In Praise of...Brotherhood by New Order

it's got all my favourite sounds, and it's THE mix of guitar and synth that i tend to hold everything else up to. sort of. there's an element of myth of myself going on there.

1)Movement
2)Blue Monday 12-inch
3)Power, Corruption, & Lies
4)1981-1982 EP (EGG,Temptation,Hurt,Etc-very convenient, that one)
5)Ceremony 12-inch
6)Confusion 12-inch
7)Thieves Like Us 12-inch
8)Perfect Kiss 12-inch
9)Brotherhood
10)Low Life

On "Krafty" - this track sounds like heavy mining of "Way of Life" with a lot of unnecessary production. This and the entirety of the last album would be a lot better if they didn't spend so much time slicking shit up.

which is probably the point.

1. Movement
2. EGG 12" with Cries and Whispers and Mesh
3. Temptation 12"
4. Thieves Like Us/Lonesome Tonight 12"
5. Technique
6. Ceremony 7" (The 3-piece recording)
7. Power Corruption and Lies
8. Confusion 12"
9. Low Life
10. Blue Monday 12" orig pressing.

From the Omelette album.

Bernard:

"A single egg in the mixing bowl
A simple chance to keep me whole
A few more eggs are getting fried
I think you think that love has died."

*Hook bassline, combination Morris acoustic/electronic percussion, shimmering Gilbert synth*

Oh yes, it's grand.

1. Technique
2. Round and Round 12" (Kevin Saunderson remixes OMG)
3. Ceremony 7"
4. Get Ready YEAH THAT'S RIGHT Get Ready
5. Regret (single + remixes)
6. Power, Corruption and Lies
7. Run2 12"
8. Peel Session #1
9. True Faith Remix 12"
10. Bizarre Love Triangle 12"

Maybe Gillian was more essential than any of us realized at the time. I was always a fan of hers for punk rock reasons: we need a keyboardist? How 'bout my girlfriend? She can't play very well, but we'll teach her!

Now I'm curious about the extent of her contributions beyond arrangements.

The drum into of Paradise sound exactly like the drum intro of Pixies "Bone Machine"

"You know, you're a real 'lettuce' person."

'exciting chase music for Sylvester Stallone cop drama 1986!' soundtracks which I admit is sorta pointless. Jan Hammer was cornering that market, let him do the job.

Ha ha ha, no kidding! Dare I mention Beverly Hills Cop or something?

And Ned, your post reminded me that I've never really known whether to think of JD/NO as just one band or as two distinct entities (the answer probably lies in the middle). Closer certainly fits, but Unknown Pleasures was just a year out, sadly (for the purposes of my completely arbitrary time frame, of course). But, yeah. Amazing, really. We were utterly spoiled! And we didn't deserve it!

"All The Way" (I skipped Fine Time, sorry, nothing against it, really but I wanted to get into the meat of the album quickly) seems to me like a better, more fully fleshed out song than anything on Brotherhood besides "All Day Long". I think overall I probably do like Technique more than Brotherhood, but I didn't really realize that until now.

I still think Get Ready is better than either of these, though, and I raised my fist in the air with a big "WOOO HOO" as if a sports team had just won when you said upthread it was grand, Ned!

Also I do believe I've narrowed down what my first New Order record must have been or at least I've narrowed it down to three, but it's quite possible I bought two or more of them all on the same day: Power Corruption & Lies, Blue Monday 12", and the U.S. 1981-1982 EP comprising most of the EGG & Temptation 12"es.

The first time I realized how much I really liked New Order was when I heard "Your Silent Face". I can't remember if I had heard Blue Monday or Temptation before it or not, but when I heard YSF I suddenly had this flash of intuition that whatever else that band did, I was going to like. Perhaps not a completely true statement in retrospect, but true enough, I have no qualms about calling them my favourite band, and I've never had any similar flash of intution about a band or artist like that.

Side note: NO lovers everywhere. Answer me something. I love pretty much everything by the band, right up to Get Ready. And I mean nearly every song, not just album. But something scared me away from Get Ready. I'm not sure why -- perhaps it's that feeling when you realise an artist you love has run out of ideas, grown stale, whatever (Wild Mood Swings and Bloodflowers, right? Sorry, Ned and Dan, I've really tried) -- but I avoided it completely. I've only heard "Crystal" and I do like it a lot. Now, here's the question: based on what I've just written, would you say I was insane for giving Get Ready the cold shoulder, and would I love it after all?

xpost to Ned. Damn, I never saw that little trap! Good thing it never happened then, really.

1. EGG 12"
2. Ceremony 12" (the non-3 piece version, I guess, but I don't really care tooo much)
3. Movement
4. Temptation 12" if I could just put the Substance version on the A-side instead
5. PCL
6. Low Life
7. Theives Like Us 12"
8. Get Ready
9. Confusion 12" (THE ORIGINAL ONE DAMNIT)
10. The two early Peel Sessions? Can we pick that? No? Oh okay, then Touched By The Hand Of God, then
11. Here To Stay CD single

I do believe you were wise to spot this, Ned. Good call.

David, you will never know if you like Get Ready until you try it. There is certainly a lack of consensus here, and I'm not presumptuous enough to even try to predict which side you might fall on.

But of course, you're right.

(I can't believe I've managed to go this long without hearing anything other than "Crystal", anyway.)

No one's answered my question yet: Gillian's role.

I never really took to Brotherhood, I have it somewhere though , the pbk style cassette version.
I think as I was so enthralled by Lowlife, that it seemed like a retreat from the progression they'd made in the previous 5 years, plus the PSB were on the scene and it was as if they'd taken the baton and were the ones doing the more interesting work. I'll have to dig that tape out as there's so much love for it here that it merits reappraisal.

You hurt me in my heart, Billy ;)

Junior high flashback: I had an issue of Modern Drummer with Morris on the cover, and rather than badger him with the usual "Is this real music?" argle-bargle, they just dove right in and let him talk at length about being a drummer who regularly used samplers & drum machines to augment (or even replace) his drumming. Definitely a key moment in my development as a musician.

Anyway, this is a wonderful album that, dammit, I'm gonna have to go out and get a replacement copy of. Ned, I bought Music For the Masses and Black Celebration because of your last "In Praise Of..." thread. Keep this up and I'll be sending you a bill!

Still the same sense of disappointment as when I first heard it. The thinnest content and sound of New Order's albums for me.

I keep trying to get into "Get Ready," but every time I hear Billy Corgan's voice come in it makes me think I'm listening to the Smashing Pumpkins aping New Order (c. "Adore" or something). And I'm rarely in the mood to listen to Smashing Pumpkins, especially when I'm in the mood to listen to New Order. Which is often.

and Im not sure what kind of input Gillian had on the band's output. Im sure at the very least it was quality control/bouncing off ideas kinda stuff.

we can't, therefore, qualify or quantify gillian's contribution. but what we can surmise pretty easily is that, after 20 years, the departure of quarter of the band is going to have a cataclysmic effect on the group dynamic. for better or for worse? we'll have to wait and see. nobody has ever satisfactorily explained whether or not gillian played on "get ready"; given that what i hear on that album is the desperate thrash of ageing men trying to recapture some mythical lost youth, i imagine she didn't. but i really don't know.

i ranted about this at length on alt.music.new-order. it got quite heated ;0

"Technique" is fine but too in thrall to house music and Ecstasy. Not a bad album but also not entirely the New Order I knew and loved up til then.

thanks Geirbot

how can the album be in thrall to house music and Ecstasy when five tracks are rock songs? Unless you meant house and Ecstasy brought them to their songwriting peak.

All Day Long is probably the best NO track in my dumb opinion. I haven't heard anything that sounds quite like that one.

"Your Silent Face" does something similar imo

very true

"All the Way" too.

"Technique" is fine but too in thrall to house music and Ecstasy. Not a bad album but also not entirely the New Order I knew and loved up til then.

thanks Geirbot

― The Very Fugly Caterpillar (sic), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 2:00 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nice try but ... nah.

Alfred - I feel those influences blanded out their sound somehow. All the interviews I remember from that time talked of endless partying in Ibiza and the influence of the cool new stuff they'd been hearing when they went out to the island's clubs. I just heard - and hear - a glossy record missing the roughness and fire of the releases that led up to it. Sorry folks, I don't really like my New Order slick.

so you don't like slick and glossy?

Not with New Order, no.

the New Order albums i'm not down w/as much are Get Ready and WFTSC. Music Complete brought me back, moreso after seeing the songs performed live.

and they still are! Lots of them!

I have a strange relationship with this album. I think back when I got it I was aware that it was the highest Xgau rated New Order album besides "Substance" (maybe he gave it an A?), but it's probably the one I went back to the least when I had them all. Not bad, definitely a good record, sounds a bit like a computer built out of cardboard.

nah I love it and I love its rough sound; it wasn't deliberate, but it reassured the rockists worried that after PCL and LL they'd moved too close to the dance floor. It was the last classic-era album I bought in 1992, and it shocked me with its guitar-bass-drums base.

According to Wikipedia, Bizarre Love Triangle didn't chart in either the UK or the US - although my memory was that it was everywhere at the time!

In Miami the Shep Pettibone remix was a part of life from 1987-1993. Then after the Frente! revival I heard a different remix. But, yes, it was not an official single.

"all day long" >>>>>>

i think i really love this record now, it's great, singles band my ass

it's very closely their second best behind technique imo, so good

"All Day Long" was my favourite when it was new(-ish -- bought it shortly before "True Faith" arrived). The variations on the basic theme in the coda just sounded luvly to 12-y/o ears.

That was my first NO purchase and I was confused. Not much of it sounded like "Bizarre Love Triangle" and the lyrics seemed kinda half-baked, even to a Duran Duran fan. LOL. Took me a little while to realise that that was part of the charm and that most of their albums are a loveable mess. I have no idea how to rank them these days, though I guess I must have for that poll a few years ago.

"way of life"/"bizarre love triangle"/"all day long" is such a great sequence

I loved All Day Long. To me PCL, Low Life and Brotherhood were three perfect albums. I know Technique was also great but I think I had moved on by the time it was released

According to Wikipedia, Bizarre Love Triangle didn't chart in either the UK or the US - although my memory was that it was everywhere at the time!

It was definitely, quantifiably everywhere in Aus. Top 5 apparently, from the same source, and #1 here in Victoria. Certainly felt like everyone dug it that (southern) summer. My neighbour had the 12" with "Bizarre Dub Triangle" on the flipside and quite a few people enjoyed/endured my tape dub with several versions back to back.