New Order
Low Life

THE REVIEW

When talking about the New Order, how can one not start from what they were? From what eventually, despite themselves, became one of the bands that entered the legend? I'm clearly talking about Joy Division led by a certain Ian Curtis. How could the New Order not confront their heavy past? But above all, how could they interface with a new decade that would be more different than those damned '70s? Well, they could have taken the easy road, living off the works of Joy Division and caring about nothing, they could have... instead, they decided to move forward, changing their name and musical genre. They decided to leave behind that threatening and cumbersome shadow of their past. They made a choice, to continue despite everything.

Low Life is the third album by the group (excluding the '82 EP). After Movement (practically the 3rd Joy Division album dated 1981) and Power, Corruption & Lies (1983), this work was released, which in itself is a contradiction. Listening to it, you immediately understand that NO had quite confused ideas; there's not a single song that matches another. The album drifts among different musical formulas, but this paradoxically turns into an asset, Low Life is the album that best represents the soul of New Order, confused, disordered, without a guiding line. But if this, for all other bands, ultimately means failure, for the quartet, it's the winning formula. Because NO are one of the very few groups that must be listened to in the "opposite" way. They don't have the audacity to teach anyone anything, the tracks are almost never digestible on first listen, they are in perpetual contradiction with themselves, denying the sounds of previous albums, playing live in a listless way, in short, they destroy everything good they had previously created.

The album consists of only 8 tracks. It starts with "Love Vigilantes", a piece that was very successful in Italy, catchy, cheerful but perhaps the least successful on the album. It continues with the famous "Perfect Kiss", a track that almost perfectly blends Sumner's classic jangly guitar with Hook's perfect bass along with the electronic studios of Morris and Gilbert. Subsequently, there's "This Time of Night", the song which in my opinion is not only the best of the album but of their entire discography. It encompasses all of Curtis from the past decade (the live version is, if possible, even more expressive), with Sumner's voice rising in pitch towards the end, almost becoming a desperate cry before being "swallowed" by the instruments. It continues with "Sunrise", a track that seems to have been stolen from the Cure of Pornography, hence a very rhythmic gothic rock. "Elegia", the entirely instrumental suite that closely resembles Brian Eno, "Sooner Than You Think" is a song that may initially seem banal, but with more attentive listening, one can notice a meticulous care for electronic experimentation that will greatly contribute to NO's success, "Subculture" here in its original version, rougher and less refined than the single version, ends with "Face Up", a track not particularly noteworthy, which slides towards technical sampling standards (still high).

It must be noted that the album was recorded over the course of one night with an abnormal use of substances, hence the low (almost amateur) recording quality. Sumner's voice is broken in some points and in certain tracks, you can even hear the background voices of the members talking to each other, in full demo style. In conclusion, Low Life represents the best album by the band, very far from the "dance-oriented" canons that made the fortune of Power, Corruption & Lies and will make the fortune of Technique, a contradictory, intense album that encapsulates all the essence of the early-era New Order, that is a middle ground between what they were and what they will be... indeed.

 http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=x9OCB69KwpU