Low-Life

New Order make electronic post-punk with a vocalist who delivers every line like he'd rather be somewhere else. That can work. Here it just sounds thin — shallow beats, flat delivery, nothing that sticks. 1/5 — Pet Shop Boys bad, Bowie bad, now this. The 80s are not my decade.

Awful.

So... I felt like giving this a 1/5 would be too mean. But NOTHING about this intrigued me, I'm sorry! It made me question if I even enjoyed synthpop or new wave or whatever this is called. It made me go back to the Heaven 17 album I gave a 5/5 just to make sure I still love it that much, and sure, maybe that album just hit me at the right time, but I still really like it. I did not get a single thing out of this. But to be honest, I kinda feel the same way about Joy Division, so...look out for when that comes into my rotation.

Can Bernard sing? 1/5

Yhyy

Only ever like one song, Blue Monday

This exact type of 80s British rock frankly kind of pisses me off. It’s both the vocals and instrumentation together that create a really just unlistenable sound. I want to like it but it’s honestly not my thing and the only song I relatively liked on this was the only instrumental song. Not gonna be coming back to this one.

Honestly. There’s not much I can say about this. It just didn’t hit me in any way shape or form. Just no.

I like this band but I don't like this album

Of all the new order albums to choose to include.

If this is New Order I'd hate to hear the Old Order. This album is the sound of rain ruining a picnic. It is completely uninteresting to me.

That singer's so pitchy he should've gone into baseball

I love New Order, but this is not a good album.

Dreadful out of tune sounding singing combined with twangy non interesting tracks. What happens when the frontman loves the sound of his own voice.

Extremely forgetable 80's synth album.

I’ve listened to New Order before of course, think I even have a vinyl of theirs somewhere. But this ain’t my bag. I almost liked Elegia but it just felt like it didn’t go anywhere? I’m not here for middle of the road non-committal weekend-dad Rock. In the end, I could manage with sub-culture and Face Up but this won’t be an album I reach for again, and certainly wouldn’t be in my personal list of must-be-heards!

Shite.

Not for me

Not a fan of alternative dance. Bernard Sumner’s voice is cringe-worthy.

Oh look, another sub par album from a British artist on this list.

Vocals and lyrics are absolutely shit, not much better than Joy Division 🤢

Not so good, Al.

Honestly can't tell it's not the Cure

Meh

Sounds so much like the other bands around at this time that I didn't like then and still don't enjoy now.

no no like

Wow, that was a tough listen. Musically speaking, it's not terrible but it's definitely just 80's synth-pop. There were some insrumental moments throughout the record where there was a decent groove happening but these moments were few and far between. The real low point of this record was the vocals. During the first couple of tracks, I just thought that they didn't sound quite right but after a while I came to the firm realization that whoever the singer was in New Order just couldn't sing. I'm not even trying to be overly critical. It's not that his voice doesn't suit me or that his style isn't to my liking. He actually can't sing. It reminds me of a bad American Idol audition. He isn't a competent singer. The lyrics are dumb love inspired bullshit but it's the vocal performance that ruins this average 80's synth-pop record. The thing that bothers me most about this experience is how it could possibly be regarded as an album that MUST be listened to before one dies. I strongly disagree with that sentiment. It sucks and I'll never listen to it again(hopefully).

- Zeer zagerig - 0 nummers toegevoegd aan MMMM

This is why I worry about the English. they really like this band. And Echo and The Bunnymen as well... please, please, no more of this.

New wave music....why is there so much of it! This is like the marriage of mid-80s Cure and INXS. Which I guess means better than 90% of New Wave music? They definitely took a slightly darker direction on this album. This Time of Night could be a Cure song, in fact for all I know it is a Cure cover. Elegia sounds like they saw Nightmare on Elm Street and thought that would make a kick-ass song. Of course it's in Stranger Things, or as I like to call it, Generation X nostalgia porn. This sounds like midi files. Face Up is the worst song on the album to close things out.

wasn't my vibe... i tried

Musicalmente la tontería más grande del universo. La instrumentación es insoportable. El rollito de coqueteo con el fascismo es directamente para desterrarlos del planeta. Sin embargo las canciones están bien para poner de fondo mientras tu hija llora porque así el llanto parece lo más agradable de todo. Es lamentable, música para snobs y gente de sexualidad no aceptada.

Nothing to say beyond awful.

Not memorial and kind of just junky 80s dance music. This album should be on the 1001 albums to demonstrate how musicians fell off rather than anything good. Stick with the Joy Division or earlier albums.

I never understood this stuff. Bad singing. Not much in terms of dynamics or melodies. As a musician, I’m not impressed. Amateur crap

There are a few songs that could be decent if they got rid of their lead singer. My god he is horrible.

Elegia war nice, ansonsten nicht so meins

This is the hundred sixth album I’m rating. Don't know who they are and this is the first time I'm doing this not on my phone. Adding to my Playlist - Nothing. Not Adding to my Playlist - Love Vigilantes, The Perfect Kiss, This Time of Night, Sunrise, Elegia, Sooner than you Think, Sub-culture, and Face Up. All in all I liked 0/8 songs. Like The Human League but bad.

This was just so boring. I'm one of those people who is not susceptible to yawning when I see someone else do it, but this kind of music always makes me yawn uncontrollably. And I have to point out that "Sub-Culture" & "Face Up" are just miserable songs. I absolutely hate them. I was going to give this 2 stars until I heard those two.

This is awful 80’s pop

This sucks. It's mostly the vocals.

DNF

Non coinvolge, non fa per me

The first song was promising but it went quickly downhill from there. Unfortunately the 80s sound just sounds so dated, more so than older music which can sound timeless. I think because of that music like this is does not have the staying power of music without such a distinctive era based sound. It also means that if you are like me and do not enjoy thie sounds of this time period all the music sounds so similar and unenjoyable.

Pop sellout garbage. I was in a wannabe-joy-division punk band in college. I was excited for this one, really! Someone needs to bonk this guy on the head and remind him he's a terrible singer, and that was OK in previous albums. This is a must-listen as far as it is a warning for any artist getting too big for their britches and think they're hot stuff.

I understand why Joy Division itself could no longer continue but I can’t believe they gave up Punk Rock for this crap.

Irritating synthesizers, clapping machines, cow bells.....tedious listen.

This started... interestingly. The singing is really bad. Like really bad. The music is really hit or miss. When it hits, it's really vibey and enjoyable. Plus, it covers the bad singing. When it misses, though, the album becomes a really tough listen. Everything does magically come together on "Sunrise". It ends up easily being the best song on the album and is actually a really good song. "Face Up", on the other hand, ends up being so incredibly bad, that I think it's on a short list of worst songs I've ever heard in my life, and undoes any goodwill the album earned through those good moments. I'd rather go deaf than listen to that song again, unless I'm doing it as a joke. Favorite Song(s): Sunrise

Ugh. Didn't finish.

"displaying the moment they completed their transformation from post-punk hold-overs to dance-rockers" -- all genres I dislike

nao

No. 1

Waiting for the high life after that

Depeche mode from wish

So 80s pop

Not my thing. To electronic.

bad

p541. 1985. 1.5 stars. Annoying and whiny Mancs discover dance music and synths. They only have two songs, and they are spread very thinly over 40 minutes. And Bernard Sumner cannot sing. At least it is short.

Nope

Yuk

Nunca me enganché con New Order y toda su familia circundante. Tampoco ahora. Aparentemente no es para mi esa cosa lo-fi.

This one wasn’t for me. I quite like the instrumental track. I quite like that the bass makes it sound like The Cure sometimes. But otherwise, I was just waiting for it to end.

Not my cup o tea. Reminds me of "the cure" but not a fan of the vocals.

Classic 80s electro pop sound, but with some terrible singing thrown in.

I tried...but this album is shit

Boring

I really don't like this at all. The melody is really repetitive and the songs are long. The singing is mediocre. There's just no rhythm to any of it. It feels like a set of classic bad 80s songs, where's a bunch of repetitive techno and no god damn soul to any of it.

I like some of NO's songs, but this album is u listenable for me, especially thanks to the production but also Bernard Sumner's surprisingly insecure vocals.

I bought this album at the time but consider it the beginning of the end in terms of creditability. Power, Corruption & Lies was the perfect hybrid of styles but by this time they'd really started to get swallowed up whole by synths, drum machines and insipid lyrics. They're like the hollowed out shell of a once great band. It's horrible and soulless.

Standard 80s. I just couldn’t. Not on a Friday at work. Is that unfair to the album? Maybe. But I don’t care. The album already knows its socioeconomic status and is self aware enough to proclaim it boldly on the cover. I wish the music was just as bold.

rip new order you would’ve love soundcloud.

I didn't much care for this album although I do like New order.

Crappy, shallow, Casio-demo, bullshit synth, britpop. It's worthless trash and I'm mad I had to listen to 40 minutes of it.

Shite. He can’t sing

Terrible

Nearly unlistenable boring garbage

Low-Life is better than Technique but New Order were crap, and this proves it. Another 1.

Hatte ich New Order nicht mal gelobt vor einiger Zeit? Ich kann diese Platte nicht hören. Belangloser Achtziger-Pop.

Wow, I really hated this guy's voice. It just sounded nasally and whiny. The instrumentals and synth were okay, I guess, but they didn't do much of anything to redeem the album. I listened to the whole thing and I hate myself for it.

No ty

Wack

I couldn't pick a song I liked. Not for me.

My mom said if I don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all.

I hate that hangover voice

didn't like it at all

Just a laughably bad album. No notable songs and better singing could be found in the NYC subway. Also, sounded like the album was jumped around genres? 2/10.

I don’t remember

I really have a problem with New Order's sound.

It was bad, my 4 year old liked to dance to it.

Didn’t listen to it all because I just couldn’t deal with it.

80er.

did not like

not good

Lazy 80s

A classic.

First impression is overall very disjointed from track to track, and felt like it was trying to do too much at once. It opened with a Madchester sound, then moved into some dance tracks with an attempt a crooning vocals that were really more cawing. then some brooding dance tracks, upbeat post-punk jangle, instrumental intermission, then more dance-y wailing stuff. *Also, for a 2015 remaster the production quality seemed lower than I would have expected.

Decent.