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MSN MUSIC REVIEW OF GET READY
Get Ready
New Order
October 16, 2001
Warner Brothers
Twenty years before New Order's 1981 debut, England didn't really even have rock bands. Actually, they had one. Cliff Richard's back-up band The Shadows broke away from the awesome shadow of their superstar singer and gave the world instrumental hits like "Telstar" and "Apache." Similarly, New Order emerged out of the genre defining post-punk Joy Division in the wake of their leader's suicide. After the skeletal guitar-scapes and mind-numbing grimness of that classic band, New Order, against all odds, developed a synth/guitar dance-rock hybrid that was as culturally influential as their earlier incarnation and significantly more popular. With the dancefloor success of 1983's "Blue Monday" single to the 1989 Ibiza flavored Technique, New Order rode the wave of '80s Modern Rock as the world's greatest disco band inspiring later synth/guitar dance-rock acts from Garbage to Orgy. Twenty years after that debut, they return with Get Ready, their first album since 1993's Republic. Old fans of the New Order will enjoy the trademark chorused bass as lead instrument, mopey yet earnest English guy lyrics/singing and upbeat dance beats.
If Ian Curtis were alive to make a Joy Division record that sounded this much like their oeuvre we would say how ahead of their time they always were and that the world still hadn't touched them. With New Order, we can say that the hybrid they created is still a viable commercial option as the above artists can attest to. Also, the synth vs. guitar dichotomy in contemporary rock music that this band personifies shows no sign of abating in 2001; just ask Tricky, Radiohead or Limp Bizkit. In fact, New Order flaunt their continued relevancy but hide their flabby bellies in their new video: the single "Crystal" is lip-synched a la Blues Traveler's "Run-A-Round" by a "band" half their age and twice as pretty. It's a point they get to make although it probably says more about the stasis of rock radio than the indelibleness of the band's sound.
With it's undeniable craft, this type of album reminds me most of A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd - another band who lost it's fearful leader early on and then triumphed commercially, in part, due to the absence of that artiste (and I'm talking about Syd Barrett, not Roger Waters) but also the continued professionalism of the remaining members. Its' verve recalls The Rolling Stones' Dirty Work. Those were both respectable albums released twenty years into their respective careers and I'm sure that "Run Wild" and "Rock The Shack" will sound as good to children of the '80s as "One Hit To the Body" and "Learning To Fly" sounded to boomers back in the '80s.
In response to the never-ending parade of rock has-beens on tour at a county fair near you, writer Eric Weisbard coined the phrase "everything rocks and nobody ever dies." That's true, of course, but let's give New Order this shot; they deserve it as much as Depeche Mode and probably more so than Styx, Axl, and Michael. Good luck chaps!
~ E. Blake Davis, MSN Music
New Order
October 16, 2001
Warner Brothers
Twenty years before New Order's 1981 debut, England didn't really even have rock bands. Actually, they had one. Cliff Richard's back-up band The Shadows broke away from the awesome shadow of their superstar singer and gave the world instrumental hits like "Telstar" and "Apache." Similarly, New Order emerged out of the genre defining post-punk Joy Division in the wake of their leader's suicide. After the skeletal guitar-scapes and mind-numbing grimness of that classic band, New Order, against all odds, developed a synth/guitar dance-rock hybrid that was as culturally influential as their earlier incarnation and significantly more popular. With the dancefloor success of 1983's "Blue Monday" single to the 1989 Ibiza flavored Technique, New Order rode the wave of '80s Modern Rock as the world's greatest disco band inspiring later synth/guitar dance-rock acts from Garbage to Orgy. Twenty years after that debut, they return with Get Ready, their first album since 1993's Republic. Old fans of the New Order will enjoy the trademark chorused bass as lead instrument, mopey yet earnest English guy lyrics/singing and upbeat dance beats.
If Ian Curtis were alive to make a Joy Division record that sounded this much like their oeuvre we would say how ahead of their time they always were and that the world still hadn't touched them. With New Order, we can say that the hybrid they created is still a viable commercial option as the above artists can attest to. Also, the synth vs. guitar dichotomy in contemporary rock music that this band personifies shows no sign of abating in 2001; just ask Tricky, Radiohead or Limp Bizkit. In fact, New Order flaunt their continued relevancy but hide their flabby bellies in their new video: the single "Crystal" is lip-synched a la Blues Traveler's "Run-A-Round" by a "band" half their age and twice as pretty. It's a point they get to make although it probably says more about the stasis of rock radio than the indelibleness of the band's sound.
With it's undeniable craft, this type of album reminds me most of A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd - another band who lost it's fearful leader early on and then triumphed commercially, in part, due to the absence of that artiste (and I'm talking about Syd Barrett, not Roger Waters) but also the continued professionalism of the remaining members. Its' verve recalls The Rolling Stones' Dirty Work. Those were both respectable albums released twenty years into their respective careers and I'm sure that "Run Wild" and "Rock The Shack" will sound as good to children of the '80s as "One Hit To the Body" and "Learning To Fly" sounded to boomers back in the '80s.
In response to the never-ending parade of rock has-beens on tour at a county fair near you, writer Eric Weisbard coined the phrase "everything rocks and nobody ever dies." That's true, of course, but let's give New Order this shot; they deserve it as much as Depeche Mode and probably more so than Styx, Axl, and Michael. Good luck chaps!
~ E. Blake Davis, MSN Music
Thanks to: E. Blake Davis
