Re: Who are Pete Shelley and New Order

[nessus (Doug Alan)]

> From: J. Peter Alfke <alfke@csvax.caltech.edu>

> To make a long story short, singer Ian Curtis hanged himself just as
> the band was beginning to make it big, and the surviving members added
> a keyboardist and reformed as New Order.  Early New Order sounds like
> subdued, trancey Joy Division with weak vocals, and from then on they
> moved into a more synth-pop-with-good-basslines approach which they
> maintain to this day with minor variations.  Okay, but to not check out
> Joy Division is sacrilege.

I've been a big fan of New Order since 1983, and especially like the
`Power, Corruption and Lies' and `Low Life' albums After hearing so
many great things about Joy Division here and from other sources I
decided I should check them out. So I obtained `Closer' and listened
to it and was not all that impressed. (By "listened" I mean I listened
to the entire album 10+ times over period of a few months.)  I thought
the second side was a lot better than the first mainly due to the
interesting use of keyboards (almost totally absent on side one), but
even the second side was nothing to get real excited about.  I'd
rather listen to `PC&L' or `Low Life' any day. New Order are the best
purveyors of "synth-pop", which in spite of what other people say, can
be great music in the right hands.

	Greg Ward

PS: New Order are pretty sad live unfortunately.