New Order – Waiting For The Sirens’ Call - track by track review 
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Who’s Joe? – 4/5
Kicks off with some mournful strings like Ian Brown's F.E.A.R., but Who's Joe? soon turns into jangly indie/electro New Order straight from their Republic period. There’s a catchy as hell guitar and bass interlude towards the end which suggests this could be the next single, which would make it the first and last dreamy pop song about a tramp to hit the charts.
Hey Now What You Doing? – 3/5 Continues in the same vein as the opener until a rather introspective chorus kicks in. Barney daringly tries to rhyme ‘future’ with ‘computer’ while new guitarist Phil pops up and smears a dirty guitar solo over the middle bit.
Waiting For The Sirens’ Call – 3/5
Barney says it’s about death or infidelity, but you'd never notice as he sings with such wide-eyed wonder and the song is wrapped up in such a sugary coating. It clocks in at nearly six minutes, while throughout Hooky’s bass sounds like it’s about to break into Monaco’s What Do You Want From Me?
Krafty – 4/5
Lead single and by far the most euphoric moment on the album. Barney starts out all depressed at the mundanity of working life, but then the xylophones kick in, followed by a monster bass solo, and suddenly there’s a cheesy grin slapped across his face. Krafty's nowhere as immediate as Crystal, the opening single from last album Get Ready, but it does grow on you quicker than a particularly virulent dose of athlete’s foot.
I Told You So – 2/5
It’s taken New Order 25 years to incorporate dancehall rhythms into their sound, and after hearing I Told You So you’d wish they’d waited another few decades. It’s like early nineties dub dance acts like Leftfield and Bomb The Bass in chill-out mode. The very definition of an album filler.
Morning Night And Day – 4/5
Straight after the lowest point on the record comes one its highest peaks. Morning Night And Day could be the finest five-minute electropop ode to hangovers in the world - ever. Built around an almost endless loop of keyboard noises and a great chorus, it's another potential single.
Dracula’s Castle – 3/5
It was written in a courthouse built for Henry VIII, so as you can imagine there’s quite a sombre, vaguely spooky vibe to it. It’s the closest they get to Joy Division on the album, all brooding bass and guitar parts, though there’s lots of squelchy synth noises too for the last few minutes.
Jetstream – 3/5
Starts off plodding and lethargic, but leave that skip button alone. The nagging melody starts to make sense by the time Scissor Sisters’ Ana Matronic drifts in to add her vocals. Not a highlight by any means, but there’s something maddeningly infectious about the way the pair sing "da da na na na na" at the end like it's a twisted nursery rhyme.
Guilt Is A Useless Emotion – 4/5
The second track on the album with Les Rhythmes Digitales’ Stuart Price in the producer’s chair, and as you might expect, the most overtly Eighties track on the album. The beats pulse and surge, weaving in and out of some digitised handclaps, while Ana Matronic's breathy Kylie-style backing vocals fade in and out. Pure pop.
Turn – 3/5
Set to be a permanent fixture on drivetime radio, Turn is relentlessly upbeat with big cascading guitars jangling throughout. But it's masking a rather downcast message - "Turn your eyes from me," insists a subdued Barney. Intriguing.
Working Overtime – 4/5
And now for something completely different. This could have been on The Stooges self-titled album or The Beatles' Revolver, or indeed on any modern day Primal Scream album. Vintage guitar fuzz of the highest order and quite unlike anything New Order have put their name to before.
Overall verdict
Four different producers contributed to the 11 tracks but Waiting For The Sirens' Call still flows surprisingly well. There are at least three more potential singles waiting to follow Krafty into the top ten in Working Overtime, Guilt Is A Useless Emotion, and Morning Night And Day. But more significantly, the album as a whole improves with every listen.
What's your favourite track on the album? Have your say.
