New Order - Waiting For The Sirens Call

Let's also hope it's less bland than "Get Ready".

Haha, I'm demented, as I kept reading that essentially as "Waiting, [Because] The Sirens Call" without the aprostrophe, which is stupid.

www.neworderonline.com says:

It's been rumoured that the reason why there is no apostrophe in "Sirens" is because the band couldn't agree where it should go, and Saville decided that there wouldn't be any.

But then...

will be called Waiting For The Sirens Call, except that they did add the apostrophe in "Siren's".

< / pedantry >

by "dance-oriented" i'm hoping very much they mean it's a progression from here to stay, which was a blistering return to form and is really the last piece of hope on to which i cling. but i can't even force myself to actually get excited about this album, which is a tragedy.

and the missing apostrophe is fucking me off more than i can explain.

I'm in the "I'm glad that they're not making another rock-oriented album, but I wish they wouldn't try to immitate Technique either" camp.

I'll try to stay as open minded as possible.

oh, was that what get ready was meant to be?

:)

OTM. Trying to be artistic with apostrophes or lack thereof is not very clever or interesting the first place, let alone the fact it's been DONE before, countless times.

They are not waiting for a siren to call !

oh, no, hang on. that didn't happen. fuck. leckie or street or some such past-it twiddler. since when did fucking new order need producers, eh?

BTW: NO completists may be interested in the shameless comp on my blog: stephenage.typepad.com

anyway you slice it, their just dum

Hurrah!

sorry, sorry. i'll stop now.

So while it may sound contradictory given how much I like Get Ready, I am somewhat disappointed by New Order's 'comeback'. It's pretty clear that they are set on cruise control and not really willing to experiment and create *new* things any more. The live experience how is fairly shite - they seem content to trot through pre-programmed versions of all the big ones with Barney warbling along to an autocue. They don't even program their own stuff any more. For anyone who saw them anytime from 80-88, it's a pretty tame experience - they always used to fly by the seat of their pants and created great music that way, both live and in the studio.

What I'd love more than anything from them in 2005 would be a self-produced double album with some real risk-taking experimantation. Think Tago Mago. I shouldn't write off the new LP yet, but it won't be like this. One thing I agree with grimly fiendish about - I think Gill's departure saw some of the magic evaporate.

as for gillian: i argued long and hard on a.m.n-o about this. the wonderful, beautiful thing about new order was that they were more a gang than a band; they were four people who fought and hissed and spat at each other but still came together time and time again to make beautiful music. i still don't know exactly who played what on each song; and i don't care, because it doesn't matter. when one member goes from a group like that, the dynamic is destroyed.

what really galls me is that joy division became new order when ian died because they couldn't carry on as the same band without a key member. i'm sorry, but i can't accept hooky/barney/steve plus phil cunningham as new order, because by their own criterion it's a different entity. yes, ok, joy division was a long time ago ... but some standards should be kept, surely?

Listen to the guitar tones and album flow of Movement and Get Ready back to back and tell me there aren't similarities. The fact that you like one and dislike the other does not automatically make any positive comparison between them invalid; furthermore holding every New Order album up to the "redifine the parameters of sound" criteria is foolish.

i'm sorry: to these ears the guitars on movement sound like a frenzied maelstrom. the guitars on get ready sound like a sludgy mess. the songs on movement are paranoid and edgy. the songs on get ready are contented and fat. the electronics on movement are cold and sparking. the electronics on get ready are pro-tooled to a dull sheen.

etc.

new order work best for me when they play with dance music, so this sounds good to me.

Get Ready = Brotherhood II
Republic = Movement II
Waiting for the Sirens Call = Technique II

Maybe the "Peter Saville Soundtrack" is "Low-Life II", on the basis of its similarities to "Elegia".

"Power, Corruption and Lies" is lonely.

I am content. (Then again how could it be otherwise?)

is billy corgan going to be on this one? No? then it will be better than get ready.

You are evil, stinky and mean.

**the electronics on movement are cold and sparking. the electronics on get ready are pro-tooled to a dull sheen. **

Yes. But such is the nature of making a record in 2003 vs 1981. I agree with the contented and fat comment.

I hope new guest 'stars' this time. They could hardly have chosen worse than the gurning fool Gilliespie and the clueless Corgan. At least Corgan didn't ruin the majestic Turn My Way with his braying.

I am a bit uncomfortable with holding subsequent albums up to the standard of Movement. For me it is their best, but really you can't compare any of them from Movement to Technique as their aesthetic was changing constantly and they were pushing forward with new technology and new ways to work. All are great, but different. In retrospect, maybe the rot set in with Republic - not wholly bad, but not the record of a pioneering band. It worries me that S. Hague is still involved.

even better title: "waiting for the call of the sirens"

What I'd love more than anything from them in 2005 would be a self-produced double album with some real risk-taking experimantation. Think Tago Mago.

Jesus H., Dave you make me swoon! If only it were true!

I would like to politely suggest that we get away from the idea of hoping for another Movement. Without Hannett around, and without them grieving the loss of their singer, there is just no WAY we are going to get another one of those. It's still my favourite album of theirs, I understand the sentiment, but really - "another Movement" just can't happen.

I'm sorry all! Me and Barney can no longer tolerate working together. Maybe I would be persuaded if he asked me back.

If you are reading Bernard, I have something I want to say to you:

A cold that sleeps within my heart
It tears the earth and sun apart
But that's the way that I can win
A victim of your evil sin
You've lost the hold you've had on me
By causing the changes that you never see

Damnit I need a bottle of champagne right now.

ok, ok. i admit. i am pathetically excited about hearing this fucking "krafty".

oh, that's a shock. the crappy R1 stream has just cut out on me. for FUCK'S SAKE

it's brotherhood-era NO all over again! happy, happy fucking day!

good god. that was really quite wonderful. wow. i wish i'd audio-hijacked it. or at least listened to it on proper speakers, not the laptop.

it's already stuck in my head.

fantastic. proper new order, doing what they're good at.

yes.

Interesting you should mention that. There was a bit I think towards the end where they used some synth noise or something that made me immediately think "Brotherhood". And the BBC's radio player thing really does suck. I used to be able to use the buttons on it, too, like pause and skip ahead 5 min. but now none of the buttons even work. Once it's on I'm just stuck with it. And the sound quality is just...ugh. I've streamed from other places like WFMU and I swear it wasn't near that bad.

wonder how well this song's propagating on P2P right now?

Seriously grimly, you've got to explain why you're freaking about this song and "Brotherhood" but still don't like "Get Ready".

Sonically, "Get Ready" = "Brotherhood"

OK, it's playing now!

That's an amazing track, probably better than all of the "Get Ready" singles. As for the "Brotherhood" comparisons, the melody during the verses reminded be of the chorus in "As It Is When It Was".

i'm thinking. i'm trying.

there's a lightness and deftness about krafty that i just don't hear on get ready. the entire album sounds forced, lumpen, like it's made up of sewn-together pieces of songs; krafty sounds like it's burst fully formed from the new order song machine (which is a good thing, naturally).

there's a brightness and edginess about the brotherhood sound that i don't hear on get ready either. if i knew more about these things, i'd say it was all to do with dynamics, the space in the songs, but i can't explain that any further. all i can say is that the recordings on get ready sound dull, matt, dead ... and that brotherhood and krafty sound vibrant and chiming.

also: the melodies have a lot to do with it. krafty is classic new order (i mean, seriously, there were two points where hooky did exactly what i'd expect; predictable, yes, but in a joyous and life-affirming way), while get ready sounds like new order playing other people's rather tedious songs.

you know what's gonna happen now, don't you? i'm gonna love this and think the rest of the album's cack, heh. but woh, has this given me hope.

Summery even though this is not summer. :-)

It's Sumnery! Okay, that was bad.

you know what's gonna happen now, don't you? i'm gonna love this and think the rest of the album's cack, heh. but woh, has this given me hope.

Well, you see Crystal is my least fave track on Get Ready, so the phenomenon you speak of has certainly crossed my mind.

“WAITING FOR THE SIRENS’ CALL”

RELEASED 28TH MARCH 2005 THROUGH LONDON RECORDS

After the planet-shagging success of 2001’s “Get Ready” and 2002’s ‘this-is-how-you-do-it’ four CD boxset “Retro”, Manchester’s finest ever band, New Order, return with their new, hotly anticipated album, “WAITING FOR THE SIRENS’ CALL”. Showcasing New Order’s unique ability to both shake the dancefloor and rock the hardest, Sirens is that rare thing: an album for everyone. Its eleven songs take in influences as diverse as electro, rock, dancehall and punk, all bound together by New Order’s cool romance, diamond-hard modernity and wild, unparalleled musicality.

First single, “KRAFTY”, is bass-driven, machine-like, ridiculously catchy. The title track is wistful and sublime, considered by the band to be one of the best tracks they’ve ever made. Then there’s the perfect pop of “JETSTREAM’ (Bernard’s vocals augmented by Scissor Sister Ana Matronic); the wry, hilarious regret of “MORNING NIGHT AND DAY”; “I TOLD YOU SO”’s reckless ragga lope; the Iggy stomper “WORKING OVERTIME”; the anthemic, tuneful “ROAD TO RUIN”. “WAITING FOR THE SIRENS’ CALL” is the diverse, devastating, delicious sound of a great band at its peak.

This energetic, upbeat album was carefully recorded over seven months, using a ‘Who’s Who’ of producers, including Stephen Street, John Leckie, Stuart Price and New Order themselves. A sustained burst of song-writing by the band resulted in 18 completed songs, a first for New Order – Bernard: “We usually do just enough for an album, ten songs and it’s done”; the seven tracks left off “Sirens” are so strong that they are likely to form the basis of a future LP. Phil Cunningham, recruited as guitarist when New Order took “Get Ready” on the road, had the privilege of being invited by Bernard, Hooky and Steve to join the song-writing process for this new record. “I found it strange at first,” he says, “because New Order use a lot of technology. And sometimes they reject stuff because it sounds ‘too New Ordery’”.

“It’s the heart and the soul of New Order that’s important,” explains Bernard. “If something sounds like a pastiche, that’s not good enough.”

Rejecting the obvious has always been New Order’s technique: in their 28 year career, they’ve changed the face of pop music on more than one occasion. As Joy Division, they ripped up rock’s rule book by making music that was heavy and subtle, glacial, yet full of lament: “Love Will Tear Us Apart” has just been chosen as one of The Brits 25 best songs ever written. Then, as New Order, they were light years ahead of the dance scene with the world’s best-ever-selling 12” single “Blue Monday”, before bringing Madchester to the masses with the platinum-selling album “Technique”. As an aside, they made the only cool football anthem ever made, “World In Motion” – it went to Number One – as well as having hits with various side projects such as Electronic, Monaco and The Other Two.

The New Order legacy is undeniable, yet the band keeps coming up with more. “Waiting For The Sirens Call” is so packed with pop tunes, it sounds like a Greatest Hits. Bernard’s lyrics cover computers, hangovers, the folly of man’s lust - and even Dracula’s castle (a reference to St Catherine’s, the Jane Seymour-owned studio where part of “Sirens” was recorded). His voice has never sounded better, Hooky’s mournful, gorgeous bass twists throughout, Phil’s guitars add warmth and depth, and Steven’s drumming and looping show the imitators how it’s done.

There is no other band that unites both “spotty students and football hooligans” (Bernard), as well as housewives and rock stars, the art set and the mainstream, indie-lovers and dance nutters. No other band that can wring such emotion from machines, or make guitars sound so fresh. Noone else is so spiky, so startling, innovative and inspirational; noone else makes pop music for clever people that hits the heart as well as the head. In 2005, when every other up-and-coming band cites Joy Division and New Order as inspirations, it’s fantastic to have the real deal back – and on such blistering form.

TRACKLIST (with production credits)

Who’s Joe? (produced by New Order)

Steve: “It’s a nice uptempo number, along the lines of Guilty Partner and Dream Attack. It came quite easily, it was deposited on earth fully formed, a lovely baby. And it’s got a funny clangy noise in it. My speciality.”

Bernard: “It reminds me of Joy Division, it’s got that heaviness. Who’s Joe? Absolutely no idea. To me, it’s the story of a tramp.”

Hey Now What You Doing (Stephen Street)

Bernard: “It’s fresh. It doesn’t remind me of anything we’ve done before. I was thinking of a lad from Moss Side when I was writing the lyrics.”

Phil: “It’s got power and it’s instant. It came from my guitar riff idea, so I like it, and it’s quite easy to play.”

Steve: “It’s daring of Bernard to try rhyming future and computer. I admire that.”

Waiting For The Sirens’ Call (New Order)

Hooky: “Barney’s done really well with the vocals and the lyrics are really good. They’re about travelling, I think. It’s his yachting influence.”

Bernard: “It’s my favourite track. The backing track’s brilliant, Hooky’s bass is fantastic on it. It made me crap it a bit, because I thought, If I don’t get the vocals right, I’m going to destroy a classic song. I don’t know quite what’s it about. Could it be about death? Or infidelity. It’s not about me in particular.”

Krafty (John Leckie)

Hooky: “I was working with Hybrid, and wrote this middle bit of a track, and thought, That’s too good to leave there, I’m having that, so I asked them and they said, That’s fine. And it turned into Krafty. And it’s just great.”

Steve: “It started as a jam, a bit like Lonnie Donegan. But then we put electronic noises in there.”

I Told You So (New Order)

Bernard: “I was on holiday on my boat in the Caribbean, tuning in a shortwave radio into all these mad stations. The beats were fantastic, really interesting. So I recorded some stuff off the radio, and used it as the inspiration for a song. I like it because it starts off with these dancehall beats and then turns into Velvet Underground somewhere in the middle, and I like both of those things.”

Phil: “It’s bonkers, isn’t it?”

Morning Night And Day (Stephen Street)

Phil: “It reminds me of Primal Scream, the sentiment and the rocky Stones-y vibe. But it’s actually quite programmed.”

Bernard: “That one is autobiographical. It is definitely about my life. My life as it used to be. Actually, it’s about Phil’s life.”

Hooky: “Oh god. When you get to our age, the hangovers are so massive, they last for about a week.”

Dracula’s Castle (John Leckie)

Hooky: “That started as a jam with me, Phil and Steve.”

Bernard: “St Catherine’s, where this was partly recorded, was built by Henry VIII for one of his illegitimate daughters. It was a courthouse for a bit and I wrote lyrics in this room where people were judged and tried. It had an old fireplace, and was all lit by candles. It was a creative room but very spooky. That’s why Dracula’s castle is in there.”

Jetstream (Stuart Price)

Bernard: “I must admit I was a bit dubious when Ana Matronic was suggested as a singer, but she did a fantastic job, really lifted the song. We knew it was a good track, but it needed something that we couldn’t give it.”

Phil: “We were aware we had mainly rock tracks, so we consciously wrote something to dance to.”

Guilt Is A Useless Emotion (Stuart Price)

Bernard: “A very difficult song to write, with a tortuous route to get to where it is now! I can’t categorise it, but loosly, it is a dance record. Get Ready had no dance tunes, which we were very aware of, especially after we toured that record in 2001. It’s important to keep the balance.

Hooky: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

Turn (Stephen Street)

Hooky: “We wrote this when it was miserable and rainy, and we wanted to cheer ourselves up!”

Phil: “It’s very upbeat and summery”.

Working Overtime (Stephen Street)

Hooky: “I think this should be a single. It’s dead rocky. I play it when I DJ and people go mad.”

Steve: “I love this one because it’s based around my drum riff. It sounds a bit Stoogey, but it’s not meant to be. But most of music is thievery isn’t it? Sometimes I hear a song on the radio and think, This is good, is it one of ours? Then the red mist descends and I think, You robbing bastards!”

Bernard: “I was worried that things were getting a bit flowery and melodic and chordy, so it’s great to have a track like this, with a dumb one finger riff. You should never forget that the best music is simple and you don’t have to be a great musician to make it.”

INTERVIEW/BIOG WRITTEN BY MIRANDA SAWYER, Jan 2005.

certainly, on the evidence of "krafty", i'm now really quite excited about this album. wonders, as they say, will never cease.

Oh boy...

Im surprised theres so many tracks the band produced themselves. even more reasons to be excited about downloading the album on or near 3/28 due to lack of US release date.

Look, I want to believe it as much as anybody, but this is how hearts are broken.

New Order = not prolific.

We're lucky enough to have 2 records in 5 years, not this 2 in 1 year insanity.

Ah well. No doubt I'll learn to love it in the space of about a week.

We're lucky enough to have 2 records in 5 years, not this 2 in 1 year insanity.

-- Juan, the Magic Don (still.beven...), January 25th, 2005.
i'd rather have a brilliant cd every four years than a crap album every year (week) like elton john or prince in the 90's

Also, his lyrics work better when they are more abstract or obscure. Two songs which are narrative in content, Love Vigilantes and All the Way, are the exceptions that prove the rule.

However, JimD is OTM re: Shine, which is prolly the best Monaco song.

Also a funny note, several Americans I talked to, when they first heard the opening lines to "Crystal" thought that New Order were talking about how much they liked crystal meth!!

it gets better with each listen, that song, it really does. has anyone heard any other tracks? OMM were wanking on at the weekend about the one with ana matronic on it.

Miranda! I know you like NO, and that's a press release and all, but umm exaggeration?

Oh and isn't the new title a bit like "Standing on the shoulder of Giants" ?

Didn't she compile one of the discs?

I was recently informed today by a co-worker that mostly 15 year old asian girls like new order. Imagine that shit. I was never told.

http://www.neworderonline.com/Default.aspx
NewOrderOnline Radio - Tonight at 8pm EST (GMT-5) / Tomorrow at 4pm EST (GMT-5)
Today - 1:46:35 PM - Tune in tonight on Retroforward Radio for NewOrderOnline Radio.

You will be able to listen to the latest New Order interview, hear the latest news, listen to a few songs, and listen to a live show from Leuven 1985 in the second half of the show.

Don't forget to use the chatroom to interact with other listeners (chat room here and on Retroforward's website).

http://retroforward.com/radio/

A few days ago I was THRILLED to learn that New Order are playing the Coachella festival in Southern California at the end of March. I was actually planning to take a trip down there sometime this spring and it seemed the perfect thing. I've actually never seen them even once in my life but had two near misses and had just resigned myself to the idea it was never meant to happen. Of course the fact that GANG OF FOUR are playing too is like having my cake, eating it, and having a second cake or something.

actually, the very notion of "tomorrow/today" becomes enormously confusing when you're trying to factor in a five-hour time difference.

and the website says the show's on wednesday night. so ... it was *this* morning GMT?

fuck it. has anyone/can anyone audio-hijack this and circulate it?

April 26 is the U.S. release date.

ONLY 50 million years after the UK date, as usual.

I've never seen them live before! Barney! Play me some old live standbys, stat!

(actually I hope to god they don't do Blue Monday, unless they play some wild mutant version, but other than that I'd be psyched to hear Substance Live)

http://www.neworderonline.com/MessageList.aspx?ThreadID=17776

However apparently there will be a rebroadcast at 9pm thursday [UK time].

i'm off to watch fahrenheit 9/11.

But in retrospect, I actually don't feel so bad. Because very very strangely, there was a post just up above earlier by someone I can't now recall the name of that said he only had a 56K and had real problems with the connection, like 30 seconds of sound and 30 seconds of silence. And we all know how bad the BBC Player is, so we can only guess at what this might have been like. But I can't figure out why his post is deleted. I've never encountered a deleted post on ILM. What does it mean?? Is there a ghost in the machine?

I mean I have had a few drinks but I have NOT had enough to start imagining posts that spontaneously disappear.

Pale as a sheet.

Seconded.

i guess it leaked

But it's actually this.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/tracks/05-02-01.shtml

http://www.neworderonline.com/Gallery/NewOrder_KraftyFront4News.jpg

I kinda like it.

hate hate HATE WITH AN UNHOLY HATRED the typography. vile seventies horror, and what's with the mixed-case stuff between band name and title?

'Republic' cover love seconded. One of my favorites, actually

New Order
krafty

and thus the lower-case k doesn't rankle as much.

http://www.gigwise.com/contents.asp?ContentID=4195
New Order @ Glastonbury

Ummm... Goddamn it's catchy. I've listened to it three times in a row.

the O looks remarkably similar to low life's. That e looks really awkward. i do like the w, though, even though it is my least favorite letter of the alphabet these days.

check for user Davidii, he has it all

check there

if you're in seattle, i could arrange a cdr

Some thoughts on first listen.

Comparisons to Technique don't hold except for overall quality of the tracks. Not a duff track until the last, Working Overtime. Lyrics are as good as Bernard Sumner can do with the exception of Krafty. Chiming guitar, Peter Hook up in your face, not enough programmed beats for my taste but overall, the rock moments on WFTSC are not as "rocky" as on Get Ready. Not sure i like the collaboration with Ana on Jetstream. Sounds as week as the Gwen Stephani track w/ Hooky and Bernard. Not a great track, but not bad either. WFTSC, the song, is perhaps the best on the album. Turn, track 10, should have been the closer, great lyrics, good vibe...would have been the new Dream Attack if it had finished the LP. Unfortunately, they finish with Working Overtime, a cross between Rock The Shack + Slow Jam with a touch of Lust For Life thrown in...not as barfable as either Rock the Shack or Slow Jam but it's a vibe killer. Should have been left off the LP and saved for a B-side. Other than that, it's fucking ace. I'm on my 2nd complete listen, in order and it sounds better already! Life just got a lot easier to deal with.

I'm halfway through listening to it now ... will comment when it's done.

Seek and ye shall find. barflyjello

Journey?

(I'm KIDDING.)

biznotic, if you could e-mail it to nedr@sbcglobal.net I admit I wouldn't mind.

xpost

-- it's a more upbeat version of "Republic". The sound and swagger of "Regret" is all over most of the WFTSC tracks
-- everyone who loved "Get Ready" will love WFTSC
-- everyone who hated "Get Ready" will probably like WFTSC very much. After a quiet period of about a year, in June 2006 somebody will start a thread entitled "Defend the Indefensible -- New Order's 'Get Ready'" and everyone will defend it with comments like "on second thought, a few of the WFTSC tracks aren't that different from the 'Get Ready' tracks. 'Get Ready' had some great moments'". A few people will hold out, however, by comparing "Working Overtime" to "Rock the Shack" (as per bg's very OTM comments), and claim that this one track sabotages everything and therefore they can't admit to liking "Get Ready", and maybe even WFTSC as well.
-- "I Told You So" is reggae, New Order-style. It's good.
-- "Jetstream" (with Ana from Scissor Sisters on vocals), is to "WFTSC"as "World" is to "Republic" -- it's more pop-dance than typical NO, and will probably be a single.
-- "Krafty" is their best single since "Regret", and might be one of the best five or six singles of their career.

ok, this is battling Low Life already as my 2nd fav. New Order album. Technique being my fav. It's definitely the best thing they've done since 1989. Sounds like a collection of the best "album tracks" with Krafty and Jetstream being the only 2 that sound catchy and radio-friendly. album could use a pinch more on the keyboard front but the return of the acoustic guitar and the quality of bernard's lyrics catapult this to the top of my list. i assume many other people will rate this quite high in the newOrder catalogue. can't wait for the Jaques lu Cont remixes of Fast Synth/Guilt Is A Useless Emotion. can't help but wonder what it would have sounded like as a duet with Gillian. oh well.

I realize that out of sheer politeness it might be prudent for me to hold my tongue about the album. But some of Barry & bg's comments get me a little riled, and last I knew it was a free country (though probably not for much longer). So I'm gonna weigh in, damnit.

it's a more upbeat version of "Republic"

Barry, I think you should be careful. This might not seem like a good thing to everyone here involved, and I don't happen to agree with it. I refuse to compare this album to anything New Order have done previously EXCEPT Get Ready, and even then, only in a general sense. That said, I think it's joyous thing indeed when people feel inspired enough to try to predict the future as you did about the 2006 Get Ready thread! Well done, and hey...perhaps it will even come to pass.

The first thing that sticks in my craw here is the people who can't stand "Rock The Shack", and by extension, will no doubt diss "Working Overtime". For god's sake, people. What is wrong with ONE only ONE track on a New Order album where they just ROCK OUT in the most regular, normal sense of the words? I mean, I actually think "Working Overtime" might be better than Rock The Shack, if only because the lyrics have improved, there's more influences at work, and there's no Bobbie Gillespie involved. First time I heard it I thought "ha! they're trying to do a velvet underground - no, hell...the strokes! no...The fucking FALL! That's it! They're doing a little bit of FALL here! New Order doing the Fall! Did you ever think you'd live to see the day?" NO for god's sake it isn't ground breaking, but then neither is that new squeaky clean band of 18 year olds on the corner over there making music in the same style. It's a bit of FUN, NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

My next point is to say that "Jet" or "Jetstream" (however they choose to name it, in the end) with Ana from Scissor Sisters, is absolute CRAP. I mean CRAP. Unbearably embarassing. Worse than anything on Get Ready. But yet it serves one very important purpose: making the track after it, "Fast Synth"/"Guilt Is A Useless Emotion" far more palatable. For that is the track where Bernard finally makes his worst lyrical bungle of the album: "Real love can't be bought/it is wild and can't be caught/real love can't be sold/it's another colour than gold" But really, if you can get past the lyric, it's not so bad, even if it does sound an awful lot like just another contemporary dance track for the chorus. It also makes the next track "Turn" sound EVEN BETTER BY COMPARISON! FINALLY BACK TO THE INARGUABLE UNBELIEVABLE BRILLIANCE, ETC.!

So without rhapsodizing too much about the rest of the album for now, I'll just wrap up with this:

Tracks that bothered me on Get Ready = 2
Tracks that bother me on WFTSC = 2

But if I compare the REST of both albums side by side, ignoring the tracks that bother me, I think this one is better, stronger, and more cohesive than Get Ready. And I believe there aren't as many lyrical pitfalls as there were on Get Ready, as well.

I do quite like "Jet" actually, on first listen.

I wasn't trying to get people involved, that was my honest description of the album. It's not nearly as guitar oriented as "Get Ready", and I disagree with the pre-release hype comparing it to "Technique". There's nothing remotely like "Fine Time", "Vanishing Point", or "Mr. Disco" on here. I don't hear pounding club tracks like those ones, I hear more pop-dance-y tracks like "World" and "Chemical".

The first thing that sticks in my craw here is the people who can't stand "Rock The Shack", and by extension, will no doubt diss "Working Overtime". For god's sake, people. What is wrong with ONE only ONE track on a New Order album where they just ROCK OUT in the most regular, normal sense of the words?

---the problem is, i don't listen to New Order for rock songs. I didnt' collect every 12", CD single, LP etc to listen to rock music. rock sucks the cock of the devil and i didn't obsess over newOrder to hear their One Rock Song. I hated RTS and Slow Jam on Get Ready but Working Overtime doesn't make me ashamed to be a newOrder fan like those 2 did. I'd rather have them put Working Overtime on a single or as a hidden track because it completely destroys the mood that they perfectly built up over the first 10 tracks. It's a throwaway song that the Order think is "fun" and a nod to their influences but it should be left off the album proper.

as posted by Bimble:
My next point is to say that "Jet" or "Jetstream" (however they choose to name it, in the end) with Ana from Scissor Sisters, is absolute CRAP. I mean CRAP. Unbearably embarassing. Worse than anything on Get Ready.

---I would have strongly agreed with this yesterday morning when i had only heard that song 1 or 2 times but the more i listen to it in the context of the LP, i find it quite pleasant. It's not the best on the LP and i'm a bit disappointed at Stuart Price/jacques lu cont's contributions, but i think you need to give it a few more listens. I am opposed, in general, to collaborations on New Order records and have only recently begun to accept Turn My Way as a good song. I hate Billy Corgan with a passion and thought Bobby Gillespie's contribution was worthless. Ana Scissors should have never been invited to perform in the first place. Thank god Dawn Zee got left at home because she nearly ruined Republic and Get Ready for me.

One thing i can say is, please listen to the album in order a few times to appreciate the whole thing. Hearing the songs one by one, out of order, fails to produce the same kind of awe that listening to the LP as it was arranged by the band. It makes a difference.

i like how this album is sequenced.

TS. People who love New Order regardless vs. People who base their opinion of the band on a handfull of tracks over a 20year career.

still, from what people are saying here, it'll be one to savour. yum.

Classic Barney: the vocal melody with "...and I don't know where to turn when you're gone..." = shivers and tears.

actually beloved out-takes from 1986 would be preferable

Yes, yes I am. ;-) But please, keep the followups on private mail!

I was mainly responding to what bg had said, but you are right I probably got a little too worked up and excited.

rock sucks the cock of the devil

Actually I don't think anyone would really argue with that! The devil, rock and cock seem to go together quite well!

they aren't a rock band and they fail miserably when the try to be one.

I take it you were never a Joy Division fan, then? Just curious. Mmm..."Interzone" seems to be playing in my head at the moment. Wait...now I hear "Novelty"...I might just have to pull these out.

TS: people who hate "Get Ready" because they're abnormally fixated on NO taking a bit of the piss on "Rock the Shack" VS people who hate "Get Ready" because they're abnormally fixated on their Billy Corgan hatred even though he only sings two lines on the record??

hahahahahaha! OMG Billy Corgan BREATHED on it! The VILE UNCLEAN THING!

-- Bimble... (bimble87...), February 6th, 2005.

are you saying Joy Division are ROCK? if so, you and i have totally different opinions of what rock music is. I am in fact a big JD fan but don't consider them to be RnR in the slightest. How can you compare Rock The Shack and Working Overtime to the Joy Division sound? I think you need to pull out the Heart And Soul box set and rethink your position.

Well, I didn't. Although I do think the guitar sound on Rock The Shack reminds me of some of the earliest JD (i.e. Warsaw). But I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree because I simply can't see how anyone can say Joy Division weren't a rock band, or at least that they had the capability to be. What kind of music does "Interzone" sound like to you? I'm not trying to be belligerent here, I'm just baffled that somehow you can place "RTS" & "Working Overtime" in the "rock" category, and yet not a single piece of music Joy Division ever did.

And sure I can understand if someone feels that "Working Overtime" spoils a certain continuity of the album. But then I feel that way about Jetstream - it just doesn't belong on there.

I do not like the Warsaw stuff and prefer Closer to Unknown Pleasures, although i really like Unknown Pleasures too. You have my number, call sometime if you want to chat about MCR's finest export.

Well, I'm glad you feel that way. I really wasn't interested in this getting ugly, particularly as we just met!

I do have your number and would like to get together sometime, sounds good.

Totally agree, these two track are the proper guts of the album I think. It's weird that the best bit seems to come three quarters of the way through though.

I'm "Jimdoo" on slsk, if anyone wants to grab from me.

A thread to talk about Marion, the band (c or d?)

Any file format is fine.

Which tracks by New Order does it remind you of out of curiosity?

The Rub also noticed this.

as people keep implying that the new stuff is good I am looking fwd to hearing this new stuff. good.

nothingelseon@gmail.com

I'm a musician and I write about music I love. I don't get paid to write for Scenestars. I do it when I hear something I want everyone to hear. When you start paying me to do it, then you get to call me bloated and self-important. We're not Pitchfork, we don't just do everything the way we're told to do it. Until then I'm just a music geek. Try to remember we're all on the same side, and if we're not then what the hell is all this for?

I really like the new record, and the positive response has far outweighed the negative. I look forward to seeing a huge resurgent interest in New Order as a result of this CD.

Fine Time + Round and Round + Mr Disco + Vanishing Point = 4

All the Way + Love Less + Guilty Partner + Run + Dream Attack = 5

so to say the new album isn't like Technique coz its not synthy is a spurious point, no?

I think Technique was regarded as The New Order Ibiza Album coz the 2 singles were influenced by the scene, part of the album (a very small part) was recorded there and coz that was the dominating dance music craze at that time. It certainly doesn't come across that way if you listen to it in its entirety.

Waiting for the Sirens Call is actually I think a better song than most of thw songs on Technique. It's that good. It is far better than Krafty, which should NEVER have been the first single. And you know what? I think one of the things that made WFRSC the song good is that New Order produced it thmeselves. They shouldn't have got the producers in coz they produce better music when they produce themselves, every album twixt Power Corruption and Lies and Technique inclusive being proof. The only producers that have done the band justice are Arthur Baker (definitely, and probably coz he's so good he can't mess anyone's music up) and POSSIBLY Stephen Hague. I say possibly, coz he appeared to do a good job on Regret. I have often wondered whether True Faith might have actually sounded better without his influence - it's a great song, but it may have been even better without him! I wish for what will never happen (that's almost a Barney lyric!) ie, that the band would rerecord Republic, produce it all themselves and see if songs like Special and Spooky sound classic as a result, with Hooky's bass occupying the prominent place it so deserves.

(I have a funny feeling that dan will disagree with everything I just said)

Wow, I would have to strongly disagree -- there are many excellent songs on the album, but "Krafty" finds that space which other lead singles like "Fine Time," "Regret" and "Crystal" have, just working as a standalone pop song that recharges you and makes you think, "All right, bring on the album!" Now Republic lets down the side a bit there, I agree. ;-)

Only really at the beginning though, the rest is like a full on happy "Love Vigilantes" crossed with "Regret".

http://www.neworderonline.com/Gallery/WaitingForTheSirensCallFront4News.jpg

I think Technique has the best cover of the albums (LowLife transparency version a runner up).

Because everyone knows he hates minimal design. Oh wait.

i like the cover.

because it is fucking brilliant.

it works on about ten different levels, that.

mind you, i'm quite drunk.

still. wonderful. and the mixed-case thing works this time. so there.

god. i love that. i sincerely hope it isn't a piss-take.

http://images.warner.de/images-artists/WEA/New_Order/573964/1027670.jpg

god, i'm drunker than i thought to come up with that ;)

Yeah, looks even better in the larger version. Great stuff. :-)

I don't know what's happening to me. I've entered a twighlight zone. I just wrote this essay about this album. And...is that the cover? Be Jesus. I mean, bejesus. You know I just don't understand why the whole world doesn't come to a standstill about this album. Who are these people who don't care about it? My interest in people who don't care about this album is moving away from me at an exponentially decreasing rate, I fear.

All I want to understand is, having heard this album, WHY WHY would anyone listen to anything else at all? For what possible reason?

IT is
U N R E A L

UNREAL UNREAL UNREAL UNREAL
UNREAL UNREAL UNREAL UNREAL
UNREAL UNREAL UNREAL UNREAL
UNREAL UNREAL UNREAL UNREAL

People can continue to compare it to what came before if they like,
I’ll continue to see it as a singular statement wholly unconnected
to anything before in their career. They haven’t done reggae before
have they? Only the cover of Keith Hudson’s “Turn The Heater On”
that appeared on the Peel Sessions. When else have they done reggae?
Am I just not remembering? Clue me in here. When on
Republic exactly did they tackle a reggae beat? When on Get
Ready for that matter?

er, just for the sake of historical accuracy: they did that cover of "vietnam", bimble, a couple of years ago. it was for charidee. i quite liked it, but i think that put me in a minority of one.

hahaha. You're funny, grimly. Yes, I know. But it was all central to my point. Sometimes I just get a little excited about this stuff. I want the whole world to hear it and be as happy about it as I am.

The title track has me on the verge of tears every time

Ha! Only the the title track? On the verge? I can sit and have tears streaming down my face most of the whole damn album.

I've been upset to find that neworderonline has been down for at least the last 24 hours or so. Anyone know what's up with that?

the "reggae" influence circa Republic must be the dreadful Sly and Robbie mixes of Ruined In A Day.

Turn the Heater On is one of newOrder's best songs and although i hated Vietnam when i first heard it, repeated listens rewarded me with one of my favorite windows-down-summerlovin tunes.

How f__king good is WFTSC? It's almost a perfect album. Better than we could have ever hoped for and they've got 7 more ready for the next LP. Bring on the Riton mixes of Krafty!

out-emo each other on this

Excuse me? I DO hope you aren't referring to me, as I abhor the word "emo" to begin with and therefore, never ever waste my time trying to "out-emo" anyone for any reason whatsoever.

And I am so so so so so tired of people pining away for another Technique. I do not understand. Movement is probably my favourite album of all time but I'm not sat here thinking they're gonna do another one of those or another Power Corruption & Lies or another Lowlife for that matter. Technique was released over a decade ago. This is 2005, get OVER it already.

get OVER it already.

GET over it al READY.

"The title track has me on the verge of tears every time

Ha! Only the the title track? On the verge? I can sit and have tears streaming down my face most of the whole damn album."

"I abhor the word "emo" to begin with and therefore, never ever waste my time trying to "out-emo" anyone for any reason whatsoever."

i mean c'mon! tears?!

it's not that i can't imagine anyone liking this album, i just can't imagine anyone being moved to tears over it.

-- stevo (stefanroo...), February 13th, 2005.

you want 50 yr old men to still be experimental? that's the problem with those who don't like WFTSC; they expect newOrder to still be a "groudbreaking" or "experimental" band but they're just 50 yr old dudes who've already made their mark. now all that's left is having fun and writing music. nothing more, nothing less. enjoy it for what it is but don't expect for them to ever be creative they way they were from 82-85, it just ain't gonna happen.

I think people can be experimental at any age. Would I have liked it more had they gone all crazy and weird on us? Maybe, maybe not. I still think what they have delivered here is more than enough, and I do think they have broken some new ground as far as their own career goes, even if they haven't re-written the entire rulebook of making music in the 21st century. It is a shame if people don't like it, but then I couldn't fathom the hate for Get Ready either.

(BERNARD has written some lyrics...)

HOOKY: What's the song? 'Regret'? We wrote the music for that two chuffin' years ago! 'Ere. (snatches the piece of paper)

A single grain of sand in the desert
A single leaf in the jungle
A single tear upon your cheek
Love's right daft, I reckon

What the f*** does that mean?

BERNARD: It's just...words.

HOOKY: Oh well, that's all right then! (screws up bit of paper and tosses it over his shoulder) Bollocks!

three albums in a row now they've stuck the most terrific song at the very beginning of the record. regret, crystal and now who's joe? with the chiming guitars so effortless and uplifting, like the end of a really good movie. it should have been the single, not krafty. although i've warmed to krafty as well. and "i told you so" is groovy and has the kind of lyric that tickles me.

i lose interest about halfway through, but i've never liked an entire new order album so that's not a problem. so, good stuff overall. four great tracks, which puts it by my reckoning on par with low-life and well above get ready!

oh, and "working overtime" is just dumb.

But it's moot now, we have what we have and I will almost certainly enjoy it. I have not heard it yet - I am waiting for release date.

i hate leaked albums, though. they're all encoded at 0.1kbps and have the wrong songs on them.

-- Dr. C (petethane...), February 15th, 2005.

Classic! Complaining before you've even heard it!

Well I had an unmastered CD of the album a month ago, but left it at a friend's house. He's lost it!

the whole thing is less melancholic than usual. screamadelish in places (eg morning, night and day, esp barney's voice in the beginning sounds a little like gillespie's). and very varied. great stuff. it runs a little out of steam in the second half but the first three songs are quite possibly the strongest beginning of any no album ever.

krafty is the dullest song after the totally forgettable jetstream. really crappy electronic effects. quite classy to release it as the first single.

it's better than "get ready". but, er ... well, so far "krafty" is the best thing on it by a country mile.

that said, i have been known to change my mind about new order albums. i'll need to give it a few more goes before i make my mind up. but so far i hear an awful lot of sub-david-potts guitar licks, some very bland synthesisers, and little in the way of hewn-from-stone hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck new order melodic and harmonic genius.

hmph.

o: i also really like "working overtime". new order do the fall, yo.

jury is still out for me on this album, truthfully. there are some bright spots, but i'm not feeling its overall strength.

TSK.

"Turn"? Great song! I'll let Spencer say more.

"Turn" is okay. not brilliant. nothing else on the album bothers me more than the way the first two songs play together. come to think of it, i'd say even the first three songs are the weakest of them, for me.

i thought alext and i were the only people who ever said "cockfarmer"! mind you, i now have this vague memory of alex wandering off at all tomorrow's parties in 2001 to meet "the bloke who invented the word 'cockfarmer'" ... ah, the wonders of etymology and linguistic spread.

anyway, "turn". just listening to it now. it's ok, isn't it? i'm not a huge fan of that strummety-strum twangety-twang stuff at the beginning: it's just not very new order, izzit? and the chorus is sub-britpop yawnsomeness, really.

but it gets going after the two-minute mark (after the ridiculous nineties organ bits). that's some nice scratchy guitar, and the treble melody that comes in about 2'45" is just sweeeeeet.

i'm not a fan of the synthy middle eight bit. it's just dull.

i dunno. it's a very, very average new order song. this whole album seems to be full of very, very average new order songs ... there are some exceptions to that, i think, but on the whole it ain't setting the heather on fire.

still, it's kicking "get ready's" ass repeatedly.

and "working overtime" is fucking brilliant. it doesn't belong on the album, but it has a place in my heart. -uh!

(repeat until fade)

Did anyone read the article where Steve Morris had to stop everyone in the studio to say "We've already done that song...it's on Low-Life!". They've moved on, they're happy writing songs together and that energy shines through in their music. Now listen again and again until your opinion matches mine exactly. Thank you.

I've long wanted to say "Turn" is the best track on the album, but upon repeated plays, I've really been surprised how much that reggae-ish track "I Told You So" has jumped out at me. I'm not sure it's the best track on the album, either, but it's probably the most interesting, and certainly a landmark in their career. They tried something a little different there and though it starts out one way, it ends in another (does anyone remember how Bernard commented that somehow it ended up Velvet Underground after awhile?). Just something wonderfully creatively wild going on there. I hear more things in it each time I play it. For those of you who didn't catch the BBC thing, Morris was real proud of it cause he said it was based around his drum beat. I thought it was funny when Bernard wanted to call it "jazz fusion" and Morris said "eh...not jazz...more like reggae-rock fusion".

Republic is WEAK. Regret is the only track I can ever even remember off that album. Definitely the weakest New Order album. I bought it twice and sold it twice! Just nothing there.

new order do the fall, yo.

Now, didn't I say exactly that way upthread? (except I didn't say 'yo' ha ha) ;)

i'm not a huge fan of that strummety-strum twangety-twang stuff at the beginning: it's just not very new order, izzit?

Neither is Working Overtime "very new order". You're not getting anywhere with me using that argument! And if you work as hard as I do as often as I do, you can bet it's good to finally come home and hear New Order do a ballsy Fallish Strokesian thing about working overtime like that!

New Order have change, it's time you changed your perception of the band and either accept the NEW order or move on and forget about them.

This really is the very crux of the matter. But it's a realization I've only come to recently. I've decided it shouldn't surprise me that I'm not on the same page with people who were nuts about Technique, Republic & Brotherhood. Get Ready was the first time I'd been seriously interested in their output in years and years. This is a whole new ballgame, folks. Like it or don't, but don't waste your time hoping for another Technique or whatever. They are just not the same band. In fact, I was playing the album tonight and got to the end of the title track (#3) to that point where he starts singing "How many times must I lose my way..." and it occured to me very starkly that they had changed as a band. Because the amazing thing about that line is that the melody changes once again in this song where it's perfectly structured, and yet they switch gears and do it to you AGAIN, just that one more time even though you weren't expecting it. And the old New Order never would have done that. And that's why this album just pisses all over Get Ready.

And I'm not going to say it's a perfect album either. Upon repeated plays I will allow "Dracula's Castle" has begun to seem a bit boring. I've actually come to appreciate the dreaded "Jetstream" a bit more than that one, now, even if I do hope they don't do another song like "Jetstream" again.

So you know, in the end, maybe it ISN'T the best
album ever made in humankind, food of the gods, etc. But I still
think it's just an all around enjoyable, fabulous thing and I'm sorry that people can't see that on the same kind of immediate level that it sounds to me. There are moments of sheer brilliance here. Open your ears to them.

"where did it all go wrong/house music all night long"

This CD is teaching me what it means to use the repeat button on my CD player. I plan to be here for at least the next 6 hours with this album on repeat. This is probably my 5th play in. Let's see how many I can rack up. Should I start counting?

Two-thirds of "Republic" was great. The first two-thirds, more or less. It was nice of them to sequence the album so conveniently with all the best stuff at the start.

If you held me at gunpoint and forced me to choose, I would have to rank "Get Ready" above "WFTSC". It's close, though.

This may be the moment when the "Get Ready" posse abandons me for good.

Eh? I think the intro to Turn is the only thing that explains so many of the WFTSC/Technique comparisons. It's sounds very much like the intro to Dream Attack.

It's my favourite on the album too. And the fact it's near the end means I keep failing to give the middle of the record a fair chance - once I'm past Krafty, I usually can't resist skipping forward to Guilt... and Turn. In this sense (as well as in a few others, actually), this album is reminding me more and more of Electronic's Twisted Tenderness. That's a good thing in my book, by the way.

'Waiting For The Sirens Call' is a pretty strong collection of songs and bare in mind that Lowlife and Brotherhood were around 20 years ago; guess we're surrounded by too much fashionista nonsense sometimes.

I honestly appreciate this sentiment, and I've given it some careful thought, but the problem is, it's kindof like saying "stop masterbating because you'll go blind".

I went out to a pub tonight to meet up with a good friend who is moving to Sweden soon with his Swedish wife. They had already played 2 New Order songs in that pub prior to his showing up there with a few other friends of mine. And then soon after he showed up, and they were getting beers, I said "Did you know New Order are DJing in Sweden on March 1st?" And then right as soon as I said that, even though New Order weren't playing at the time, ANOTHER NEW ORDER SONG came on. I knew then it was going to be a great night. Well this was an "Seattle's only English pub" so I guess that helps. But Christ. They must have played about 8 New Order songs over the course of the evening. Clouds enveloped me, I was in some kind of heaven, etc.

Bimble...What pub were you at? Not Fado, surely. Was it the George and something in Fremont?

Favourite moment is Barney's voice on "road is long". Yep.

I'm undecided about 'Guilt Is A Useless Emotion'. The vocal line/lyrics really spoil its potential, I think. Actually yeah, it's not the lyrics themselves. I can love a line like "But out there the world
is a beautiful place / with mountains, lakes and the human race" when it's delivered the way it is on 'Krafty'. But all those flabby words on GIAUE just grate. I think I'd prefer a remix with just the "I want your love / I need your love" bits.

'I Told You So' is fucking brilliant though. Beats-wise it just puts everything else on the album, 'Krafty' aside, to shame.

George & Dragon, yes. Fado is an Irish pub, but I'm thinking you knew that. It is pretty interesting how many more Irish pubs we have than English ones, isn't it? Although my roomate who is British said there is another English one out on one of the islands...can't remember which.

more later. i think part of my brain is still in a chalet at camber sands.

I bet they rule the UNIVERSE at Coachella. I'm actually a little pissed that they're playing there instead of putting an LA date on their stadium tour.

The US edition of Waiting The Sirens' Call will have one exclusive extra track.

Guilt Is A Useless Emotion (Mac Quayle Vocal Mix)

This is also what I received tonight, some release dates:

3/8/05 Digital Release

Krafty (Radio Edit)

Krafty (Album version)

3/22/05 Digital Exclusives

Itunes

Krafty (The Glimmers 12" Extended)

Krafty (The Glimmers Dub Version)

Yahoo Music

Krafty (Phones Reality Remix)

Napster

Krafty (Bernard's Re-edit)

Real/Rhapsody

Krafty (Riton Re-Dub Remix)

3/29/05 Digital Release

Waiting For The Sirens' Call UK version

4/26/05 CD Release

Waiting For The Sirens' Call US version
*Includes bonus track Guilt Is A Useless Emotion (Mac Quayle Vocal Mix)

-- James.Cobo (trdn8...), March 1st, 2005.

I'd like to have this quote engraved in a plaque sometime, I think.
______________________________
jetstream has been stripped of ana matronic completely. overall sound quality is greatly improved. vocals sound like they were rerecorded on sevaral tracks.

Oh god you tantalizing liar! Look, look I really need to know the answer to this question: I have thought for quite some time in my gut that they are going to get rid of the piano ending to Dracula's Castle on the album. Honestly I would rather they didn't, but if they do, I can deal. I just need to know: is it gone? I have to know that now, and the rest of the surprises can wait until later.

WTF, this will ruin it. Along with "Someone Like You" and "World" (I believe I made this comparison upthread), "Jetstream" is this album's slightly more dancepop-y than usual "destined to be a single" track. Would you want to hear "World" with just Barney singing on it?

Hey, don't go down the road to ruin...

MR. POTATO HEAD?

:)

Wait, hold on, no love for the last line?

station bar tonight, 6pm? (i should really do this over e-mail but i can't be arsed.)

Wait, hold on, no love for the last line?

What is it again? (checks)

Oh yeah. No. That's not so good.

The "I was upset you see almost all the time" / "I was a short fuse burning all the time" bit is quite nice too.

Other than that, what have you got? A big "Do we have to?" N.O. Hook hook and a crappy chorus. Pass.

would they really go to all that bother?

unless they want to confuse the issue: ie ensure we all buy a copy because only then will we really know what it's meant to sound like.

soddit, i'll be buying the vinyl - there will be vinyl? - just for the cover art. but given how heavily i'm starting to fall for this album, i'd want to buy it anyway.

That is from the amazon.com product page for Waiting..., and here is the back:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0007TF0T0.01.BACK._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I am even having these lovely visions that they will be selling T-shirts at the gig of it...don't take these beautiful dreams away from me!

Also I did think the version of Jetstream sans Ana was very much improved. Wonderful to hear Barney sing the backing bits. It's more rudimentary instrumentally, too. You can hear the dynamics of the band better. I dig.

I mean is that all we're going to get for the front sleeve of a new New Order album is a stupid silly picture of nothing but a few stationary boats? For CRYING OUT LOUD TELL ME IT'S NOT SO!

(and I love the boat cover, Ned OTM! I didn't even think about that).

A few good points, and a few points that make you go WTF??????#*&$@?@?@? Par for the course for Petridis, I suppose.

but ... but ... that would be brilliant!

[hears marcello's angry footsteps; ducks]

"But nor have they released a consistently great album since 1989's Technique."

But nor did they release a consistently great album prior to 1989's Technique, duh.

No offense, but the US getting release dates way way after the UK date is like ancient history, man. Been going on for 20 years at least. It's a law of physics at this point. It's something you can pretty well count on, except in rare cases: for example I think Radiohead managed a dual release date once. It's something that has irritated me greatly over the years, this delayed release date thing, but I don't expect it to change.

barney's going to sail the first batch over in his boat.

No. Hear me? I SAID

No.
No.

There will be No boats, harbours or any such thing on the sleeve or heads are going to roll. And I don't trust Barney out in that boat, either. Row him to shore where he's safer. I don't expect him to get the album to me by risking his life on the open seas.

Not for the MIA album! I think we may have got the Daft Punk a day early too.

Also, my UK copy has the No cover. The boats are inside.

Also, I liked XTRMNTR much more than Get Ready which is described well.

Spencer: y'know, one reason I'm not as "WOOOOOOOOOOO!" as you about Sirens' Call is probably because, um, I'm not you. ;) And I'm assuming the "well-written" complement - thanks! - is aimed @ my NO write-up, not my sub-pithy one-liner.

BTW, Spencer, if you & Barry could tell me what new album you're going to geek out about next, I'd appreciate it, as that'll let me know what I'll be writing about next on the 'Fork (to your mild-to-severe chagrin, no doubt).

TS: "shoot speed kill light" vs "rock the shack" ...

if something so simple is incorrect, i'm afraid you lose me straight away. i deal with this kind of thing every day, it saps my soul, and my response is always the same: if a publication can't even get the name of a song right, why should we trust its writers on anything else?

this is not personal! it's just a big, big beef about standards. especially on the web (cf my comments on the pitchfork thread).

As for what's next, I can't see myself getting this excited unless The Avalanches release something later this year. I'll look forward to your rated meh+ review!

by the way i like your review quite a bit. especially the way it gets more and more enthusiastic from beginning to end. not enthusiastic enough though...

Haha, I really want to take you up on this (first the Low album, and now New Order).

Had I written the review, I would have given it about the same mark (~ 8/10) and been equally critical (but more toward the tracks in the middle, rather than the ones at the beginning). So, I think the review is a fair assessment of the album, but nonetheless, I still have no idea how "Crystal" and "Working Overtime" have the same sense of purpose.

it's an undeniable classic. so is "krafty". and i love and adore "working overtime". but after 20 listens or so, my flirtation with the rest is pretty much over. it's a good album, and i will listen to it occasionally, but it's not what i hoped it'd be; or, indeed, what i thought for a glorious couple of days that it was. ach well. at least it's a good metaphor for life.

I won't desert you
I don't know what to say
I really hurt you
I nearly gave it all away
I got it ('on' or possibly 'all')
'cause you ('were not the one'?)
and I don't know where to turn
when you're gone
when you're gone

Who's Joe - what an opener! skyscraping, anthemic, moving.... the guitars and bass sound so good locked together. Sounds a million times more powerful than the empty bluster of Rock The Shack

Hey Now What You Doing - OMG! brilliant stuff. I love the way that Phil's guitar on the first instrumental break is all Johnny Marr-ish and controlled, but him and Barney just totally let rip on the next two breaks.

Title track - beautiful. I didn't think they could do something so elegant yet driving and uplifting any more. The second 'when you're gone' that Barney sings at the end of the chorus is wonderful in itself - a small, significant pop moment - and wonderful in the way that it slides headlong into Hooky's lovely bassline as it picks up the pulse again. The guitars on the verse do *that thing they used to do* back in the days of Lonesome Tonight, Sunrise et al, and the keyboards on the chorus are monumental. The keybd break from around 3.00 to 3.30 reminds me of side 2 of Brotherhood for some reason - maybe it's the timbre and orchestral feel.

Morning Night And Day - I love the intro - the first part, just before the sequencer comes in, seems to be about to launch Neil Tennant upon us. The four little filtered chords just before the vocals are really neat - I love the way that they're not overdone, but just keep popping up throughout. Another great chorus, nice bubbling sequencers etc.

Dracula's Castle - I have to spend more time with this one, but I definitely approve of the piano intro/outro.

Dracula's Castle reminds me of Duckula's Castle for some reason.

but only just.

PS: Your name is Grimly Fiendish.

(i didn't read the rest of this thread yet...just incase everybody hates it and then i get put off posting my like)

archive is available now!

I like "Krafty", "Morning Day and Night", and "Turn".. kinda.

This pales compared to Get Ready though.

It sounds like a throwaway Electronic album, but with some more layers of guitar in the background.

I think I'll go listen to Revenge now.

Actually, I just can't get "Hey Now What You Doing" to stop playing on repeat in my brain. Which is a shame, because it probably means I'll hate the song very soon.

on the bright side, Hooky mentioned they were rehearsing WFTSC for the live sets. the remixes of Jetstream will be on promo next week and i found the album and 2 krafty singles this week at Tower Records! bring on the US 2x12"!

ps. Dracula's Castle is ace despite it's terrible name. if you were crying for Technique2, DC is your song.

Someone else with a Mojo handy might like to expand on this half-remembered anecdote.

PS: Don't worry, I taped it before I took it back, and I still have the single with the mixes and video on it.

That was a good idea.

Saville didn't do the last one, did he?

I've always assumed that this is because he wears a coat that's black and long and doesn’t know that it's all wrong - although of course it's perfectly possible that I may be mistaken in this respect.

The album? Well it's really a bit New-Order-by-numbers isn't it? Currently listening to iot for the second time and I'm afraid nothing about it's managed to grab any part of me at all so far.

My! :-) Strong praise but I think well-deserved. Technique rather than Movement remains my 80s NO touchstone in terms of a full album but I definitely think it's the best since that one.

...this is so unexpectedly great that I can hardly believe what I hear.

The Uk reviews that I have seen have all been poor : Mojo 2 stars, The Times 3-stars (cockfarmer Paul Connolly), The Gruniad (Petridis).
Is Uc-nt out yet?

What a tosser that reviewer is.

I thought the reviewer, although he has obviously swallowed a dictionary and then regurgitated it and then shoved the remnants up his arse using his mum's old plunger, was pretty much spot on, only a bit guarded. Can't for the life of me think why.

Exactly! You've made my day, Stevie!

Dan - I think you'll really love it.

Rereading that review, it is more positive than I remembered it, and the words are bigger.

**which among other things features an ode to a woman who looks like Collina. ;-))**

Who's that by then? ;)

It's an album of sublime moments (WFTSC, that is, I haven't heard the ILX Comp yet!). The bass on the chorus of Who's Joe? moves me to tears. The way that Barney sings 'I've got to find you, I've got to find you' on the same song. The transition at the end of the second chorus on the title track when the keyboards come in over Hooky's bass riff. Just beautiful. I realise that this band has a lot of very personal memories for me and that others are (rightly) evaluating it in a squarely 2005 context. See, I can't do that - the best moments of this album do *exactly the same thing* to the 43 yr-old me that Closer and EGG did when I was 18/19. The same feeling as the first time I heard JD do Dead Souls onstage a lifetime ago. If I'm honest the intervening albums since Movement haven't *quite* done it, not even Technique, so I wasn't prepared for this.

Thus far I'm afraid the album's done exactly the same as EGG did for me when I was 18 too - it's left me feeling sad and disappointed but not particularly surprised to be feeling that way.

Actually I got in the car to drive home last night last night, turned the CD player on, and rapidly found myself thinking: hey, actually this isn't too bad after all.... that doesn't sound much like Barney 'though.... in fact it sounds more like Richard Butler...?" before I realised I'd already finished the New Order CD and had put the new British Sea Powere one on instead.

Sorry Doc, I do think New Order have done some great stuff over the years, but I'd happily swap their entire recorded output for half an hour of long-lost, newly-discovered, previously-forgotten demos of otherwise unrecorded Joy Division material.

I've just bought it! Mine has got Robert Plant on the cover! I had to choose between two equally bad CDs! I chose Robert Plant's compilation! Him mighty hairy! The man in the shop referred to it as "a quality magazine"! I says to him, I says it's all down to Jerry the Nipper, it is!

(I was going to retrieve the New Order album from the bowels of my hard drive last night, but I was too knackered.)

I would have sent you mine if I hadn't taken it back to the shop.

But as far as I'm concerned, recreating the Power Corruption & Lies cover with real flowers was about as daft an idea as it gets and the band were well within their rights to reject it.

I think what would be side one is good, but side two is pretty unappealing, especially Jetstream (which appears to be an homage to air hostesses, and I used to live next door to some and they were no fun) and Working Overtime, which is a dreadful letdown at the end of the album, worse than Primal Scream. What a waste of a bass player.

I haven't heard Brotherhood for a very long time, but I think it's a lot better than this.

You were right about that guitar solo, Dr C, the one at the end of some song or other.

I like the title track best.

To their credit, this album is unusual in that you don't spend all your time wondering exactly what it sounds like. It doesn't really sound like anything else.

Naysayers mourning the lack of Joy Division demos may like to investigate the Revenge live album, as reviewed by our old friend JtN. Apparently Hooky cackles piratically.

Maybe I need to lower the dosage on these prescription meds...

i am surprised how much you like the album, dr.c. it probably is their most pop release up to now. it reminds me a little of the great first electronic album. the great difference though is how varied the songs are. i still think that the most generic new order song "krafty" is the most soulless track. somehow i have the suspicion that i like the album more for nostalgic reasons than because of its quality.

I hear some parallels with the first Electronic album, but not many. For me Hooky is key on WFTSC, and even though he's not so prominent, Steve Morris too. Even though it's obviously sync'd and sequenced to hell, and probably not even played on an acoustic kit, no-one else could have played the drums on Who's Joe or the ttle track exactly like *that*.

Like you, I had some reservations about Krafty for a while, but I love it now. The final half of the song is just classic New Order.

Kyle - I saw them in 2002. Six JD songs (Atmosphere, Transmission, She's Lost Control, Digital, LWTUA and... oh I can't remember!), but honestly it wasn't great. Too much autocue from Barney, plus you know pretty much what they're going to play these days, as they have everything pre-programmed. That's not to say that 2005 won't be better with the new material. I hope it is.

but people have been saying that since before they toured for Technique. I know I'm not going to get Taras Shevchenko (unfortunately). I'm afraid I'll feel like I lost my chance if I don't catch them this time though.

i saw them live once on the loreley festival 1992. they played after sonic youth and god were they shite after that phantastic guitar thunderstorm.

Why not? Do you mean "get" or "get"? (It is in print on DVD here in the US)

I'll be seeing them in Oakland on the 29th of this month. Will report back, obv. Not expecting miracles, I suppose but also feel like this might be my only chance etc.

Well yes, my favourite New Order stuff is Movement, Ceremony, EGG, Temptation etc etc, but this new album is NEARLY AS GOOD!! Musically v.different, but a v. similar emotional effect.

I actually find those kinds of things really hilarious! He's said that those old JD songs are "quite heavy to listen to these days."

Er. Do you really mean to use the word "strain" there? Because if he took voice lessons, you shouldn't be able to hear any strain at all.

I do hope you realize now what faint praise this is, Dr. C.

I enjoyed this particular quote of yours quite a bit -

I Told You So sounds like a more polished version of something they would have thrown together for a Peel session in 1982. The same spirit that's behind Turn The Heater On, TooLate, 5-8-6 etc. Magnificent!

I just wish they would do a good old fashioned vinyl 12" of "I Told You So" - you know, this 10 minute long version or something where they lose all control...bongo players come in, horns, sheer insanity...but I'm probably just dreaming. Isn't Jetstream the next single?

No, the first post of this thread says it will be "Hey Now What You Doin'" (AKA Road To Ruin). Damn!

**thinks for a moment**

DARE WE HOPE FOR B-SIDES????????

well, i've got a promo of it sitting on my desk. the cover is pish.

If you took voice lessons to help mediocre pipes, the strain will show. Anyway, it's just speculation. Besides, if Barney sang any better, I'd like him less.

"On their past few albums, especially 2001's rock-infused Get Ready, New Order showed us that they were a band eager to evolve. Now they're ready to undo all that evolution, making a satisfying return to the Blue Monday sound of their heyday. As Waiting for the Sirens' Call proves, the pioneering newwavers' intricate mix of driving keyboards, I'm-going-to-slit-my-wrists-now! lyrics (their eighth studio album boasts such future Xanax-withdrawal mottoes as ''I took my heart to Dracula's castle in the dark''), and airy vocals (Scissor Sisters' Ana Matronica lends an assist on ''Jetstream'') still feels novel — even downright fresh — 25 years later. The perfect soundtrack to a nihilistic day. Grade: B+"

This sounds like a Coumbia House write-up...

JtN's review was possibly a better review than the LP is an LP.

Like JtN I like the title track. Apart from that it is not so great.

It is odd to see the Doc praising it - I could swear he was dismissing it last time I saw him.

Bernard: “It’s fresh. It doesn’t remind me of anything we’ve done before. I was thinking of a lad from Moss Side when I was writing the lyrics.”

Uh? Did we talk about this? I remember talking about the Psychedelic Furs. I dismissed them I'm sure.

So - you DO like the New Order LP, simple as that?

Yes I love the New Order LP. I said so upthread.

It gets better. "Krafty," "Turn," and the title track ahve already gotten much love, so I'll skip'em. Instead, concentrate on "Guilt Is A Useless Emotion," which is the dance hit we've wanted from them for years. Give this one a proper remix and it'll storm the dance charts.

I'll post back when I've absorbed the rest.

I thought you were going to tell us you were the lassie referred to above.

Yes, you *can* love the Psychedelic Furs and New Order. It's just that I don't.

if you don't appreciate the barney-esque genius of that couplet, you are beyond hope. it's absolutely perfect.

I don't criticise lyrics based on how they read. I cringe when Barney sings them as well.

This seems to imply that prose should not be read aloud - that reading-aloud is an unnatural habitat for prose. Yet that view seems to me false.

We have all been speaking prose all our lives (except, of course, Elton Welsby, who speaks poetry).

It is true that pop lyrics are not just words on a page - that they have other effects. We have all been over this before, many a time I dare say. But it is also true that if we want to work out, or argue, that, or why, a pop lyric is good or bad, we can make a fair start by writing it down, and seeing how it plays. In any case, on ilx writing is the only option: we cannot sing to each other in our posts.

I think that Z. is correct: Sumner's lyrics often, though not always, sound bad when he sings them, let alone when anyone writes them down.

Going to see them play live at the Jimmy Kimmel taping tonight - I know a writer on the show so cross your fingers for my green room access hopes!

Perhaps it is even as good as 'Turn' by Travis?

xpost - prepare to be surprised.

So you can see that for me to compare New Order's 'Turn' to Travis's is a compliment.

I also like a 45 that I have never owned, but has a really nice 12-string intro, I think: 'Coming Around'.

Maybe I need Travis: the Singles.

Actually, I'm only disappointed because of the detail that's been missing since their baroque extended dance-pop workouts from the mid-80s (like "Perfect Kiss" etc).

Also, the Travis I've heard has been very boring and not melancholically wistful at all like New Order's "Turn".

You are mistaken, I think, to accuse Travis of a lack of wistful melancholy. Try 'More Than Us', or even in its way 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me?' - another very good little 45.