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New Order - Waiting for the Sirens Call
I don’t really know at what point most people start to take an interest in New Order. For me it was probably a combination of ‘Temptation’ on the Trainspotting soundtrack and a slightly maudlin obsession with Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. I suppose pretty much everybody’s been exposed to ‘Blue Monday’ at some point, in fact I’m fairly sure it was voted ‘best single’ or ‘best baseline’ or best something ever. Still, if you’re not a big fan of New Order it’s understandable, their distinctly eighties electro sound makes even their newest music sound slightly dated, though I think it’s probably this basely optimistic feel which actually keeps their most avid fans buying their releases and re-releases – the recent expensive ‘Low – Life’ album release being a prime case.
New Order rose from the ashes of Joy Division in Manchester in 1980 and consists of Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Steven Morris and Gillian Gilbert. ‘Waiting for the Sirens Call’ is their 8th album.
If you’re expecting a radical new direction with this album you’ll be sadly disappointed. All the songs are very obviously New Order and their seems to be no real deviation from the electro sound that they cut their name with. On the first few listens to the album their seemed to be no particularly standout tracks except for perhaps ‘Krafty’ – their first single, a happy fairly innocuous number with slightly forgettable lyrics but a great tune to
back them up. After a few listens the album does begin to perk up, ‘Guilt is A Useless Emotion’ has a punch to it, mixing a powerful drumbeat with again some genuinely weak lyrics and a great guitar/electronic backing combo.It’s probably worth mentioning the newest single ‘Jetstream’ – what I thought was one of the weaker tracks on the album, an irritating vocal mixed with a pilfered (admittedly from their own music) riff from ‘Elegia’ and an otherwise unispiring attempt at a dance record. ‘I told you so’ is irritating in the extreme, a horrible ragga/electro mix that shouldn’t have made the final cut in my opinion.
- New Order
- Waiting for the Sirens Call (2005)
- Category: Album
- Label: London
- Reviewed by: AtticRoom
- Published on: 17 Jun 2005
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesThe best return to form on the album is probably ‘Dracula’s Castle’. It’s a tune that genuinely seems to have a bit of emotion to it, the only track on the album to do so in my opinion. Takes a bit of time to maybe get into , but is the only track that I reckon has a chance of being on the playlist in a few months time. Unfortunately the rest of the tracks just have nothing particularly bad or good about them. Pretty much just anodyne New Order sound.
Hmm. I genuinely didn’t like doing that. New Order are one of my favorite bands and ‘Low-Life’ is one of my favorite albums ever, so having to slate them so heavily is a bit disappointing. unfortunately it genuinely seems like they’ve lost all their passion, and lost their musical genius as a result.
Shame.
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