New Order - music complete

New Order are no strangers to drama, they've had more "last albums ever" than i've had hot dinners (well OK may be a slight exaggeration). After the acrimonious split with Peter Hook though New Order have returned, Hooky-bass-less maybe but returning to their electronic dance roots.

The rockier edge that has flavoured recent New Order has been pushed aside and we have a return to hard industrial beats, dancefloor destruction yet retaining pop melodies a-plenty. So its amazing natch and "Plastic" and "Restless" are highlights. Some tracks do seem to go on a bit and some of the lyrics are pretty banal, but thats been true of New Order for a long time to be honest. Having said all that its the best New Order album for some time, maybe since Republic.

MV : "Selfish" by The Other Two

Don't forget The Other Two!

New Order - blue monday '95 (London)

Thirty years ago today Blue Monday was first released on an unsuspecting world, its iconic floppy disc cover and innovative electro beat fused with essential pop melodies helping propelling it to become the biggest selling 12" single ever. I do not have that version however, but i do have the '95 re-release so lets review that instead...

We'll get the 1995 "Hardfloor" version out of the way first, its fine and updated though oddly sounds a bit more dated than the original version though that may be down to the original just being so timeless. There are 3 other mixes too which are OK, the Manuella one for example has some beautiful keyboards and builds up into a luscious soundscape. Its nothing terrible and is indeed pretty good, just not that essential compared to...

The original then, drum machines drive this futuristic journey through disco, funk and synths. Dead pan vocals and sound effects add to the overall effect. Its retro, its the early 80s, its when we had our VIC-20s and BBC Micros and 8-bit graphics were our window into the early cyber world... where this could have been the soundtrack.

The synths and electro-beat are just... unique even though they have been the inspiration for so much that has come subsequently. Thirty years on its still brilliant.

Friday Links (09/03/12)

• New Order are miming to backing tapes claims the, of course totally unbiased, ex-New Order member Peter Hook.
• The other members of The Monkees will not attend Davy Jones funeral in order for it to remain low-key. There are plans for a number of public memorials.
• (Guardian) readers recommend some Welsh songs.
• Armenia has pulled out of Eurovision, come on the UK choosing Humperdink wasn't that bad was it?

Found on a compilation unearthed from deep in my CD vaults earlier today, great song from the mid-70s.

24 Hour Party People OST

24 Hour Party People was an excellent film from the early 2000s that attempted to chronicle (fairly accurately but not completely) the Manchester music scene from punk to the collapse of Factory Records taking in the stories of Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. So you'd guess that the soundtrack to that film, a compilation of essential Manchester bands from Joy Division to the Happy Mondays would be pretty damn awesome. Well its not but its not bad.

Starting with the Sex Pistols the 18 tracks herein take us from punk, post-punk, 80s electronic, rave and Madchester. There are indeed some great tracks from the obvious like of "Blue Monday" and "Hallelujah" (which need to be included i guess though if you are like me you've heard them so many times you can barely stand them anymore!) so the less obvious and interesting like Moby's cover of "New dawn fades".

There was a "new" New Order song included too and "Here to stay" to be honest is probably worth the price of the album alone, one of their better later songs. There is a bit of dross on here too, or maybe i should say songs which probably don't belong on here and are taking up the space a more deserving song could have but them is the breaks.

This soundtrack is nice enough, great for a car journey or having on in the background, or if you do not have much by the likes of Joy Division and New Order then it is a reasonable introduction. A gateway drug? I like it...

MV : "Blue monday" by New Order