Guardian blog Top 10 NO list
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Not featuring anything post-89 was a bit predictable; the old "they lost it after Technique" opinion sadly seems to be common amongst the UK music press. Not saying Simpson necessarily shares that view but it would have been nice to see a late-era curveball or two thrown in there.
Regret, Crystal, WFTSC, Turn etc. are equally as good as some of the Factory high points but I reckon some fans just don't have quite the same nostalgia for them yet.
I agree with a few of the comments that BLT and True Faith not making it is baffling. By the same token I thought Video 586 (Edit) was a waste of an entry but that's just me.
At the end of the day it's all subjective and he's clearly a fan so good on him for championing them in any capacity in a broadsheet.
yeah i saw this earlier today and it's a pretty bad list if you ask me not really any better than the non-n.o.-related boards that just go "ceremony, ceremony, TEMPTATION, ceremony" when you ask what the best new order song is
and yeah, as for the nostalgia thing, as someone who got into them in 04-05, as much as i like power corruption it's pretty clear they were improving, and no that did not stop at technique in any sense
Debaser wrote: 60 MPH?.
Yes, 60MPH. Although Primitive Notion might be the best song on that album -- the longer version that is on the promo release of Get Ready from way back when is even better.
Don't quite get how the writer of the piece thinks Vanishing Point is the final track on Technique but hey.I recognise his name though, didn't he used to post on Nool or have a discography website for NO or something?
I wouldn't have stuck True Faith in a top 10 either, good song back in the day but bored shitless of it nowadays.
If i made a current NO top 10 i'd stick Primitive Notion in, dug it out a few times recently - good tune.Vicious Streak also.Avalanche would be high up on my list as well.
One of the commenters mentions an early, possibly the first time ever that New Order were used to soundtrack a BBC sports montage, during the 86 World Cup. I missed it at the time but recall being told to my great surprise about it.Think this was maybe the first time of many a NO tune was used in that way.First time i actually saw a NO tune used to montage football was at half time during the 1987 FA Cup Final when Your Silent Face was used by the BBC.
I was expecting something subjective, unbelievable and totally fucking shit but there are certain things up with which even I shall not put. 'Ceremony is technically a Joy Division song, and an embryonic live version performed at that group’s last-ever gig (in Birmingham) appears on the posthumous double album Still.' Well fucking Hell, you learn a new thing every day. What an eye-opener. One track from shitty old Movement and NOTHING from the 3-and-a-half post-Technique LPs? I'm a fucking whinger, but ever heard 'Regret', 'Crystal', 'Primitive Notion', 'Turn'? Maybe he stopped listening. Let's put our clocks back. 15 fucking years. 'Video 586' is without doubt the most boring, mind-numbing and fucking crap piece of manure ever released under the New Order banner. And that sentence also works without the last 5 words in it. Including it at all is mental - but including it at the expense of 'True Faith'. 'Round and Round', 'Bizarre Love Triangle'? Is this a joke? 'The sublime 1982 John Peel session' - This is clearly a strange usage of the word 'sublime' to mean 'inexperienced, shaky and thank fuck something came out of it on PC'n'L'. Oh sorry I forgot, that version of 586 is far better than the official take innit? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. 'Technique was recorded in Ibiza'. Is that right? Anyway, if yer gonna choose ONE song off Technique, let's choose this and not 'Round and Round'. Good call. I expect the next article will be, 'Favourite Spice Girl. Geri. Nice tits.'
Bill wrote:
I wouldn't have stuck True Faith in a top 10 either, good song back in the day but bored shitless of it nowadays.
If i made a current NO top 10 i'd stick Primitive Notion in, dug it out a few times recently - good tune.Vicious Streak also.Avalanche would be high up on my list as well.
Not their fault though. Everything gets boring after endless sessions, except masturbation and alcohol. Definitely Primitive Notion - would be up there with 24 Hours and Sunrise, if only the words were tougher. Vicious Streak is perfect melancholia too. Avalanche is a bit boring though - an Other Two track and the only thing I like about the Other Two is that they're not quite as bad as Revenge.
Michael Monkhouse wrote:
Definitely Primitive Notion - would be up there with 24 Hours and Sunrise, if only the words were tougher.
Agreed, aye.All that "magic potion" crap lets the song down.
Bill wrote: I wouldn't have stuck True Faith in a top 10 either, good song back in the day but bored shitless of it nowadays.
i kind of feel the same way about blue monday, not that i'm "bored shitless" of it in any sense but just, it kind of seems like a waste of a slot on a list that should at least be showing someone somewhere something new about the band (or something like that)
in any case, might as well just start posting our own lists by this point, huh? my current personal (emphasis on that) is something like this
20 the village 19 who's joe 18 586 17 spooky 16 all day long 15 close range 14 crystal 13 age of consent 12 the perfect kiss 11 temptation '87 10 sooner than you think 09 regret 08 round and round 07 sabotage 06 1963 (either version, honestly) 05 weirdo 04 true faith 03 world 02 bizarre love triangle 01 dream attack
http://open.spotify.com/user/125216045/playlist/2HHXr678QSNMiD0wu5ViSr
(will probably just make a youtube playlist for it instead, considering about a quarter of these are "local files")
I dunno, at the end of the day the piece has been written by a Guardian journalist/freelancer and commented on by Guardian readers.Guardian journalists and readers are, despite their utmost protestations to be left wing/sticking up for the working class are, in the whole, a pretty nasty bunch.They always seem quick to laugh and stick the knife in at the millions struggling in the recession.Scum.Middle class scum.I tend not to take Guardian readers opinion as of any importance.They know fuck all about the man in the street.
Guardian readers have been to oh so many exotic countries and cooked so many art farty wanky Guardian Sunday supplement cooking recipes.So what.
Mals Marola wrote:
Bill wrote: I wouldn't have stuck True Faith in a top 10 either, good song back in the day but bored shitless of it nowadays.
i kind of feel the same way about blue monday, not that i'm "bored shitless" of it in any sense but just, it kind of seems like a waste of a slot on a list that should at least be showing someone somewhere something new about the band (or something like that)
in any case, might as well just start posting our own lists by this point, huh? my current personal (emphasis on that) is something like this
20 the village 19 who's joe 18 586 17 spooky 16 all day long 15 close range 14 crystal 13 age of consent 12 the perfect kiss 11 temptation '87 10 sooner than you think 09 regret 08 round and round 07 sabotage 06 1963 (either version, honestly) 05 weirdo 04 true faith 03 world 02 bizarre love triangle 01 dream attack
http://open.spotify.com/user/125216045/playlist/2HHXr678QSNMiD0wu5ViSr
(will probably just make a youtube playlist for it instead, considering about a quarter of these are "local files")
Best or Favourite? To be fair, at least he gave his reasons. Just listing the tracks tells you "what" but the "why" is usually more interesting and illuminating.
When everyone lists their favourites, others can read them and go "oh, that's nice" or " oh, that's shit". After about 10 "favourite" posts, reading the thread becomes far less compelling. But when reasons are given, it may suggest an aspect of a track that we've not taken into account.
Bill wrote: Guardian readers have been to oh so many exotic countries and cooked so many art farty wanky Guardian Sunday supplement cooking recipes.So what.
What's the difference between a Guardian reader and a hysterectomy? A hysterectomy is not a TOTAL cunt. True Faith Round and Round Dream Attack Regret Ceremony Temptation Turn Primitive Notion 1963 Perfect Kiss
Michael Monkhouse wrote:
Bill wrote: Guardian readers have been to oh so many exotic countries and cooked so many art farty wanky Guardian Sunday supplement cooking recipes.So what.
What's the difference between a Guardian reader and a hysterectomy? A hysterectomy is not a TOTAL cunt. True Faith Round and Round Dream Attack Regret Ceremony Temptation Turn Primitive Notion 1963 Perfect Kiss
Oh, that's shit.
No wonder Bernard's so full of shit. He can't get this guy's tongue out of his arsehole. 'New Order’s 1981 debut album, Movement, is much maligned – not least by Sumner, who felt Martin Hannett’s production smothered the songs and that the group hadn’t quite found their feet as a new band.' Well well well. That's a turn-up for the books innit. Did you also know that Blue Monday was rather successful? 'EGG: If you listen closely from 3’16” there’s an early example of Sumner’s now trademark whooping.' I once read that was Rob Gretton. Anyway... 'I’ve listened to New Order more than any other band in my life.' Well done. '... aren’t on Spotify so couldn’t be picked at all.' Yes of course. If something ain't on Spotify it doesn't exist does it? VP: 'Technique's closer'. Yup, you sure know yer stuff.
i was going to give a couple words on the top 5, at least, actually but it all started getting a bit "heavy-handed" (not just for me, whoever'd be reading it) so i just kinda scrapped it and figured i may give it another shot in a hot minute
in any case, here's that other shot!
- Weirdo
Comes in unapologetically, and rocks in much the same way. An argument against anyone who said Get Ready was the first time New Order was really a "rock band," this thing is just a burst of energy no matter how many times I put it on (and damn that is not a small number.) In all honesty, when I first got Brotherhood - which unlike the majority of their work was only a couple of years ago - it and a few other tracks seemed a bit anonymous to me at first. I'm not entirely sure why, perhaps the semi-consistency of the sides was different than say how Lowlife seemed to me, with each track being pretty drastically different, at least by my high school age observation. When getting back into the band and all their stages recently though, this one broke right into my top 5 and I don't know how'd I'd ever even graced over it at all before
- True Faith
I guess this is one of my entries that won't be all that hard to understand, one of their biggest hits and also one of my immediate favorites upon getting The Best Of (my second New Order experience after Waiting for the Sirens' Call, which, believe it or not, was the first thing I'd ever heard by the band) along with Let's Go, Age of Consent, 1963, and a handful of others. Of course, I love practically every track on that compilation by this point, a collection of songs I feel no need to cherry pick from, but this one in all its glory just sticks with me no matter how much it may have been overplayed before my birth (maybe one of the reasons I don't take it for granted?) Semi-interesting anecdote/argument: When watching American Psycho for the first time, I remarked after this track came on during a club scene featuring Patrick Bateman shouting at a bartender behind her back that you knew it was the 80s because a New Order song was playing. The friend I was watching it with laughed at the comment and said "yeah, that was the only time New Order were played, in the 80s" which, though on paper probably looks like it was meant as a sarcastic comment, it wasn't (this was a friend who had also, keep in mind, not too long before said that Depeche Mode and Soft Cell were the "same thing," haha.) In any case, I just remember thinking how off that comment of his was, since as I and anyone else who's really given New Order a passing listen would more than likely tell you that, apart from a couple of "production quirks" they are above the trappings of 80s music and more or less timeless. This song is a perfect example of that
- World
I already know the "huhs?" and "seriously?" this one would probably inspire from N.O. fans going through the list, or even just hearing that someone put this in their top 5, but honestly, before I had ever even so much as talked to another real New Order fan (at least about the band themselves and their work) I would have guessed it was without a doubt a serious fan favorite. An alternating one, perhaps, but a serious contender for "one of their absolute best" amongst the fan base in any case. Looking at it now, I realize that was more or less a result of "projecting" on my part, since this song as well as many from Republic exhibit things that I was looking for in music then and still highly value now: uncomprosing drum beats/loops, particularly the kind of breaks used in World as well as several of the other Repub tracks, bouncing basslines, beautiful sustained synths, and that perfect chorus + the indescribably (at least by me at this point in time) catchy, for lack of better word, verse melodies sung by Bernard I don't know this song just sticks out to me as a perfect moment in their career, better than the often over-praised Regret if you ask me, and not so distantly followed by some of its relatives on the underrated/overhated 1993 album (I should note here that Young Offender, among others, is a serious Runner-Up for this whole list and honestly looking at it all now I really should have included it somewhere in the top 20. Just wanted to keep it at least somewhat-career-spanning I guess)
- Bizarre Love Triangle
Just an absolutely perfect song. Written by Bernard at a time when he was seemingly affected by the things around him and whatever was going on in his life (more evidenced by Brotherhood and various other off-album N.O. tracks) yet the song sounds free from that; a song that sounds free from any kind of real pessimism or cynicism - possible indication of Joy Division who hate their proceeding incarnation so much - this song just rushes gleefully forward like a burst of joy that can finally be expressed artistically to the world after so long a time of being repressed. I just love this song
- Dream Attack
After my last description, you'd think BLT'd be my number 1, yet somehow I had reserved the spot for this one without even really thinking about it. It just seemed natural to call this both my favorite and the best New Order song the world has been graced with so far. It's got just about every element you could ask for from the band to both represent the band to someone else and enjoy them for yourself - not to mention, as a song it manages to come off as seemingly dramatic and/or casual as you would want it to at any given moment. You could listen to this at a time when you were completely in love, or taken by someone, whatever branding you want to call it, and feel as satisfied as you would if you were in a pessimistic state about it all. The chorus proclamation "I don't belong to know one, but I want to be with you" is such a casually tossed off and uncontrived statement that it pulls it off, sing it when you're resigned or willfully committed to a person and it still works. Musically the song propels forward in a way that's maybe not quite as rushing or gleeful as Weirdo but still urgent and unrestrained, at least from a listener's point of view. Hook's iconic style of bass-line delivery is showcased, but the band are working together in a way that seems to highlight each one's individual talents in more than one way through various points of the song. The guitar outro just brings it all around to an absolutely perfect New Order track
Not their fault though. Everything gets boring after endless sessions, except masturbation and alcohol.
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