Ceremony to Superheated - revisiting and reviewing every core song

I love learning more about our favorite band thru all of these great reviews by Dennis and every comment.

Recent thoughts about the wonderfulness of New Order

Maybe some day New Order will be taught in schools, at least two or three semesters, like calculus, with wonderful professors

Where are the Guitar magazine articles about Bernard?, as he learned quickly ,and always added a great variety of well played wonderful guitar parts, but generally is overlooked for his brilliant guitar. Maybe Bernard should write the best shredding song ever and put the methhead guitarists on notice.

Same lack of reverence for his voice and lyrics is painful ,too.

Star Test with Bernard -- Awesome , fabulous , but not allowing it to be seen anymore is mean spirited

A New Order /Joy Division Magazine Book with lots of photos and art and important and fun stuff.,similar to the magbook tributes to stars that passed like Bowie and Tom Petty,or about fun stuff like Sherlock,Shakespeare, the Royals, Spitfires, ,Vikings, Lizards, etc.

A box set of all the videos, films, interviews , star test, etc.would be ok ,too

One last thing . Going over the Beatles illustrated lyric books reminded me that of course new order deserves as much because Bernard is as great as Paul and John and George .

Peter Saville Soundtrack + Who's Joe? reviews now posted.

Soundtrack is wonderful. Still revives a memory of wandering around that Saville exhibition in London one day in summer 2003. Feels like centuries ago now! Still great to listen to, a fantastic half hour chill out . Picked up the cd and Saville book at the exhibition shop before leaving. Seem to recall the cd was a bit expensive, £10 for half hour of music but worth every penny.

Quite liked Who’s Joe back in 2005, strong chorus and liked the keyboard chimes and rumbling sounds on intro . The tired guitar later in the song grates though.

Soundtrack (aka Ambient) is the only NO track I've never heard at all. Ever. Like, never ever (sorry that was All Saints and disrespectful to the Spice Girls). It came out (like Neil Tennant) at the height of my non-interest, was never included on an album, and never made BubeTube either.

Michael Monkhouse wrote: Soundtrack (aka Ambient) is the only NO track I've never heard at all. Ever. Like, never ever (sorry that was All Saints and disrespectful to the Spice Girls). It came out (like Neil Tennant) at the height of my non-interest, was never included on an album, and never made BubeTube either.

Oh didn't it?

It wasn't included on an album cos it was an album.

Hey, thanx for that! I'd never cum across it.

Never heard it either, glad it was not like vietnam , glad it is much better than most ambient, including most of the 75 or so releases by Eno. Not paying 200 dollars for it, but some smart computer literate teens might get it burned to disc for me and maybe these unknown brilliant lads or lasses can infuse some of Bernard's dulcet tones onto a second disc, perhaps adding some la la las, or whoops. Where was he ? Yachting , practicing football kicks, or dancing ?

Loving these reviews (as well as kic and mm comments!) WFTSC. Is with9ut doubt NO worse offering but a strange one after thoughts on it years past. When it was released at the time I did rather enjoy it. BUT the thing with albums they need time to ‘sink or swim’ thtats why reviews at the time are pretty useless. When I first heard the album I liked it better than GR but now it’s way off even that album. GR only had RTS I disliked but WFTSC had I told you so, morning night and day, Dracula’s castle, Jetstream, and working overtime that ranged from poor to average at best. Still has one absolute classic in the title track and another excellent one in Turn. I would rate Who’s Joe, HNWYD, Kraft, GIAUE as good solid NO tracks. But as has been said before best tracks from WFTSC and LS make a pretty solid album still.

Maybe in 30 years time when we arrive at the gig on hover boards and NO have been preserved forever out of legend status they will do another MIF they will start with an instrumental of Dracula’s castle and I’ll love it and then at long last they will follow up with Leave Me Alone and we’ll all die happy.

MC- songs are still good ,but not easy to repeat over and over. Are they too long? Sirens - 18 magically diverse songs ,lots of great parts from everyone , maybe their best songs ,easy to listen to multiple times , GR- incredibly wonderful songs, plus all the singles b sides ,etc make for another 18 killer songs,all easy to repeat Republic- love songs that make me hate most other band's love songs and those way too many popular stars that wrote love songs that sucked. Plus some kid friendly songs like chemical and spooky that made 5 year olds in other cars smile and dance and boogie ,priceless Technique- not enough songs , but true faith and 1963, and love vigilantes add to it nicely .One song on it was just only ok, but name escapes me Bro- all great ,tho ,maybe 1 of the 5 guitar songs not great, not sure which Low Life - rerecord sunrise so it doesn't sound like murky Cure., Face up - boffo start but ,Bernard needs to rework vocals and the rest of the song. Same for sooner. Elegia- why an homage to Ian that has very little zip, vitality, or his humanity or his strength and brilliance and humour??, it would be better as tribute to Eregia, Roman woman in year 300 or so that led an entourage of 300 people to Holy Land , and if I remember my Latin she claimed to be at site of Lot's wife, but said she saw no pillar of salt anyewhere, thus a very honest and sober account of history. Also not enough good songs,and they could write another tribute to Ian and make it awesome if they try . PCL- three miles to go no good and only 2 good songs on side 2 , LMA,and YSF Movement- rerecord Dreams with a good Bernard vocal, maybe same for Doubts even here, but probably would not matter.

new great songs would of course be just fine, they can do it , and Bernard can get great wine and shine and opine all down the line

By the time you finish reviewing Sirens, Dennis, your CtoS site will resemble a 2Unlimited lyrics sheet.

The Shadow wrote:

Maybe in 30 years time when we arrive at the gig on hover boards and NO have been preserved forever out of legend status they will do another MIF they will start with an instrumental of Dracula’s castle and I’ll love it and then at long last they will follow up with Leave Me Alone and we’ll all die happy.

You've been reading too much KIC. Who's Joe (aka Lordsy) is probably the best track on WFTSC, but that's like saying which politician you'd most like to sit on your face. HNWYD (Road to Ruin) is a horrible name for a song that sounds like an Oasis Bside. It's mostly downhill after this.

Rorschach wrote: By the time you finish reviewing Sirens, Dennis, your CtoS site will resemble a 2Unlimited lyrics sheet.

Don't tempt me. I've pushed through the wall - plenty of good to come...

Rorschach wrote: By the time you finish reviewing Sirens, Dennis, your CtoS site will resemble a 2Unlimited lyrics sheet.

That made me laugh:

No, No. No, No, No, No. No, No, No, No. No, No, there’s no limits.

Yep. Saville’s sleeve design will help to illustrate that 90s Classic.

Hey Now What You Doing + Waiting For The Sirens’ Call reviews posted

Great reviews, as always!

All those "Hey you watcha doing" songs are really painful to my ear, and to my heart and soul. Barney can be such a great lyricist, but when he doesn't give a shit he can come up with the worse - and did it more than once in WFTSC.

Although being quite flat, Who's Joe tends to sound better than HNWYD to my ears because you can feel that NO produced it themselves. It is somewhat reminiscent of Technique, but Phil's guitar in it is too mainstream to make it more than just okay.

HNWYD is, on the contrary, overproduced and, as you say, Stephen Street doesn't work well with New Order... except for Turn, which I thought they produced themselves, as it sounds so much Techniquey: a real classic, and the second best song on WFTSC (the album) after WFTSC (the song). But I'm anticipating a little on your upcoming reviews.

You're spot on with your review of WFTSC (the song). It took however quite a long time to grow on me, but it's often the case with the best songs.

Something that bothers me with WFTSC (the album) is that NO only produced 3 songs on it, and only one of them stands out as a true gem while the other two are at best average (Who's Joe) or really bad (I told you so) to these ears. Their choice of producers for the rest didn't work well either, making it a strangely and poorly constructed album.

Waiting For The Sirens' Call (the song) is the last great New Order song.Music Complete is a great album and overall easily superior to Waiting For The Sirens' Call (the album) but not one song on MC despite their quality quite gets close to the title of last great New Order song.Even if New Order ever do another album and there is a song better than Waiting For The Sirens' Call it still won't make the title or prize of being the last great New Order song.Yeah, i know, how does that work and all that?

The album version is the definitive version.There's a similar cut on one of the 7" singles and /or the 2 track CD single (is it the Rich Costey one?) but it's edited and has a different texture and fails because it doesn't fully explore every emotion and avenue the album version does.The Jackknife version is good, that dancey mix on the CD single though if we're talking dance versions of the song the Planet Funk version is the dogs, more so live recently than than the one originally on the 12x12" campaign.Sorry if i've got the 2 versions on the CD single mixed up, i get a bit lost over which version is which but basically the more dancey version is way better than than the version that is a shortened, not so nice texturally version of the album version.

I went to the May 2012 New Order gig at Brixton Academy (second night). During Waiting For The Sirens' Call (they were still doing basically the original album version then, not the great Planet Funk version they do so well in more recent years) i was jumping around in the moshpit like a demented dervish; for a brief moment or two Bernard and me caught eyes i'm sure as he sang the chorus and i'll never know if the look in his eyes he saw me as some slightly unhinged New Order fan or if he had some moment when he saw just how his lyrics and New Order's music has a magical, transcendent effect on people.Jury's forever out on that one.

Even a few years ago , a girlfriend i was with at the time who really couldn't give a fuck about New Order ("oh yeah that boring lot who sang Blue Monday") said one time when i stuck Waiting For The Sirens' Call (the song ) on the stereo said at the end yeah that is a bloody good song in anybody's book.

As for Hey Now What You doin'? I can't be arsed.

Oh and forgot to mention in previous post.The iTunes Originals version of Waiting For the Sirens' Call from 2007 is definitely worth checking out, pretty good.The version of Love Will Tear us Apart from that session however is utter dog shit.

The first song is great, second got relegated to a second cd disk of 15 songs including workimg overtime, guilt remix , miracle cure, in the ghetto out of control, and some of their singles of the time Waiting is real good , and the sleeve reminds me of Bow WowWow's annnabelle Lwin. If new order had added Do You Want To Hold Me and I want Candy covers to WFTSC i I would have been pleased then ,and often wish they would do it now just for fun ,with .Bernard singing about Mickey mouse . Plenty more great songs , ahead but sometimes some get relegated for poor play. Of course NO songs are rarely relegated very far away, since they are better than their peers

ALL their LWTUAs are crap. Yup, let's take a delicate cat's cradle of the saddest sentiment sound could bear and turn it into a pissed up pub singalong, a football chant, a sub-Blur knees up Momma Brown of Chas 'n' Dave proportions. Atmos was even worse. WFTSC is a lovely track, almost as good as the Spice Girls, and shows how fantabulous Barney can be when he's arsed. Unfortunately, for every Runaway / Some Distant Mammary, there are 37 Hey now whatcha doin, Got to get me planes with glue in, Hey now where was Sue an', someone else that should be pooin'.

keepitcoming wrote: T Waiting is real good , and the sleeve reminds me of Bow WowWow's annnabelle Lwin. If new order had added Do You Want To Hold Me and I want Candy covers to WFTSC i I would have been pleased then ,and often wish they would do it now just for fun ,with .Bernard singing about Mickey mouse .

Bound to happen. I still can't make it through the first 35 seconds of Mel C's I Want Candy video. My thing will never be the same again either. WFTSC starts off well but loses it after the first four songs.

Michael Monkhouse wrote: Hey now whatcha doin, Got to get me planes with glue in

😄

You've ruined an average track for me now...

At this point I wouldn't mind if they never make another album. MC would be a fine closer and I'm so bored of endless speculation, rehashes and waiting for just the occasional stunner. They tend to make a good one followed by a not so good one - Closer to Movement, Low Life to Brotherhood, Technique to Repubelick etc - so by that logic... Making an LP as good as MC knocked most people (including moi) for sex, and maybe they should quit while they're ahead.

New Order has professional duties, maybe even a contract to release new songs. Their family duties are a success, their children by now realizing that their parents are way better than everyone else in music. So they encourage mom , dad, or mom and dad to relax and just write some hot new music, with top lyrics dance and guitar super sounds and stellar emotions, just like before, just like always, 18 songs at first but a dozen or so saved extra killer hits too

This idea of new songs is not new . Mute records ,perhaps short for mutation, may not have any power over NO. But it is their quest to explore with renewed energy as songs and sounds and vibrations of nature are in their blood, in their hair,even in their miticlorians, so, of course they can't stop . They aren't old and fragile pretty little breakable ornaments on a shelf . They are blood and guts and vim and vigor ,and venomous rock and roll icons of everywhere between here and 6 trillion parsecs west of the trex nebula

Krafty + I Told You So reviews posted.

I'n enjoying the diverse opinions on the WFTSC tracks...

Sorry... been slack... too many late nights watching the World Cup.

Dennis Remmer wrote: Krafty + I Told You So reviews posted.

I'n enjoying the diverse opinions on the WFTSC tracks...

Sorry... been slack... too many late nights watching the World Cup.

Ooh, just caught up with three of my favourite Sirens tracks in one hit, and added comments to all of them. Incidentally Dennis, are commenters allowed to edit their comments (spelling mistakes spotted) and add discogs links, or is is that reserved for the main author only?

Debaser wrote: Incidentally Dennis, are commenters allowed to edit their comments (spelling mistakes spotted) and add discogs links, or is is that reserved for the main author only?

I would think Wordpress would let you edit your own comments. Its not an option I have configuration control over...

Awesome commentary by the way...

Upon hearing Krafty for the first time I found it was a letdown: it lacked the panache of Regret and Crystal as an album's first single and, above all, it was too wordy to my ears, giving me the impression Barney had tried to put as many words as he could in a 4 minute song, as if trying to catch up with the synth drums tempo. It took time before I would detect the subtleties and melancholy in it. It is still an average song to me, but it stands out as one of the best tracks of this terrible album.

Krafty was a real disappointment to me - hyped as the first single and compared to Crystal, but actually mediocre, with some cringe-worthy lyrics. Agree that the Glimmers mix is plodding. Amazed to get a positive take on ITYS but well-argued as usual. I far preferred the Price mix - gave it that energy it needed.