Believe in a Land of Love: New Order's Low-Life 30 Years On

TheQuietus.Com

Thanks for this. Good to see a long piece on Low Life, as i've said in another thread 1982-1985 era New Order is way more interesting to me than all endless JD stuff around these days. Pretty good writing though a bit clichéd in places but hey it's better than anything i could do.Though i thought we were going to get more on why his friend thought Low Life was "bollocks" or did i miss something? Was it because his friend was an old fan of Rolling Stones and such like or was one of the old JD raincoat brigade?

Brought back a lot of memories of when Low Life first came out, i too remember being absolutely stunned upon my first glimpse of the cover.It seemed light years ahead of anything anyone had ever done before.I played Low Life to death in 1985, great days.Pity Face Up was never released as a single though.

Great article for a fantastic album, although for ne new orders 3rd best behind pc&l and Technique.

Love the tune Face Up but never thought of it as a single and glad it wasn't as its good to have great album tracks that were never singles. Hooky doing this track justice live as The Light at the moment. Great to hear it again after all these years.

Not one bad track on this album. 30 years though it's a lifetime away!

Oh ok, just glanced through the article again and the writer's friend regarded Low Life as bollocks because New Order's "move to a digitised pop present was a step too far" after Joy Division.Welll... i can maybe see his point but i guess in a way i always thought that it was a good thing in a way that Joy Division was before my time so i didn't have a closed mind to the possibilities of New Order. I'm probably viewed by old JD fans as one of "the kids " that only got into New Order through hearing Blue Monday which is kind of correct as BM was the first record of theirs that i bought but the song that really started my serious interest in them was Age Of Consent.My interest in them would probably have gone no further than BM if i'd never heard Age Of Consent.

The writer says of Thieves Like Us "as the one that sounds most anchored to its time" which i don't entirely agree with.It doesn't sound to me at all like any other song from 1984 , well you could argue possibly that the synths on the long intro could just about be mixed into Maddonna's Holiday maybe but apart from that no in my opinion.

Brought back some great memories, that - I remember buying the album and Perfect Kiss 12in the same day at HMV in Leeds, heading home and listening to both, over and over again, on headphones, and loving every track. Second only to PC & L in my NO faves list, although it has to be said Low Life is probably a stronger album all round, with absolutely, not a second of 'filler' involved.

Each to his own, which is English for fuck. If New Order are a criminally over-rated band (that I happen to like), then Low-Life is their most criminally overrated LP (that I happen to like too). The first half slays but it's only four songs, including a pointlessly and crudely truncated Perfect Kiss. The second side is, in turn, boring - average pop - about whacking off - possibly the worst song they ever made. And that last bit works without the word 'they'. Give me Technique or PCL.

In Brazil it was only released in 1987... The first time I've listened it was in a friend's home from school. My father gave it to me as a Christmas gift in 1989. The brazilian edition didn't have the tracing paper layer over the sleeve. Until today is one of my favorites beside "Power, Corruption and Lies" and "Technique". I think "Sunrise" is one of the best bass driven songs they ever did.

I claim for justice - with all due respect and admiration to Joy Division, but Barney, Hooky and Steve (plus Gillian, naturally) did extraordinary things: terrific singles, superb albums (all packaged in beautiful sleeves) and some good anti-MTV promo videos. "Low Life" is as revolutionary and influential as "Closer".

I put Low Life on the other day for the first time in eons.I can't decide if i still like it all or not really... Love Vigilantes is still undeniably stirring as are This Time Of Night, Sunrise and Elegia but Sooner Than You Think, the edited Perfect Kiss and Sub Culture just give me a headache now. Face Up gives me a bit of a headache but is still deliriously joyous.Hooky's bass on Face Up is possibly the most dizzyingly joyous thing he ever did.

When i first saw the sleeve it, to me, had a vaguely 1960s ish thing about it that i could never quite put my finger on yet at the same time futuristic all brought into the present.

Great album and I love the song This Time of Night from it.

I'm amazed people can make so much out of so little.

I still remember the May, 1985 evening I first really "heard" it properly after a grinding day at work and I still daydream to the lyrics occasionally. It takes me back, it was a different life back then. I do prefer the whole-length The Perfect Kiss though that isn't on the album but iTunes takes care of that. Same as 1963-95 is so much more satisfying than 1963-94 - why do they do it, whoever they are? The song editors.

My favorite NO album though I also like Technique that much. That's the album that made a NO fan a long long time ago

The white-boxed Factory cassette with four postcard photos of the band and all three tracks from the "Perfect Kiss" 12" was so much fun. Always regretted that Factory did not include the bonus tracks on the CD.

Did anyone's Factory CD pressing (with the rice paper cover and four loose pictures) include a photo of Gillian? Mine only had the three guys, and some reports claim that's a common, perhaps universal quirk of that edition of the CD.

Fractured wrote: The white-boxed Factory cassette with four postcard photos of the band and all three tracks from the "Perfect Kiss" 12" was so much fun. Always regretted that Factory did not include the bonus tracks on the CD.

Did anyone's Factory CD pressing (with the rice paper cover and four loose pictures) include a photo of Gillian? Mine only had the three guys, and some reports claim that's a common, perhaps universal quirk of that edition of the CD.

Mine had all four. Traded it in to Amoeba in San Francisco a couple of years back.

LOWLIFE made me a life-long fan.

I owned about 3,000 CDs now but I remember back in mid-80s when I was about to start my CD collection, I intentionally waited for LOWLIFE on CD for it to be my CD number 1 in my collection.

So my LOWLIFE CD is the first pressing (TOSHIBA pressed) but I missed out on the car-carry case because I suspect the shop assistant thought the almost plain paper case was simply part of the shop's stocking case. I only realised that about a month later when I bought BROTHERHOOD CD and it has a car-carry case.😕

Albums dead boggy, but they all were then. Nice bit of HiNrg on the second aff though, but overall Brotherhoods better imo.

Fractured wrote: The white-boxed Factory cassette with four postcard photos of the band and all three tracks from the "Perfect Kiss" 12" was so much fun. Always regretted that Factory did not include the bonus tracks on the CD.

Did anyone's Factory CD pressing (with the rice paper cover and four loose pictures) include a photo of Gillian? Mine only had the three guys, and some reports claim that's a common, perhaps universal quirk of that edition of the CD.

My copy also has the 4 cards.

Low-Life was the first album I bought of New Orders and it was the cassette in the white box that I bought. Having the 3 tracksfrom the 12" was great as I much prefer the extended version. I still have it but no means to play it now. I think it's my favourite as it was the first one I owned. I was just buying all the 12"s otherwise from Blue Monday onwards. Movement and Power, Corruption and Lies came at a later date for me. Love Vigilantes is one of my favourite tracks but I love the whole album. It has so many memories for me from that time. I was a 16 year old kid in my first year of college. Music made quite an impression on me at this time.

Thinking about this, if you were looking for a copy with the 4 cards, and you have a That's Entertainment store near you, you could give them a try. I noted not too long ago they had copies of CD's for sale in there with the cards and they were only about £2.99. You can sometimes find some good stuff in there.