704 New Order - Low-Life (1985)

 704 New Order - Low-Life (1985)

Studio album - Dance-Pop



About the Act:

In 1980, Ian Curtis, the frontman of Joy Division, an alternative rock band from the UK, took his own life. The remaining three members decided they wanted to carry on as a band, but in Joy Division they had had a pact that if any one member left, they would not continue to use the name. Therefore, with a partial change of members, they morphed into New Order. 

After pursuing guitar-based rock for a while they got interested in electronic music, and became one of the foremost proponents of electronic dance music, and a formative band for the emerging Manchester scene which exploded in popularity in the 90s, and in turn was part of the foundations for Britpop.

They have had several studio albums, and a couple of breaks.

About the Album:

This was their third album, and their first to move into the dance/synth/sample/drum machine area.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat, Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy and New Order. The commonality is dance-pop, in fact 80s dance-pop. This is an 80s dance-pop album. And the thing is, that while I have been sceptical about New Order in particular in the past, I do like a good bit of dance-pop, and that is actually exactly what this is, a good bit of dance-pop. There are some classic sounds for the time, classic beats, and some really big sounds too, they use it well. I'm not sure how much is electronic, possibly quite a bit, but there is a jangly guitar at play also, and that too is good. Musically, I found I was pretty much in favour in general, and some specific tracks I thought were very good. The drumless instrumental Elegia is a great piece of evolving electronica, and probably my favourite track. Most of the rest I was wondering if there were 12" mixes available and how good they might be.

I only followed the words for the first track very closely, and they were curious. I dipped into the others a bit and I had no objections, sometimes interesting, sometimes a bit more banal. The weakest element was the singing, and this is actually fine most of the time as he uses his voice fairly well. In some ways it's the voice that sets it apart from Pet Shop Boys, the backing at times is very similar.

So I think I feel good about this, I have somewhat overcome a prejudice, which just goes to show how I shouldn't denigrate things without giving them a fair hearing.

7/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6ls958BLJbeFT3OqAYTvQB

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=new+order+low+life+full+album

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Life



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