I feel so extraordinary somePoll's got a hold on me: NEW ORDER artist poll #37 (RESULTS thread)

i still get a thrill hearing it, esp in public spaces. at braves games they'll do a quick poll by applause from the crowd early in the game to determine what song they're going to play during the seventh inning stretch, i can remember being at one game on a monday and the choices were 'monday, monday', 'manic monday', and 'blue monday' and 'blue monday' won pretty easily (i cheered for 'manic monday'). that beat nicked from 'our love', the progression, that one nervous cricket synth line: still works.

is it heretical to love the '88 remix of "Blue Monday" as much as the original? I do. I love how it packs so many odd sounds in four minutes.

I still love that story about how when they played 'Blue Monday' live on Top Of The Pops, the single went down the charts! Heh heh heh... (not to mention the story about how the sleeve was so expensive, they were losing money as the damn thing sold!)

the first version of "Blue Monday" I heard was a midi version in a freeware PC pac-man game circa 1999. I never knew it was used in television ads.

http://www.midialternative.com/neworder/midi/substance/bluemonday.mid

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Sv0LamI0g34/UalWklhvdWI/AAAAAAAAAck/z_JueZDcJyc/w640-h320-no/8+Your+Silent+Face.jpg

8. Your Silent Face
From: Power, Corruption & Lies
Released: 2 May 1983
965 Points, 35 Votes, 1 Number One

song is brilliant

Unrelated to New Order post: I've got 'Some Distant Memory' on from the first Electronic album and I swear, that outro... when it crops up I always feel like the clouds in my mind are parting to reveal the most perfect blue sky imaginable, with the most intense sunlight bursting through... it's so beautiful it makes me want to weep oceans, man.

Sorry, Cure fans, but Disintegration- era music bit this so hard

Unrelated to New Order post: I've got 'Some Distant Memory' on from the first Electronic album and I swear, that outro... when it crops up I always feel like the clouds in my mind are parting to reveal the most perfect blue sky imaginable, with the most intense sunlight bursting through... it's so beautiful it makes me want to weep oceans, man.

why I love ILM

I love how it packs so many odd sounds in four minutes

as I said I know so little New Order or the kind of received opinions about them, so this may be very banal or very wrong, but I enjoy how for such a massively successful band there seems to be a kind of earnest, enthusiastic amateurishness to them, from Sumner's singing and lyrical clunkers to the way they throw so much into some songs (e.g. the frog noises in 'The Perfect Kiss', hey sure why not).

'Your Silent Face'... ah, this makes me feel somewhat a different way... it's quite personal, this, but whatever: about three years ago my grandfather passed away after a long struggle with various illnesses... On the day of the funeral, I was taken into the room where his body was in the coffin... there was just me, me father and my mother there, in this room... and as anyone who has seen a dead relative will know, there's this curiously odd feeling... you're looking at a person that you once knew, but that person isn't there anymore. The shell is there, but the person that occupied that shell... well, they're somewhere else. Naturally, I burst into tears. Another relative of mine burst into the room while I was grieving, and I felt incredibly angry that he'd just burst in there without knocking or anything... I just found it a bit inconsiderate. This song... reminds me of that.

So yeah, I mean... this is probably not what Bernard Sumner had in mind while he was writing his lyrics... but yeah, this song means a hell of a lot to me.

Shocked this isn't top 3.

Unrelated to New Order post: I've got 'Some Distant Memory' on from the first Electronic album and I swear, that outro... when it crops up I always feel like the clouds in my mind are parting to reveal the most perfect blue sky imaginable, with the most intense sunlight bursting through... it's so beautiful it makes me want to weep oceans, man.

love, Turrican

that is an amazing personal story Turrican, thanks for sharing it.

as I said I know so little New Order or the kind of received opinions about them, so this may be very banal or very wrong, but I enjoy how for such a massively successful band there seems to be a kind of earnest, enthusiastic amateurishness to them, from Sumner's singing and lyrical clunkers to the way they throw so much into some songs (e.g. the frog noises in 'The Perfect Kiss', hey sure why not).

No need to be so guarded! This is massively OTM.

so now we are breaking into the elite. the reason i say that is every song in the Top 7 past 1000 points.

it's like the billion dollar movie club.

xpost:

Yeah, for a lot of New Order fans, the sloppiness is actually part of the charm... I like it when they balance the "earnest, enthusiastic amateurishness" with a decent production job, though! But it is quite OTM, that... maybe the "enthusiastic amateurishness" makes the music feel quite breezy as opposed to laboured.

'Thieves Like Us' is Jason Donovan's favourite song of all time. i wish i could find the picture of him solemnly holding up the sleeve of Substance in Smash Hits circa 87.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mC_3iftpepc/UalcuupXa5I/AAAAAAAAAdQ/lUwcH4OtpVM/w640-h320-no/7+Age+Of+Consent.jpg

7. Age of Consent
From: Power Corruption & Lies
Released: 2 May 1983
1093 Points, 35 Votes

0 Number Ones and made it to 7

Pumped Full Of Drugs, in full here for anyone who fancies it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5g-GihEouk

'Age Of Consent', to me, is the typical New Order track on a musical level... I guess it's because of the i-iv chord progression, which is a staple of loads of New Order songs. It's always amazed me how often they've got away with using two chords in their songs, but yet doing so much with them.

getting away with playing I-IV over and over again is the barest essence of rock music

Bernard's been getting away with it all his life!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AGA0t5sxz2U/UalgjiM0zsI/AAAAAAAAAd8/rIOyo1JMyx8/w640-h320-no/6+Bizarre+Love+Triangle.jpg

6. Bizarre Love Triangle
From: Brotherhood
Released: 5 November 1986 (single) 29 September 1986 (album)
1134 Points, 37 Votes

Not a single number one!?

who's keeping count? how many number ones were given to the chosen 5 then? more than 50%?

Yeah I'm shocked. It's my ex's favorite song of all time.

who's keeping count? how many number ones were given to the chosen 5 then? more than 50%?

how many times do I have to tell you just what you want me to?

VERY surprised that 'Bizarre Love Triangle' didn't make Top 5, actually! I love this song, one of New Order's most perfect disco-oriented tracks that offer the perfect alternative to the more introspective likes of 'Your Silent Face' and 'Doubts Even Here'. The fact that it's placed outside of the Top 5 is a testament to the behaviour of the voters here at ILM. I'm intrigued now as to what's going to come up next, now... Please, do go on!

also, it's a sandwich

What I love most about 'Bizarre Love Triangle' is that keyboard line that comes in, just before the most sunniest of choruses comes in. It's just perfect... I don't think the chords change throughout the whole song, but they still manage to find a way through skillful arranging to make that chorus just burst in like it's on another level to the rest of the track. It's as perfect to listen to late at night on the headphones as it is soundtracking the nightlife. In fact, if I ever want a quick release of pure unadulterated joy, this is the track I reach for. It's so electric it has me saying "yes"!

I don't get the appeal of wanting to hear BLT in a "real" acoustic version.

getting away with playing I-IV over and over again is the barest essence of rock music

can you hear me doctor mu

Well Alfred, I guess you're fundamentaly not the kind that needs to tell me

New Order used an E-mu didn't they? :D

What I love most about 'Bizarre Love Triangle' is that keyboard line that comes in, just before the most sunniest of choruses comes in. It's just perfect... I don't think the chords change throughout the whole song, but they still manage to find a way through skillful arranging to make that chorus just burst in like it's on another level to the rest of the track. It's as perfect to listen to late at night on the headphones as it is soundtracking the /nightlife/. In fact, if I ever want a quick /release/ of pure unadulterated joy, this is the track I reach for. It's so /electric/ it has me saying "/yes/"!

If the latter, there's almost a faux-classical flourish to them -- they're kind of not played evenly and on a somewhat cheap sounding keyboard.

In other words, a perfect New Order moment.

I meant the arpeggios, but the staccato keyboard part before the arpeggios come in lays the groundwork for those arpeggios perfectly. I agree with you, it's a perfect New Order moment, and one of their finest singles.

i had every intention of finishing this poll tonight.

however something has come up, nothing bad. friends have just shown up, it is my birthday weekend after all!

Top 5 (now) tomorrow.

Happy birthday, then! You're doing a great job. I look forward to TOP 5 SATURDAY.

Happy birthday, Bee!

Ah, I understand, it's 4am here after all and you can't be being boring on your birthday weekend. Have yourself a bit of a fun and we'll see you tomorrow, and much appreciated for your work so far :)

cheers man

hey man -- go! Sumner would!

He wakes up every night on the stairs waiting for the dawn to come

I bet Sumner at the tail end of the '80s into the early '90s was a fucking blast to party with.