Anthems - Battle of the giants

Man, what a choice. It came down to Ian's voice, or Bernards Guitar. Although I love the vocals on temp. '82. I choice temptation because of the whole incredible live version from taras '81. Love it! lwtua is great but, doesn't seem to have that never grows old feeling. I do enjoy the alt version on permenant though.

LWTUA - 90% Temptation -100%

Tough choice, could've put a weaker track for one of em to ease the pressure on my head as i try to differenciate between which i like more.

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH my head hurts

Temptation every time

Temptation just edges it for me

Dont tempt us Jeff!

Gotta be lwtua for me. The live version on the peel sessions cd is superb

LWTUA, 'cos I'm a JD fan above all.

We Are All On Drugs wrote:

Uncle Liam wrote: Dont tempt us Jeff!

erm...WOW...I didn't realize anyone would want to take me up on the offer...sniff sniff...

Temptfuckintation

Great guitar and bass jams. The evolution of the song. Hard to fuck it up. One of their best ever songs.

Temptation is good it just isn't even in my top 10 new order songs, and as for the general popularity (the non-new order fanboys/girls) I've never heard it on the radio...so LWTUA is my choice.

Extremely unfair making us choose between these two stone cold classics.

However Temptation just edges it for me. It simply has more variation. :thumn:

LWTUA has been my favourite song since i first heard it when i was 14, so there's your answer.;)

Spotnick wrote: I must say I'm surprised by the results...

I know Temptation wins most of the "best song from New Order" polls, but I don't rate it so apart from LWTUA... which is a classic and is considered as one of the best song of the last 25 years in the UK.

Each time I hear New Order's live versions, I have chills in my spine. I know people don't like their version, but I love it... even with the C'mons because it's the only song where Bernard asks the public to participate...

I quite like New Order version of LWTUA, mainly because it doesn't sound so depressing with Barney singing it in his soft key. I think the C'mons and Yeahs add that special something to the song that makes the crowd go wild and I love it.

I was a few weeks short of 13 when I've first heard Love Will tear us apart. I still have the tape where I'd recorded it. It isn't even a commercial recording tape, it was over an awful folk music tape somebody had bought me for birthaday as a joke. It was on One Man Music show on Radio 101 (where you can still hear both JD and NO regularly - during the time of Kraftys release, on daily basis). I used to record the Saturday shows, they were the best. Bauhaus, Big Black, Sisters, Pixies, and lots of Joy Division and New Order. So it holds a special place for me.

Tough choice with both being classics. However it would always be LWTUA. Still sneds shivers down my spine when I hear it and lyrically it is pure poetry.

Nice question Nic - very tough choice indeed but LWTUA is my 2nd fave tune ever, so pips the still sublime Temptation.

Temptation, Transmission has always been my favorite JD song.

god thats a hard question, a bit Sophie's Choice don't you think. I genuinely like them both equally, but I'm going to go for temptation as its a bit more ambiguous, pretty and dark at the same time, and i marginally prefer bernard's voice to ian's. Only just mind.

rorschach- like the watchmen character? thats a pretty cool name!

This is unfair to the most extreme!

On the one hand, you've got the tune that JD are known for, the only one with a pre-suicide video to back it up, this video being the one at the end of HATYM that I've probably played over and over and over again until it's burned into my memory, one of Ian's best vocal performances and a maverick bassline from Hooky....

On the other hand, you've got the best NO tune ever, especially as rendered at the Saturday Live gig at the end of a five-song gig, as well as the top-notch 1982 version and even the awe-inspiring 1987 re-touched take. A song that basically gave me my screen handle from an early draft of the song, one that I've played numerous times when I meet a new girl or at least one who smiles at me, as it seems to emphasis that first great rush (before all the crap sets in about what your friends think, what your parents think, what their parents think, what they want now and what they want later)....

I'm sorry, but I just can't make this call right now. You are an evil man, Spotty....

An evil, evil man

LWTUA (again)

LWTUA for sure, but only when JD plays it. Otherwise, Temptation sounds better with NO playing it. no surprise there .

Very tough choice indeed !! I'm very fond of Temptation'82 (as well as it's earlier incarnation : Live'81)but, truly, i love both titles. So, just because there had to be 1 pick...

Love Will Tear Us Apart.

It has some of Ian's greatest lyrics.

Impossible choice this, It would have to be a toss of a coin job..here goes...Tails, Temptation wins

So hard to compare 2 completely incomparable songs..but Temptation is my fave definitely

I think this poll should've been LWTUA vs. BlueMonday; they're the two iconic tunes that any passer by will know...

Temptation and Transmission seems to be the 2nd stop on a new fan's NOrder journey nowadays...

LWTUA by miles.

I like temptation but is not even one of my NO favourites, the song as funny lyrics a good rhythm but was just on the start of the revolution, like EGG is a song that have made the star of the turning point but they were on the beginning. And temptation as got another problem has been played live many times since 81 is their most played live song.

LWTUA as got one of the best poems of rock history (for me the best), Barney, made a splendid job with the keyboards (like in Decades), the song has got all, lyrics, rhythm and a good low tone vocal.

Anyway, who ever said Temptation is their anthem anyway? It's much better to sing along to than, say Blue Monday, which is their culturally most significant and well-known song (while LWTUA is JD's culturally most significant and well-known song). You just picked Temptation over Blue Monday because you knew that would make it a grossly uneven poll due to everyone's bias against BM.

Oooh, such a hard choice!

While I adore Temptation, it being without a doubt my favorite NO song, I had to go with LWTUA. Everything about that song is perfect, to the extent that no matter how bad Barney messes up the lyrics live it's still great. I love it, whether it's the JD or the NO version. I agree with Spotnick, it gives me chills whenever I hear it live, and I think Barney's yells of c'mon only add to this song.

But that's just my opinion.

Holly Spidle wrote: I think Barney's yells of c'mon only add to this song.

But that's just my opinion.

I hear it as a call to the audience. I mean, Barney is shouting this way to make the audience sing with him and feel with him that Ian's spirit is still there. So that it becomes a kind of "prayer". To my eyes, that's what it adds to this song and it moves me.

His Holiness, The Pope wrote: Anyway, who ever said Temptation is their anthem anyway? It's much better to sing along to than, say Blue Monday, which is their culturally most significant and well-known song (while LWTUA is JD's culturally most significant and well-known song). You just picked Temptation over Blue Monday because you knew that would make it a grossly uneven poll due to everyone's bias against BM.

But is BM really that bad? Sure, we slag off it because it took a beloved cult band into the stratosphere and made them household names, but it really is a fantastic tune when you judge it on the merits of what it did for electronic music and music in general. I don't think NO had to remix it 15 times or so since 1983, but on its own I'd have to say it;s one of their best tracks.

Anyway, I still can't decide between LWTUA or Temptation...

As much as I've been getting into Temptation lately (especially the original version), I still prefer LWTUA.

LWTUA for me. For its bright side and its dark side

Definitly LWTUA

Not fair!!!!!

Two different periods produced two different songs, so it's hard to choose.

Probably LWTUA.

BTW, I hate NO's version, especially on the Finsbury Park DVD. It's now a pub anthem