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Album Review
by SashaS
28-3-2005
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| New Order: Waiting For The Siren's Call |
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New Order: 'Waiting For The Siren’s Call'
(London)
New Order: assemblage of detailed glories
New Order have certainly interred a couple of milestones along the Rock’s highway to infinity [a concept as feasible as human’s forever - 80 years?] but they don’t fan the eternal flame of artistry anymore. The band’s second album in ten years, a supplant to 2001’s ‘Get Ready’, ‘Waiting For The Siren’s Call’ is a validation release rather than a record by a band with a sense of destiny.
Promising introduction to ‘Who’s Joe?’ sets the mood for the record that balances between guitar-based tracks in the vein of ‘Get Ready’ and more synth-based tunes of ‘Technique’. There are good tracks at both ends of this spectrum but there are lesser cuts also. And, you don’t have to wait long to get to the one that misfires - track No.2 ‘Hey What Are You Doing’ sounds like it was recorded by a second-rate tribute band.
But, soon enough a redemption arrives with the titular cut that uses a keyboard motif to put a spell in the grooves. Then, ‘I Told You So’ bops vigorously and gaily, pushing the dancier element of their music forward with an obvious reggae influence that shines with ethnicity not found on other tracks. The electro-disco beat is kept on for ‘Morning Night And Day’ but it is something we’ve heard them do before.
The lead single off the album, ‘Krafty’, failed to engage public’s valets, but the next one should do much better: ‘Jetstream’ with Scissor Sister Ana Matronix contribution is vibrant, upbeat and catchy; she injects the song with vivacity that is decidedly missing on a dull and pointless ‘Dracula’s Castle’ or ‘Guilt Is A Useless Emotion’; both should have been left on the cutting-room floor. The last one’s title also sounds like an excuse.
On these two tracks Bernie Sumner’s singing hits his most down-turned, the unimpressive self, a bit flat, a bit rescinding into the background and relying on music for emotional input… Detached singing ain’t cool enough anymore. ‘Working Overtime’ closes the album and leaves you - worried, neurotic, disturbed but more than half satisfied…
Not a bad album although some way bellow the finest moments Messrs Sumner, Hooky and one of ‘The Other Two’ have been responsible for: Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ and NO’s ‘Low-Life’, plus the added monster of ‘Blue Monday’. Alas, one can’t be disparaging of the Manchester legend because The Rolling Stones, for instance, haven’t made a decent album in about 30 years but still manage to set new ‘highest-earner’ record every time they tour.
If albums were pitched the same way the movies are - with one-line synopsis - then the New Order’s latest opus could be summed up as ‘Back To The Past’. Confirming it but patchily… In one too many p[l]aces.
7½
SashaS
17-5-2005
New Order’s album ‘Waiting For The Siren’s Call’ is released 28 March 2005 by London/WB
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