It's not how many strings you use but what you do with them, right? Any band with even a banjo or a ukelele is bound to have at least one riff you can hear anywhere and immediately recognize. With NO, it's often the order of the day that Hooky's bass receives the limelight. However, when Barney occasionally decides to drive the melody, the results have been some memorable riffs and songs(Rock the Shack and Working Overtime still under deliberation).
The best guitar line for NO for me is:
- Ceremony. The riff played once the initial squalling has passed, especially on the original version, makes the hair on my neck stand. Out of the literal and figurative chaos that immediately followed Curtis' death, up rises(not from the ashes) a guitar line so simple and so identifiable it summarizes every aesthetic of Joy Division while simultaneously pointing to the future of NO within the span of three or four chords.
Quite simply, it is them, as a group, in a nutshell. Mournful and melancholy but upbeat and danceable. Just as soon a riff that opens a mosh anthem as one that harkens the opening of those 1980 funeral tunes. Slower but faster.
Honorable Mentions:
- Regret: Classic, You can build a pop song around a single barre chord!
- Dreams Never End: Anthemic, 5-3-2-0-2
- EGG: Hallucinogenic, You follow this riff into the apocalypse.
