hopefully still with the attitude, enthusiasm and chutzpah of a late-teen about to conquer the world on the back of some half decent exam results.

I’ll finish today’s posting, not with the obvious thing of some songs with ‘sixteen’ in the title, but instead with something related to the number.  It’s my humble opinion that the original is the greatest song ever released, while the cover is more than decent.

mp3: New Order – Age of Consent
mp3: Grant Lee Buffalo – Age of Consent

New Order, of course, are also responsible for the greatest single of all time……….

JC

I thought, for the fiftieth entry in this series in which a song is ripped direct from the vinyl and made available at a higher resolution than is normally the case, that I’d lean on FAC50.

Movement was the debut album by New Order, released in November 1981, a few months after it had been recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport. Martin Hannett, as he had been for both Joy Division albums, was behind the production desk.

I think it’s fair to say that the album received, at best, something of a mixed reception back in the day.  Looking back, there was a ridiculous amount of expectation, and with it being neither wholly a clear and direct continuation of the former band, nor something moving in a new direction, it was inevitably going to disappoint.  In saying that, it’s an album which has undergone a great deal of revision, from fans and music writers alike, especially as the legacy of New Order became increasingly apparent in later years.

But that was all for the future.  Just a year after it’s release, the majority of band members were still far from convinced of its merits, as evidenced by an interview given at the time by Peter Hook:-

“We were happy with the songs, not all happy with the production. We were confused musically … Our songwriting wasn’t coming together. I don’t know how we pulled out of that one. I actually liked Movement, but I know why nobody else likes it.

A lot of the misgivings are around the final production.  The band wanted to move increasingly into the field of electronic music, while Martin Hannett felt they were best suited by not deviating away from the sounds of Joy Division, and while synths had a place, it should still be primarily about guitars.   It would prove to be the last record on which they worked together, and it’s fair to say that New Order never really looked back.

This is taken from a piece of vinyl which is now more than forty years old.  It’s in better condition than most from those days, as I didn’t play it too often.  But I did give it a full spin a few months back, shortly after I returned from a trip to Manchester, the main purpose of which has been to visit Use Hearing Protection, an exhibition dedicated to the early work of Factory Records, and specifically all the items in the FAC catalogue from 1-50.  I was surprised that the cardboard sleeve on display for Movement was in a shabbier condition than my own.

The picture above is taken from the specially designed inner sleeve, and again my copy is in excellent condition….as indeed is the vinyl as you can hopefully tell:-

mp3: New Order – Truth

I came away from the exhibition with a gift to myself, a box set containing facsimile editions of the first 10 numbered Factory items – four records, three posters, an 8 mm film (now on DVD), some stationery and a design for an egg-timer! There was also a wonderfully produced 60-page book, complete with photos, together with two CDs containing a previously unreleased interview involving Joy Division, Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton, conducted in August 1979 by the journalist Mary Harron.

I’m intending to return to the contents of the box in the coming weeks, particularly the vinyl, so keep an eye out for those.

JC

Ripped direct from the vinyl, and inspired by the recent trip to Manchester and seeing a copy of the sleeve as part of the exhibition.  With it being Fact 50, it was, in effect, the final artefact, on display.

mp3: New Order – Dreams Never End

The opening track on the debut album, released to a fair degree of indifference, on 13 November 1981.  Much of the criticism, from the journos and fans alike, stemmed from the fact that it sort of felt like an album of Joy Division demos but without Ian Curtis‘s voice to bring it any distinction. It was, I am willing to say, the view I held back in the day and I didn’t play the album all that often for a long time.

Dreams Never End was the only track to feature the guitar/bass/drums sound, with the rest relying heavily on keyboards.  Little did we know that this was the road New Order would look to go down, and it is fair to say that Movement is now regarded with a great more affection than at the time of its release, providing many pointers for what was to follow. This is, I am willing to say, the view I now also hold, and having played the album a fair bit over time, it has picked up the odd click along the way…..there’s a particularly noticeable one in the early part of this song.

The vocals are courtesy of Peter Hook, something which caused a bit of confusion the other week among some of the younger folk at Little League who weren’t aware of the song, with it having never been released as a single and something of a cult favourite.  One person actually thought I was at the wind-up when i said it was New Order on the basis that Barney’s voice was never as deep as was coming out through the speakers.

It’s also worth mentioning that the band weren’t happy with how Movement was finished off in the studio by Martin Hannett, with everyone feeling his work was being impaired by his increasing dependence on drink and drugs.  Nobody, however, felt confident enough to challenge him in the studio, but subsequent singles and albums would end up being self-produced.

JC

It’s not 40 years since New Order‘s debut single was released, but it is 40 years to the day since it was recorded.

It’s times like this that I wish I had kept a diary with a log of all my purchases of singles and albums, as well as the gigs I went to.  I can’t recall when I bought my copy of Ceremony on 7″ vinyl, but I do know it was in the local record shop closest to my home in the east end of Glasgow.  I do know for certain that I didn’t get it on the day it was released……..

I was a regular browser in Tom Russell’s Record Shop on Shettleston Road, but I was more in the habit of picking up new singles from the city centre shops, or if it happened to be a 45 in the charts, I was likely to go to the local Woolworth’s as they could be a few pence cheaper in there.  I can’t ever recall seeing Ceremony anywhere until a copy found its way into the bargain bin at Tom Russell’s – even then I almost missed it as the bronze-coloured sleeve, with its difficult to read bronze coloured writing, was such that it didn’t automatically make me want to pick it up for a close glance (in my defence, at 17 years of age, all browsing was done at speed, and it was an era when I took my time over any non-picture sleeves so as to not miss out on something that I’d read about in one of the music papers that were the occasional reading material in the 6th Year common room at school.)

I’m sure it was down to 40 pence, which would have been less than half price.  I took it home with no great expectations. As with the Joy Division singles of previous years, there was only the very basic and minimal details on the sleeve.  The info on the label was, however, interesting, with each of FAC 33A and FAC33B being written by Joy Division which clearly meant Ian Curtis had been involved in some way.  I gave FAC33A a spin……and then another and another and maybe even one more, all the while wondering why the band had gone to the bother of changing its name.  Ceremony was an astonishing and moving piece of music, way better than I could ever have imagined, and it also sounded like a tribute to Ian, which is why my mind reckoned its writing had been attributed to the old band.  It sounded as if it had been written as a belated follow-up to Transmission, but with the tempo slowed down, possibly from Bernard not having the vocal capabilities of his late friend.

Flipping it over (eventually) and finding that In A Lonely Place sounded like a Joy Division out-take was one of those moments that froze me.  Singles, even their b-sides, aren’t supposed to be this morose and funereal, and I was sure on the second or third listen that I could make out Ian Curtis on backing vocals.   It was like a song that felt it should be used in conjunction with a Ouija Board, with the refrain of ‘How I Wish You Were Here With Me Now’  being genuinely terrifying to my teenage mind and imagination. I couldn’t have given an honest answer there and then if I had been asked ‘Do you like it?’

I took it to school the next day and gave it to a close friend whose musical tastes were more or less identical to mine.  He, too, was bemused by the sleeve, but I told him it would all make sense once he played it.  He brought it back the next day and when we spoke about his experience, it was clear his reaction to the A-side had been similar. But when it came to the b-side, he was quick to declare it a classic that wouldn’t have been out of place on Closer, offering the opinion that it was one which had maybe been recorded by the band but left off the final running order.  I think it’s fair to say that his initial view has stood the test of time.

After school, we took a bus into town and to track down another copy, finding success at Listen on Renfield Street, albeit he had to pay full price as this was a shop which had the space and capacity to store singles for extended periods of time long after their initial release.  The ancient bloke behind the counter (who was likely aged about 21) also told us it was out on 12″ vinyl but that the shop was currently out of stock which led to the two of us heading round other record shops, finally coming good at 23rd Precinct on Bath Street, a location that is now home to one of the best beer and spirits shops in all of Scotland.

I’ve still got my copy of that 12″ but the 7″ was lost in the great debacle of 1986 when the midnight flit from the rented accommodation was done in such a hurry/panic that boxes of 7″ singles were stupidly left behind in a cupboard.  I have, however, long since picked up a second-hand copy, from which these two bits of music have recently been ripped at 320kpbs.

mp3: New Order – Ceremony
mp3: New Order – In A Lonely Place

JC

I’ve spent some time recently cataloging all the vinyl and CDs sitting around Villain Towers, including those that belong to Rachel, and have used the ‘Collection’ function over at Discogs to create a database. It currently tallies at just under 4,400 separate entries with the number growing every few days as I buy new albums and seek out those bits of vinyl (and occasional CD) where there are holes requiring to be filled.   Oh, and now that I have a wee bit more disposable income for the time being as I eke away at my redundancy payment from a few months back, I’m buying some favourite vinyl to replace what had originally been purchased only on CD.

It was while adding some stuff to the collection function that I was reminded of Scott Litt, the producer best known from his extensive work with R.E.M. in the late 80s/early 90s, had also worked with New Order back in 1989 when he took on the task of re-mixing Run, one of the songs on the album Technique, for its release as a single in the UK.

Run 2, as it became known, featured previously on the blog in February 2018 as part of the series looking at all the New Order singles:-

“Run is one of the most outstanding songs on Technique and rather bravely the band went for an edited single release in due course in which about 45 seconds are chopped off and by editing down the dreamy instrumental finish to the song and replacing it with more of the re-recorded vocal with Barney’s voice given more prominence than the original mix. It’s a decent enough mix and does a job of giving us enough changes to think of it as a new song altogether but it’s not a patch on the original.

The remix was in fact worked on alongside Scott Litt who at that point in time was known for having worked on a couple of LPs by R.E.M. The fact that he would also work on the multi-million sellers Out Of Time and Automatic For The People albums in the 90s and become one of the most talked-about producers of that era was all in the future…..”

mp3: New Order – Run 2

There was also a nod to the fact that Hooky’s basslines could be a factor in making a single a hit or not, and the new mix also brings that more to the fore, as perhaps best be heard in the extended version:-

mp3: New Order – Run 2 (extended version)

Despite all this, the single stalled at #49, which was the worst-performing showing by a New Order 45 in three years. It wasn’t helped by Factory Records electing to only issue it on 12″ vinyl and not pressing and distributing that many copies, possibly as a result of the increasing cash-flow problems they were experiencing and which would later help bring about the demise of the label.

There’s also the issue that, as soon as the single was released, lawyers representing John Denver sued New Order and Factory, claiming that the instrumental section of Run 2 ripped off his composition, Leaving On A Jet Plane. The case was quickly settled out of court, but it did result in Factory never pressing anymore than those original 20,000 copies and never making Run 2 available until 2008 when a deluxe edition of Technique was released and which included the extended version (but not the single version).

JC

There are days when I have to accept that I really am something of an old saddo.

Like the day the other week when I realised I had three separate copies of Blue Monday on vinyl, all dating from 1983. But to be fair, they are three completely different pressings with different sleeves……

Copy #1: The original pressing that came in the die-cut sleeve with the vinyl being housed in a silver inner sleeve. The asking price on Discogs for a copy in the condition mine is in ranges from £40-70, although some sellers are looking for stupid money such as £185.

Copy #2: The second pressing that came in the die-cut sleeve but with the vinyl being housed in a glossy black inner sleeve. The asking price for this one, of which there actually seem to be fewer on Discogs, can be as low as £10 but up to £40. Mine actually has another quirk in that the labels have been placed on the wrong sides so that to listen to Blue Monday I have to play the side of vinyl which is listed as The Beach.

Copy #3: The third pressing that was plain black, but still with the code down the right-hand side of the sleeve, with the vinyl housed in a white paper sleeve. The Poundland/Dollar Store version of the single so to speak, but still capable of fetching as much as £20, although most retail on the second-hand market for under a tenner.

Copy#1 is the one that is alleged to have cost Factory Records money with each sale with the legend being that the die-cut sleeve and silver cardboard inner, along with the actual vinyl, cost more to manufacture than the selling price. It still proved to be a great return overall given that this was the single that brought New Order to the attention of the record-buying public and led to countless millions of sales of this 45, along with subsequent singles and albums, all over the planet.

mp3: New Order – Blue Monday
mp3: New Order – The Beach

Ripped from copy#1 of the original vinyl at 320kbps.

Remember folks, feel free to make suggestions as to what should appear here on Monday mornings. As long as I have a vinyl copy, I’ll make sure your requests are met.

JC

A GUEST SERIES

18 – Blue Monday (’88) – New Order (1988, Factory Records)

Released as a single in April 1988 (Reached Number 3)

“You should listen to this”. This is Martin, and he is talking to a 15 year old me outside our school gates one Wednesday evening as we stand waiting for Dubstar Chris who is ‘in the art room’ (he is actually spraying offensive graffiti about the French teacher Mr Ashton and his liking for cats in the teachers toilets, but I never told you that).

With this Martin hands me a CD. He brings it out of an inside pocket of a green army jacket, and for some reason I feel like a junkie as I shuffled the CD into my rucksack

The CD is called ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’ and it is obviously an album by New Order. It will be in about two hours time be the first thing I have ever listened to by New Order.

Martin was always ahead of the crowd. He is still involved in the music world, in fact, he is currently in The Charlamagnes who you should google and then check out and then immediately buy their back catalogue. Anyway, I take the CD and I go home and do my homework and then I slip into something more comfortable and decide to give the CD a listen. Now at the time my music likes were rapidly expanding. I discovered a new band that I loved pretty much every day. If it had guitars, I was ‘in to it’. I fully expected New Order to be my new favourite thing in the entire world.

So there I sat, on my dads sofa with some big comedy headphones plonked on my head and ‘Power Corruption and Lies’ on the stereo. I had for the past six months or so listened to Martin, Dubstar Chris and Richard chirp on about how brilliant New Order were. I’d been told how songs like ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘True Faith’ were amazing, and all I’d done was nod along. So I sat there and I waited, I have to say I was excited and I felt like I existed and that this was something. I waited for that thrill of listening to something incredible to kick in.

But.

I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get into it. I say this now, and I sort of shrink away from it in embarrassment but I much preferred ‘Street Fighting Years’ by Simple Minds which was the second album I had obtained that week (this one found in Woolworths on cassette for £1.99 – which on reflection, seems as over priced as it is overblown right now).

I didn’t listen to New Order again for a long time.

Five years in fact. By now – I am the inspiring music journalist that I was back then and I am sitting in the offices of Sony Records in London because I am picking up some music and interviewing a band called Reef, who have been on a Tv advert and are being tipped for ‘Great Success’. Whilst there I help myself to Sony’s free bar and Crisp Machine (this is true by the way, the promotions floor at Sony UK, used to include a bar full of Becks and Red Stripe and a machine that dispensed crisps) before interviewing Reef. As I was leaving, the promotions manager (Ben see Number 44) gave me a bag. It was full of CDs, mugs, promo toys, gig tickets and general shit. I loved visiting Sony, you never went away empty handed and as long as you said nice things about most of it, they kept giving you stuff.

I forget nearly everything that was in that bag, but I do remember that in there was a CD which contained New Order, it contained ‘Blue Monday ‘88’ and I couldn’t stop listening to it. In fact it was pretty much glued to the stereo for the next month or so, it was like I discovered a new band who had just released their debut single. The light had come on, the light I should have seen back in 1990 when at home in my Dad’s lounge but I was young and I’ll be honest I much preferred U2 back then.

And that is how I fell in love with New Order. I was 20. And New Order had at that point split up and I thought at the time that I had thoroughly missed the boat (which was true, I saw them live at Wembley Arena about ten years later and they were a bit rubbish to be honest), that didn’t stop me filling up the back catalogue as quick as I could though.

I, of course have form for this, I did the same thing with The Stone Roses, declaring that they ‘Were not as good as The Inspiral Carpets’ to my mate Jimmy on the way to the football in 1990. It took me three years and a serious conversation with OPG to realise my mistake – “I can’t sleep with someone who doesn’t like The Stone Roses’ was pretty much was she said one night in the pub, before I was, you know, actually sleeping with her. I re-listened to that debut album quite a lot for the next month or so.

Fools Gold (9.53) – Stone Roses (1989, Silvertone Records Number 22)

But the record for me failing to realise the greatness of a band is reserved for The Fall

Mr Pharmacist – The Fall (1986, Beggars Banquet, Number 75)

Genuinely the first time I heard The Fall I swore loudly at the stereo in disgust, that’s how appalled I was. I was 16. It took me, ahem, 25 years before I realised their brilliance.

When I was writing my first blog WYCRA we did this series called ‘One Song A Day’ and we invited fellow bloggers to stick their iPods on Random and send us a review of the very first song that came on. JC was the first to offer and the song that came on first to his iPod was something by ‘The Fall’. I swore inwardly, and regretted my brilliant idea – but then I listened to what he sent through and again, that little light came on.

SWC

Album : Power, Corruption & Lies – New Order
Review : Rolling Stone, 18 August 1983
Author : Steve Pond

Few rock bands have had as daunting a past to live up to, and overcome, as New Order. But Power Corruption & Lies is a remarkable declaration of independence; for the first time since lead singer Ian Curtis hanged himself three years ago, the survivors of Joy Division have shrugged off the legacy of that band’s grim, deathly majesty and produced an album that owes as much to the currents of 1983 as to the ghosts of 1980. This record is a quantum leap over Movement, the band’s first album, and over most of the music coming out of Britain lately.

Leap is the appropriate word, because on the surface, this is largely a stirring, jumpy dance record. Forget about New Order’s reputation as gloom mongers or avatars of postpunk iciness; forget about the artiness and mystique that envelop them. Just put this stuff on the radio, in clubs or on American Bandstand: you can dance to it, it deserves a ninety-eight, and a song like “Age of Consent” merits heavy rotation, not reverence.

That’s not to say New Order have turned into A Flock of Vultures or anything. But there’s a newfound boldness on Power that was sorely missing from Movement. On that LP, New Order were tentatively trying to break free of Joy Division’s style, if not their tone; too often, the result was turgid and solemn and sprinkled with the kind of whistles, whooshes and beeps that suggest novices halfheartedly tinkering with dance-oriented rock.

Working on subsequent singles toward a surer control of the studio and a more ambiguous emotional stance, the band hit its stride with the epiphanic “Temptation.” A tenacious, gripping, rock-hard dance tune, it was also the first New Order song to suggest that maybe love doesn’t always tear us apart – that, in fact, it just might bind us together, though at great risk. (That song and four others make up the highly recommended EP New Order: 1981-1982.)

Though not as forceful as “Temptation,” the songs on Power glow with confidence – musical confidence, mostly. While Steve Morris‘ drums weave patterns around the unrelenting kick of an electronic drum machine, the band masterfully interlaces layer after layer of sound: Bernard Albrecht‘s alternately slashing and alluring guitar lines, Peter Hook‘s melodic bass playing, broad washes of keyboard color from Gillian Gilbert and such percussive effects as chimes. It’s a bracing, exhilarating sound, equally suited to feverish dance workouts like “Age of Consent” and “586” as to such murkier, more impressionistic outings as “Your Silent Face.”

Lyrically, New Order still rely too readily on emotional vagueness and stock portentous images. Having partially abandoned the frigid, nocturnal chill that permeated Curtis’ work, the band’s current viewpoint is closer to simple pessimism than outright despair. Still, the group likes to draw the drapes and usher in a little darkness at the end of its songs. Power has some of the most foreboding lines in rock: “I’ve lost you.” “Their love died three years ago/Spoken words that cannot show.” “For these last few days/Leave me alone.” And then there’s the jarring conclusion of “Your Silent Face,” a glorious, understated reverie that rails against passivity (and, perhaps, against Curtis) with lines like, “A thought that never changes/Remains a stupid lie.” As the tune closes, Albrecht turns contemptuously dismissive: “You caught me at a bad time/So why don’t you piss off.”

With spiritual anguish and failed redemption no longer an obsessive theme, it’s now easier to focus on New Order simply as a rock band as strong as any in British pop. And as has been pointed out before, once you get past the romantically murky stance, New Order are (just as Joy Division were) a terrific singles band–not a consistent one, but one whose best singles, “Ceremony” and “Temptation,” have been transcendent.

“Blue Monday” isn’t in that class, but in its own way, it’s a breakthrough, getting the band heard on radio stations and in dance clubs. Neither New Order’s boldest song nor their most telling, it is instead their best sounding. The drum machine pounds away with an appropriately inhuman thunk, the band pumps hard to keep up, and after seven searing minutes, it soars to a close with layers of lush keyboards.

That song is included on the cassette version of Power Corruption & Lies; by itself on the twelve-inch single, though, it’s backed by “The Beach,” its dub remake and a tougher, better version of the tune. The point of “Blue Monday” is sound, after all, and the second version takes more sonic chances and shows just what sure-handed producers and assured musicians New Order have become. For the members of a band once known for one man’s sensibility, that’s the last thing many of us expected and, in a way, the best thing they could have become.

mp3 : New Order – Age of Consent
mp3 : New Order – Your Silent Face
mp3 : New Order – Leave Me Alone

JC adds : Possibly the most important record that I’ve ever purchased.  It certainly contains, in the album opener, my favourite song of time.  It felt like the right way to close off this series.  Things return to normal from tomorrow.

From wiki:-

Music Complete is the tenth studio album by the English rock band New Order. It was released on 25 September 2015 by Mute Records, their debut on the label. The album features guest vocals from Elly Jackson of La Roux, Iggy Pop and Brandon Flowers.

During summer 2015, New Order promoted the album through online media, at Lollapalooza Chile with “Singularity” and “Plastic”, and half-minute snippets directly on their YouTube account. It was announced that Gillian Gilbert returned to the band, but with Tom Chapman taking Peter Hook’s bassist role.

Musically, the album is more electronic-focused than its two predecessors, and New Order’s first of new material in a decade. The cover art was designed by long-time collaborator Peter Saville and comprises a montage of lines with four colour schemes: red, yellow, green, and blue, which varies depending on packaging.

Music Complete was released on CD, both clear and black vinyl LP, and digital download on 25 September 2015, with an 8LP deluxe box set released on 20 November. The album received generally favourable reviews. A tour in support of the album ran from 4 November 2015 through 20 December 2015.

All of the above might be true….I didn’t pay attention to the release at the time and for the first time ever, I didn’t seek out tickets for the live shows in Glasgow. Some folk tell me I’m missing out, others say that the material was fairly bog-standard and not a patch on the band’s glorious era of the 80s and early 90s. It seems three singles were also released. As I download them, it will be the first time I’ve ever heard them:-

mp3 : New Order – Restless
mp3 : New Order – Tutti Frutti
mp3 : New Order – Singularity

First one is New Order by numbers…..nice and comfy and unchallenging.

Second one starts off a bit more interesting with a tune that is reminiscent of the Technique era. The chorus, however, is a total turn-off….as dull as the Waiting For The Sirens’ Call material.

Third one is Barney singing…..the others seemingly are playing on it……………but it’s not New Order.

Sorry folks for dragging out the series to such a sad conclusion. The legacy is being tainted by this sub-standard rubbish.

Tune in next Sunday and see what nonsense I’ve come up with for a new series.

JC

Waiting for the Sirens’ Call is the eighth studio album by New Order. It was released on 28 March 2005 and was preceded by the single “Krafty” in February. Two additional singles from the album were released: “Jetstream”, which features vocals by Ana Matronic from Scissor Sisters, and the title track of the album.

Waiting for the Sirens’ Call marks Phil Cunningham’s recording and co-writing debut with New Order; although he had been playing live with the band since the Get Ready tour of 2001–2002. It is the first New Order album recorded without Gillian Gilbert who left the band in 2001 to look after her family. During the sessions the band also recorded seven songs intended for their next album, which was never completed as planned. These songs were shelved when Peter Hook quit the group in 2007. One song, “Hellbent”, was eventually released in 2011 and all seven (plus a remix of “I Told You So”) were released as the album Lost Sirens in 2013.

The Japanese release includes several alternate versions of “Krafty” as bonus tracks, including one sung in Japanese. This was the first time that lead singer Bernard Sumner performed in a language other than English on record.

Here goes:-

mp3 : New Order – Krafty (single version)
mp3 : New Order – Jetstream (album version)
mp3 : New Order – Waiting For The Sirens’ Call (album version)

Krafty marked the first new release for Warner Bros. Records and was produced by John Leckie, a real veteran of the scene who had worked with Magazine back in the late 70s. Truth be told….it’s a bit of a disappointment given the pedigree of all involved. It did make #8 in the charts; the only songs made available as b-sides were remixes, none of which improved the singles.

Still, no matter how bad the remixes were, they were still a million miles ahead of the truly dreadful Jetstream, without any question the worst of all their 45s. And again, no b-sides other than remixes to redeem things. Somehow, this reached #20 in the charts

The third single saw the record company at its money-grabbing best. Here’s wiki:-

Rather than the typical maxi CD and DVD configuration for the single, “Waiting for the Sirens’ Call” was initially released as three separate 7″ singles. Each 7″ contained a different mix of the single as an A-side. On the B-side, each 7″ contained a brand new remix of a classic New Order single. A CD single for “Waiting for the Sirens’ Call” followed the three 7″ singles, and was released on October 3, 2005. The two-track CD featured full-length remixes of the song.

Just fuck off will you?

The three classic singles chosen for the remix treatment were Everything’s Gone Green, Temptation and Bizarre Love Triangle. The bottom of the barrel really was getting scraped. But it fooled enough folk to part with their cash that it reached #21, the last time New Order made the singles chart.

Here’s something referred to earlier in the post:-

mp3 : New Order – Krafty (Japanese version)

Despite the date of this posting, the above mp3 is not a joke……

Tune in next week for the final installment of the series.

JC