Deep Album Cuts Vol. 309: New Order
New Order and Joy Division have been nominated, together, for the 2023 class of the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame, alongside Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Iron Maiden, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden, The Spinners, A Tribe Called Quest, The White Stripes, and Warren Zevon.
The joint nomination of two bands with shared members is pretty unusual for the Hall, it's only really happened a couple times before. Parliament-Funkadelic was inducted act in 1997, that was kind of a no-brainer, they'd been touring as one act for decades by that point and it was always kind of a farce that they were ever formally two different bands. The Small Faces and Faces were inducted together in 2012, and I guess that one worked out well enough, they probably didn't quite have the juice to get in separately. The same goes, I suppose, for Joy Division and New Order. I understand changing the name (although it's pretty unfortunate that both names have Nazi/concentration camp connotations). But you can imagine if they kept the name after Ian Curtis's death, and been formally the same band all the while, like Pink Floyd with and without Syd Barrett. For my part, though, I feel like Joy Division had a really small discography of just 2 albums that sort of stand on their own and don't need the deep cuts treatment, so I'll just focus on New Order for this playlist.
2. Dreams Never End
3. Age Of Consent
4. Your Silent Face
5. Sunrise
6. Love Vigilantes
7. Elegia
8. Weirdo
9. All Day Long
10. Vanishing Point
11. Dream Attack
12. Everyone Everywhere
13. Avalanche
14. Turn My Way
15. Working Overtime
16. I'll Stay With You
17. Unlearn This Hatred
Tracks 1 and 2 from Movement (1981)
Tracks 3 and 4 from Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)
Track 17 from Music Complete (2015)Tracks 5, 6 and 7 from Low-Life (1985)
Tracks 8 and 9 from Brotherhood (1986)
Tracks 10 and 11 from Technique (1989)
Tracks 12 and 13 from Republic (1993)
Track 14 from Get Ready (2001)
Track 15 from Waiting For The Sirens' Call (2005)
Track 16 from Lost Sirens (2013)
Joy Division frontman committed suicide in May 1980, and Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and Bernard Sumner decided pretty quickly to carry on making music together, playing their first show less than 3 months later. All three members took turns trying out singing, with Sumner ultimately getting the lead singer position, although "Denial" is one of two songs on the band's debut with Hook on vocals. For me the vocals are always the weakest aspect of New Order's music, but Sumner has had some moments, and the band's instrumentation is often pretty gorgeous and original (but then I feel that way about Joy Division too, to be honest). The new trio added Morris's girlfriend (later wife) Gillian Gilbert on keyboards, which became a really fruitful decision as the band moved in a synth-heavy direction.
After I wrote about Depeche Mode recently, my uncle Greg was asking me about my favorite Depeche Mode and New Order songs, I guess he's big on that whole era. Greg's favorite New Order song is "Love Vigilantes," but I had a hard time thinking of one on the spot and said "Bizarre Love Triangle" or "Perfect Kiss." Now that I've finished this playlist, I might say "Age of Consent" or "Weirdo." In a way I supposed those are the two bands that really bridged the divide between alternative rock and dance music the most in the '80s, with Depeche Mode starting in a synth pop mode and incorporating darker rock sounds and New Order starting as a rock band and gradually getting more club-friendly.
It was pretty common, especially in the UK, for rock bands to release a lot of non-LP singles between albums in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. And a lot of New Order's best known songs are non-album singles like "Blue Monday" and "Ceremony" that were collected on the 1987 compilation Substance, which is the band's highest selling album in the US and the UK, platinum in both territories. In fact, no singles were released from New Order's first two albums, although "Age of Consent," the opening track from Power, Corruption & Lies, has become one of the band's most popular tracks. It gets a lot of streams and has appeared in more TV shows and movies than any other song by the band, I was kind of surprised to see it never charted and doesn't appear on most of their compilations.
"Your Silent Face" and "Love Vigilantes" feature Bernard Sumner tooting on a melodica in a style that Damon Albarn later turned into an interminable schtick. Technique is one of those odd albums where all the deep cuts are far better than all the singles. "Avalanche" is one of a few songs that features some vocals by Gillian Gilbert. Billy Corgan sings some guest vocals on "Turn My Way." The band has broken up a couple times since Republic, with Peter Hook leaving New Order in 2007. It's sad to think that those guys survived so much together to be on the outs now, hopefully they'll play together again this year if they're inducted into the Hall.
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on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 11:25 AM.
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