Dusted Down – New Order: Low-Life (Rhino/Warner)
The moment when New Order finally cast off the Joy Division shackles
New Order: Low Life (Rhino/Warner)
Favourite New Order album? Six days out of seven, anyone in their right mind will tell you the same thing. Sure, Technique and Power, Corruption And Lies are up there, but the hands-downs stone-cold classic is Low-Life, the album where the band stopped walking in Joy Division’s shoes and became New Order.
It has to be said that they took their sweet time shaking off their illustrious past (Low-Life was their third long-player released in May 1985), but the actual turning point was March 1983 and the release of ‘Blue Monday’.
It sounds daft now, but when Power, Corruption And Lies followed the release of that record-breaking 12-inch in May 1983 it was something of disappointment, mainly because ‘Blue Monday’ wasn’t on it. It was a move that proved typical New Order, typical Factory. Sure, they’d release a single to attract attention to the imminent album release, but then they’d leave the single off the album. Which wasn’t the done thing at the time. Worked though, we bought them both anyway. In our droves.
We had to wait over two years for the synthy promise of that classic single to bear fruit. Low-Life wasn’t mucking about. It was the album where New Order got to grips with the new-fangled kit at their disposal, pushing the synths right to the fore across the board for the first time. Standouts on a record of standouts? Opener ‘Love Vigilantes’ with its unmistakable snappy snare and melodica melody? The froggy ribbets, handclaps, warm choral aaaaaaahs and runaway sequencers of ‘Perfect Kiss’? The classical sweeps and swoons side two opener ‘Elegia’?
For this writer, ‘Sub-Culture’, the penultimate track on the B-side, is the business. Curiously it was one of two singles from the album – the other was ‘The Perfect Kiss’ – neither of which even bothered the Top 40. Work that one out. But we digress.
When The Human League stuck ‘Don’t You Want Me’ right at the end of Dare it was because Oakey wasn’t all that keen on it. With ‘Low-Life’ all eight tracks are killer and they had to go somewhere, in some order. Why not stick the best one as the record’s penultimate offering? That said, it is almost eclipsed by the epic closer ‘Face Up’.
Rhino/Warner have been diligently working their way through the band’s back catalogue and collating comprehensive ‘Definitive’ boxsets that feature the remastered albums as well as gobsmackingly good live sets, demo curios, alternate mixes and outtakes across vinyl, CD and DVD. Each release is also complimented by a slew of 12-inch single reissues. Low-Life gets its turn in the sun later this month and it doesn’t disappoint. The three-and-half-hours of live shows featuring sets from Belgium, Netherlands, Canada and one from The Hacienda filmed for the BBC’s ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ are worth the entrance fee alone.
Definitive indeed. Unmissable certainly.
Neil Mason