Ceremony to Superheated - revisiting and reviewing every core song

Looks like a fairly standard 'worst of'. I'd like to meet someone who loves Liar. Actually, I wouldn't. The flexi tracks were just a bit of fun for the punters - great to own if you're a colllector, but of scant (if any) musical value. Like my mother with Africans and Eskimos, I blow hot and cold. Over GIAUE. When I first heard it, I thought 'Good name for average song' - the original 'Fast Synth' was more appropriate. Sounds like the Pet Shop Boys (which may be a compliment) or Raise The Pressure (which mayn't). Another grower.

Ok, I was going over charlatans, beck, british sea power, boo radleys ,pulp, blur radiohead ,oasis, stoneroses verve, st e, ,sparkle, Manic, white stripes ,cure , ,underworld, etc. All worthy , it was easy to put together some playlists and enjoy these bands, and even U2, . But exceptions like st etienne ,beck or charlatans where I can have more than a 10 song list are still rare, so patching together 3or 4 band's songs make everything great. Even if 8 ball is the only underworld song i need ,and out of control by chemical bros, or waterfall, and adored the only stone roses songs i need ,they are enough, as great as anyhing. Besides the joy of going thru all the pink floyd and public systems broadcasting, jane weaver ,josefin ohrn, real estate, Kurt vile, and dozens of others the last few weeks , plus imagining seeing new order at alexandra ,where the 14 HOUR Technicolor Dream with P F took place way back in '67,plus Nick Mason is touring with early PF songs including Syd Barrett songs. And New New Order songs will happen , gosh they are so wonderful . So PF and NO are the best .Hooky is nice, but Roger has been a twat ever since around 1976 . And Rick Wright is the most beautiful and wonderful keyboardist in rock. .and the dozen PF songs written by Syd are so incredible i could easily name a few dozen or so rock superstars that are not fit to be mentioned on the same day or night as Syd,

Singles by NO simply have to be bought. If extra songs are needed.., and almost every NO song is too good to be not needed. .Jet Stream has a girl singer that is ok.and not too noisy. Plastic has the one girl singer that has to let us know she is there, therefore she is noisy , whereas many NO and electronic songs have girl singers not being much in the way.at all Flying songs are rare ,this is one of the best flying songs , and Guilt is better than anything by hundreds of other bands. , Imagine all the other bands out there that are really clueless that they are not even in the same league as NO, it must suck to be other bands most of the time.

keepitcoming wrote: .Jet Stream has a girl singer that is ok.and not too noisy. Plastic has the one girl singer that has to let us know she is there, therefore she is noisy , whereas many NO and electronic songs have girl singers not being much in the way.at all

If you put that comment on twitter you'd have all the feminists on you in a flash!

keepitcoming wrote:

Flying songs are rare ,this is one of the best flying songs

Fly Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band is one of my favourites. also: Leaving On A Jet Plane from Technique. Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd Flying - The Beatles Blackbird - the Beatles Learning To Fly - Pink Floyd Fly Me To The Moon - Julie London (less cool versions also available) Night Flight To Venus - Boney M Spoonman - Underworld El Condor Pasa - Simon & Garfunkle / trad. Weather To Fly - Elbow Eight Miles High - The Byrds.

Turn is probably the strongest track on WFTSC. There were some negative comments round these parts, but in the words of William Shakespeare, Fuck off. There were also rumours it was gonna be a single - on and off like a street lady's undies:

• the '7" edit at the end of 'Singles'
• artwork of a Terne (pure Oscar Wilde)
• FOUR official vids
• the WFTSC megamix as a B-side... However a punter asked DJ Hooky about it and he said, 'I have no idea.' I got the impression it gave way to that, 'interesting', 12 x 12 thing.

Turn, wow. Hadn’t listened to this one in a long long time but stuck it on just now before posting this. A lovely song.One that, as you say in your review Dennis, like the best New Order songs, penetrates deep into your consciousness. Great lyrics and vocals by Bernard, heart tugging melody & melancholy and it sounds so effortless which is hard to say about a lot of the other songs on WFTSC. It maybe treads a fine line in places of falling into sickly sweet sentimentality and MOR REM but the instrumentation, lyrics, vocals and pure loveliness of the thing raises it above and beyond.

Only downer with it was the fact it’s not the final song on the album.Working Overtime ruins the moment when it crashes in afterwards. What were they thinking??!!

Though the fact it is the final song on Singles hints that they wanted to make up for that, at least make it the final song on that as compensation. Should have been a single.

Turn + Working Overtime reviews posted.

WFTSC complete. Bit knackered from that lot.

...and yes I know Vietnam is out of sequence.

Working Overtime, ugh. I can’t even be bothered to listen to it again to try and re-evaluate it to see if it’s improved since the last time I listened to it many many years ago.A complete and utter dogs doo of a song.

I like to chat after sex with seagulls, but that's talking out of terne. London got less than they bargained for. Wanking Overslimed. I think it was spun by DJHooker before release - odd choice.

Michael Monkhouse wrote: London got less than they bargained for.

Boy, that's the truth! I do love Republic, a handful of the associated remixes, and about 1/3 of WFTSC, but I tend to think of London as "the sh*t years."

Then we get a glorious return to form with Mute. NO belong on an indie.

50 Pound Note wrote: Then we get a glorious return to form with Mute. NO belong on an indie.

Yep - they certainly do. It feels like they 'came home' by signing to Mute. Or as close as they could get. I love Mute / Daniel Miller. Not as much as I loved Factory / Tony Wilson, but they are the next best thing, IMHO.

perspexorange wrote: Yep - they certainly do. It feels like they 'came home' by signing to Mute. Or as close as they could get.

Agreed!

perspexorange wrote: I love Mute / Daniel Miller. Not as much as I loved Factory / Tony Wilson, but they are the next best thing, IMHO.

When I saw NO at Wembley in October 2006 I met Daniel Miller. He was exiting the venue just as I was, and I shook his hand and thanked him for all the fantastic music. Little did I know, my favorite band would sign with him a few years later.

That’s a pretty cool story.

Yeah - he was instrumental in getting a lot of great bands their start. DM and Fad Gadget especially.

Also, I love TVOD and Warm Leatherette. Innovative stuff.

I hardly know Vietnmam - dug it out on Boobtube, more out of curiosity than anything else. Re war-themed songs, PIL's Go Back is far more compelling than We All Stand. The Cuntroll tracks are difficult to comment on. So I'm not gonna do it.

Vietnam + Exit + Hypnosis reviews posted.

As always thanks for your feedback, comments, and continuing interest in one fan's opinions...

Vietnam is not completely unlistenable. It’s so so. But I just don’t get anything out of listening to it. It’s unrewarding. Maybe a few nice flourishes from Hooky but that’s about it.

Exit, Get Out and Hypnosis are all great little pieces. Listened to them a lot around the time of Control. Get Out easily the best and most affecting of the three.Really lovely,haunting piano.

Dennis rarely puts a foot wrong, but even he has to qualify 'They never sold out.' ('Flogging a dead horse...') They practically admitted it themselves in the 44678437905432 1993 interviews: O2: When London talk about a 4th Republic single to lead up to Christmas, it's not very New Order... We feel like we've sold a bit of our souls already, like there'll be no more videos for art's sake, and we're shaping up to say no next time. Bernard: We've done endless promotion, really because London see New Order as something of an investment. Hooky: London seem very trad, but after working with us, they might change. / Really? It'd be strange for a multinational to change over four musicians. / Ha ha, you're right you bastard! You journos are always right. I don't object to people actually wanting to get paid, but it amazes me that they are still admired for this totally like, rad stance they haven't flaunted for over 30 years.

Michael Monkhouse wrote: Dennis rarely puts a foot wrong, but even he has to qualify 'They never sold out.'

...in so far as they never did a Jazz album, have (yet) to do an acoustic greatest hits, and their Christmas recordings were limited to the Hacienda Flexi - which has cred.

In other aspects I may be wrong. 🙄

Could be wrong... they never did a Jazz album, never did an acoustic greatest hits, never did a festive recording... For years, never did FA. Everyone wells out (unless they die or go insane first). My personal favourite was Alexei Sayle's 'Geoffrey the Tube Train and the Fat Comedian', wherein he discusses Comedian's Hell. 7 layers getting deeper and deeper depending on your crime, from gameshows through US sitcoms to... The WORST thing, the MOST DESPICABLE crime: ADVERTS. Four years later Lex was VOing Woolies.

Get Out + Hellbent reviews posted.

Thanks for reading. Wishing a fine NYE to all on NOOL... 😎

Totally right about Hellbent. Like Let's Go on The Best Of, it was a marketing ploy.

Although a cynical marketing ploy I actually really like the track.

Some great lines in the track such as : your the star in the scene not just anybody.

Nice piano break in the verse about girlfriends and sleep. Strong chorus.

For me along with I’ll stay with you the best two tracks on LS with Californian grass not far behind.

Lost sirens are like technique for me, in that if my life depended on knowing the title of every song , ,i likely would not live . Perhaps i have a NO title dyslexia for those two . I love all of the sirens , as well as almost everything after brotherhood, although turn my way is not an eternally likeable song, whereas ,your silent face, all day long , and viscious streak are the top 3 . Note: all day long is not the lionel ritchey song. Hellbent is also one of my eternals.

New Years resolutions I will try to like some of the lowlife and pcl songs more, i will try to understand NO fans that don't like my fave NO songs, but if a friend likes queen or elton john or led zep,or Kiss or Ozzy ,but not NO, i can't fathom what kind of sadness they will have in their probably damned eternity

New Topics to be considered 1- What if the members of PF and NO were reversed and Bernard and Ian Peter and Stephen were Syd and Roger and Nick and Richard , and Gillian was David Gilmour, and the reverse ? 2- A book release of Dennis' reviews 3 - Why not more films using NO songs , What is wrong with the directors ? 4- How to listen to more other great songs ,even though they are not by NO , without feeling a bit New Orderless

keepitcoming wrote:

New Topics to be considered : 2- A book release of Dennis' reviews :

Funny you should mention that...

keepitcoming wrote: Lost sirens are like technique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z0QUygjr2w

I’ll Stay With You + Sugarcane reviews now posted.

D

Recoil + Californian Grass reviews now posted.

DR

Shake It Up + I've Got A Feeling reviews posted. Lost Sirens complete, on to MC. Thank f$%k for that.

In the home stretch now. Has it been 2 years already? [eek2]

Great reviews as usual.

Shake it up is such a strange one. As you said great intro and chorus but the rest is close to awful. Just shows how a potential good song can be ruined. What’s all that shouty shake it up shouting about, who thought that would be a good idea, probably needed Gillian for a bit of quality control?

As far as I am aware only I’ll stay with you and Californian Grass have been given an airing live and not surprising really. As has been discussed many times here there is a decent album to be made from WFTSC and LS......

Dennis Remmer wrote: Shake It Up + I've Got A Feeling reviews posted. Lost Sirens complete, on to MC. Thank f$%k for that.

In the home stretch now. Has it been 2 years already? [eek2]

I can only imagine ( or can't even begin to imagine) how tortuous going back over the Lost Sirens tracks was.Bet you're relieved it's all over.

Rarely listened to the album and my vague recollections of songs like Sugarcane, Recoil and Shake It Up are that they're complete dog doo.I'll Stay With You and Californian Grass are reasonably listenable and I've Got A Feeling has a decent chorus but on the whole Lost Sirens is pretty forgettable to say the least.