Tuesday, February 06, 2018

This state of grace is consuming me


Sure, Joy Division.  Kick ass motherfuckers.  Early New Order, though - wow.  They refined the sound JD was creating on CLOSER, and then pushed it forward.  Those early days were the best, the singles, the mini album,  MOVEMENT - all of it fucking incredible.  POWER, CORRUPTION AND LIES was amazing, but not as visceral as the earlier stuff.  LOW-LIFE was also excellent, but it loses some points for that glaringly hideous 80s dance music production.  All of the songs ultimately survived it, but some better than others.  And then BROTHERHOOD rounded out (for me) that first burst of brilliance.  An excellent combination of New Order danciness, a little edgy post-punk and some straight-up beautiful pop songs.  A lot of excellent singles sprinkled throughout this period, too, plus the ubiquitous remixes (which New Order did better than just about everyone else) and the stupendous SUBSTANCE, but then they lost it for me.  People seemed to love TECHNIQUE, but I just never saw it, or anything that cam after, and these days they're sort of a half-assed New Order cover band, which is just depressing.....

















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