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Rating: 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
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 The Perfect Kiss (04:49)
I stood there beside myself
Thinking hard about the weather
Then came by a friend of mine
Suggested we go out together
Then I knew it from the start
This friend of mine would fall apart
Pretending not to see his gun
I said let's go out and have some fun
I know you know
We believe in a land of love
I know you know
We believe in a land of love
I have always thought about
Staying here and going out
Tonight I should have stayed at home
Playing with my pleasure zone
He has always been so strange
I'd often thought he was deranged
Pretending not to see his gun
I said let's go out and have some fun
I know you know
We believe in a land of love
I know you know
04 Sunrise (06:00)
I've been waiting to hear your voice for too long now
One way conversations do not work somehow
Tell me how does one get your soul in touch with the one above
When one way conversations pay a price for the use of love
I tried so hard last night you would not talk to me
I live with the fear of the few with the gift
And I know what's going to be
Why did you never speak my name in front of my family
You gave a gift that you then took away
Like you never did before
Your name might be God but you don't say that much to me
Your name might be God but you don't say that much to me
We might be your black sheep
But you forgot us a long time ago
We might be your lost sheep
But it's time you remembered us now
As we spend our days together, nothing can go wrong
No one told the truth about it because it was so strong
If you ever think of me, if you hear my name
If you read between the lines, you'll hang your head in shame
These ears will never hear, the ice will never freeze
Whatever I have done for you I did because you complained
( Whatever you may think of me whatever you may say
I've lived my whole life in danger,
06 Sooner Than You Think (05:12)
Hello, everyone, it's nice to be here
I've come so far to see you all
I can see your deep blue eyes
They sleep beneath the open sky
Before you stands one like your brother
Swear to God he needs no other
But how can I afford to be
Here with you so carelessly
You know what you did was so unkind
You search for the life we need to find
There's right and there's wrong
And there's good and there's bad
And there's an answer to this I wish I had
Oh, you know what I mean, yes you do
Oh, you know what I mean, yes you do
Well we had a party in our hotel last night
It ended up in an awful fight
My friend left me and my heart too
I hope I don't end up like you
Oh, you know what I mean, yes you do
Oh, you know what I mean, yes you do
Your country is a wonderful place
It pales my England into disgrace
To buy a drink that is so much more reasonable
I think I'll go there when it gets seasonable
You know what you did was so unkind
You search for the life you need to find
There's right and there's wrong
And there's good and there's bad
And there's an answer to this I wish I had
Oh, you know what I mean, yes you do
07 Sub-culture (04:58)
I like walking in the park
When it gets late at night
I move round in the dark
And leave when it gets light
I sit around by day
Tied up in chains so tight
These crazy words of mine
So wrong they could be right
What do I get out of this
I always try, I always miss
One of these days you'll go back to your home
You won't even notice that you are alone
One of these days when you sit by yourself
You'll realise you can't shaft without someone else
In the end you will submit
It's got to hurt you a little bit
I like talking in my sleep
When people work so hard
They need what they can keep
A choice that leaves them scarred
A view without a room
Unveils the truth so soon
And when the sun goes down
You've lost what you had found
What do I get out of this
I always try, I always miss
One of these days you'll go back to your home
You won't even notice that you are alone
One of these days when you sit by yourself
You'll realise you can't shaft without someone else
In the end you will submit
It's got to hurt you a little bit
What do I get out of this
I always try, I always miss
One of these days you'll go back to your home
You won't even notice that you are alone
One of these days when you sit by yourself
You'll realise you can't shaft without someone else
In the end you will submit
It's got to hurt you a little bit
What do I get out of this
I always try, I always miss
One of these days you'll go back to your home
You won't even notice that you are alone
One of these days when you sit by yourself
You'll realise you can't shaft without someone else
In the end you will submit
It's got to hurt you a little bit
What do I get out of this
I always try, I always miss
One of these days you'll go back to your home
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Other reviews
By francis
Low Life, in my opinion the best New Order album and one of the most significant of the entire British music scene of the ’80s.
Sub-Culture [...] hides in its simplicity a terrible and disillusioned vision, yet not without a distant glimmer of hope, regarding the universal solitude of modern man.
By Ghemison
Low Life is an astonishing album: completely unruly ... at times brilliant, sometimes very sweet, other times cathartic.
"this world sucks and I want to dance over it!"
