A couple of trusted friends still swear that Republic is a great album, but I can't hear it. It's OK, even brilliant in fragments (Regret obv), but mostly yet another useless Stephen Hague production has cold-filtered the New Order-ness out to the extent that it could be *anyone*. And that hurts.
So I approached Get Ready with trepidation. First listening - in C's kitchen, chatting, didn't want to get too excited, just let's absorb it. Crystal - pretty good. 60 Miles an Hour - hmm. What's this? Turn My Way - oh shit, is that the fool Corgan at the start? Never mind, here's Barney. (BTW - how DARE a wretch like Corgan weasel his way onto a New Order recd!)
Then it happened. Guitar scree, stuff drops out and Hooky's bass does that Hooky's bass thing. The thing that needed to be done. The thing I needed to hear at 4pm in that C's Greenwich kitchen. Root note, down a fifth, then down the full octave - swaggering, plunging. And then I knew it was going to be alright. They were back. Still the best.
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 5 May 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)
This is where I say that the combination of Sumner and Corgan is actually one of my secret musical dreams that came true without me realizing beforehand that I wanted it happen! And where Dr. C hunts me down and shoots me.
The judgment on the bass is spot on, but the thing that gets me about the song is how perfectly and effortlessly it hits a motorik trance of its own devising and stays there, just so.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 5 May 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)
i wouldn't say "Turn My Way" is my favourite thing on that album. but i
will say that i felt similarly about
Republic (and have had this discussion many times as a result, although not here :) ), and that as a result, i wasn't particularly looking forward to
Get Ready when i'd heard NO had reformed.
that all changed with hearing the Bedrock mix (can't remember now if it was the radio edit or the proper version) of "Crystal" on a satellite station some time ago. and going, "wow, what's this?" and going to seek it out. didn't know the title of it then, but recognised Barney's voice and realised it must have something to do with the new album, so i ran out and bought it a few days later.
it didn't leave my CD player for months. and while it's not their best work ever, it's still really good, and it actually is what pushed me over the edge into full-fledged fandom. i'd liked them well enough before, in a casual way. perhaps because i was too young to have experienced them at their best? but that did it.
as for "Turn My Way," Senhor O'Corrigan's voice works somehow. i wouldn't have thought it was a good idea, but it actually isn't so bad. very strange. i'll still maintain "Primitive Notion" is my favourite from that album, though. something about the ever-so-calculated slightly-off-kilter rhythms emanating from Stephen and the guitar bursts blasting their way in make me want to bounce around madly and simultaneousl wish for roller skates.
BTW, Hooky's apparently also turning in some guest work on the forthcoming Hybrid album, as an aside. :)
― janni (janni), Monday, 5 May 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)