Low-Life

My first time listening to a New Order album, I think. Like your sad but fabulous gay uncle's version of Joy Division.

4/10 This is the third album that New Order would release following their re-formation in the wake of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis’ death. The band are known for developing alternative dance and synth based music as they transitioned away from the post-punk sound they were more associated with when recording as Joy Division. As a big fan of Joy Division’s work and a lot of the dance music that emerged out of the late 80s and early 90s, this should be something that’s right in the sweet spot for me, but I’ve never really gelled with New Order. Time to get some fresh ears around them then. In all honesty, and going into those with optimism, I found this to be quite a struggle. While there is some decent enough synth stuff in there, I feel like they weren’t really doing anything remarkably fresh or innovative with the technology. When considered against the likes of Kraftwerk, Vangelis or even Prince, I found the synth work here to be fairly routine and lacking in the kind of nuance and ear for tone creation that their predecessors and contemporaries were able to showcase. I feel like there was also a lot of fairly limited and uninspiring pieces of melodic writing across the record, with not a lot in the way of hooks, especially for a record that seems to be approaching the general sound palette of synth pop. The other thing that really lets this record down is the vocal ability of Bernard Sumner. He’s terrible. He can’t hold a note, and what makes it worse is that it sounds like he knows it. There’s so little conviction in his vocal delivery that it almost feels apologetic in places, which is hardly the type of presentation that gels with the synth-pop, dane-rock style of music that they are presenting. It’s entirely possible for an average or even bad singer to be incredibly successful if the music and vibe of the music they write works. Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop and even Thom Yorke are not classically brilliant singers, but they sing with conviction and work their music to fit their vocal style. Here, that couldn’t be further from the truth. That’s not to say there weren’t moments on this record that I didn’t like. When they started playing with slightly darker atmospherics and richer production, things did get a little better, and I could hear flashes of quality. The run through This Time Of Night, Sunrise and Elegig was pretty good, but outside of that, I honestly couldn’t find much to grab hold of. There were some decent beats, and some solid bits of bass work from Peter Hook, but musically, I just didn’t find it to be particularly inspiring. And it’s also one of those records to which time has not been kind. It sounds very 80s, but in a more “dated” way than a “cool” way, and for music to withstand the test of time despite an aging production value, the actual musical content itself needs to be way stronger than this. Love Vigilantes - I quite like the subtle synth rumble in this, and the beat is pretty solid, but melodically it feels a bit limp. Bernard Sumner’s vocal lacks conviction too, with a slightly weak delivery and a bit of a loose approach to pitch. It also feels quite one dimensional from a dynamic point of view. There are some cool bits of production here and there, but a lot of those feel like echoes of the power of Joy Division leaking into the band, rather than something unique to their New Order sonic fingerprint. The Perfect Kiss - Well hello 80’s new wave synth pop. The core track is pretty decent here, but it does feel very let down by the lead vocal, which suffers from similar issues to the opener. I also feel like the vocal melody is very noncommittal in a way, and needs more decisiveness. The middle eight when they move to an instrumental section is much, much better, and it even drifts towards something approaching the more dance floor oriented sound that I was expecting. Tonally, it does show its age a bit, but that’s not too detrimental to it overall. This Time Of Night - This is better. There’s a bit more atmospheric work and the production helps to elevate the tonal blend into something more compelling. There’s a good pulsing pace and drive to the drums and throbbing synth lines too. The vocal still isn’t the strongest, but it works much better because he’s not trying to do a pop style vocal. It does get weaker when he transitions away from the more semi-sung conversational style to more flat out singing, and he’s very shaky on pitch, which is a shame. It’s not bad though. Sunrise - This is more like it. There’s pace, drive and sonically, it’s got a lot more about it. The atmosphere of the production is cool and, while the vocal still isn’t fantastic, it works better as part of the overall soundscape here. They build the thickness of the wall of sound through various places, giving a good bit of dynamic range. The lead guitar is quite roaming, but I actually like the almost uncertain feel that gives the vocal sections, and then it gathers everything together in the instrumental sections and the bridge. This album is starting to make a bit more sense now. Elegia - Another step in the right direction. This is atmospheric and full of shifting, layered tones, but with an underlying weight. The rumbling synth bass is lush, and the arpeggiated work in the higher register works really nicely to give a bit of air and ambience to the composition. They throw in some nice heavyweight bits too, and the intensity ramps nicely towards the end with the distorted guitar. Nice. Sooner Than You Think - The first minute of this, while sonically interesting, feels a bit unfocused. When the vocal and lead guitar come in, they echo that aspect, with a slightly roaming approach to melody that doesn’t really connect well with the rest of the track for me. The vocal is again pretty weak. Behind those two most prominent aspects of the track, there’s a promising base on which the song has been constructed, with cool synth tones and well structured musical choices, but it really feels like they half arsed the leads. The instrumental section is a bit better, but the solo work hardly screams quality either. Meh. Sub-Culture - It’s another one that has a lot going for it. The drums are great, with some cool electronic drum programming. The combinations of synth tones are great, and the underlying musical structure is great. The verses actually work very well as a whole, but I really start to get lost in the chorus. I don’t like the vocal melody, and I think the delivery has a weird cadence, and just doesn’t stack up with the quality of the rest of the work. The atmospheric production is great and they use an ever-thickening sound palette really well. It’s just a shame that the vocal is so weak. Face Up - A fantastic start with some very cool delayed synth arpeggiations. The synth choirs sound a bit of their time, but they’re building a cool, dark vibe. And then…. what the hell? It’s just weird and the quality of the sharp synth tones are very poor. This sounds like they’ve just randomly slapped together a bunch of ideas that they’ve got left over. It’s not coherent and has a very weird vibe. There are some decent bits in there, but the arrangement feels fairly scattergun. There are bits where I started to get into it, but even in those, this has some of the most significant examples of dated synth sounds on the whole record. And Bernard Sumner really can’t sing in falsetto.

Wow I never noticed this on their hits, but that guy can not carry a tune.

Started out well then took a creepy turn

Only New Order can sound this upbeat and somehow sound devastatingly dark at the same time. Favorite track: Sub Culture

Nothing to say really, sounded good to me :)

It's New Order, baby, simply the coolest sound of the 80's. And, by the way, Bernard Sumner's vocals are awesome: frail and hesitant like he himself was when he had to take the place of Ian Curtis (indeed it took quite long to convince him). If you know the background, his voice sounds even moving. And, anyway, it is a perfect match for his lyrics about disfunctional human relationaships. Those who mock his way of singing just show they don't know shit...

I was really hoping I could get through my life without having to hear this, or any other New Order stuff for that matter. But here we are. It's truly shocking to me that this was so popular and that critics were so enamored. Simply incomprehensible. I have a lot of complaints about New Order, from their lack of focus (am I The Cure? Am I Depeche Mode?) to the infantile lyrics to their inability to simply tune their instruments. Worst of all, the sound that gives me nightmares in the daytime, is Bernard Sumner's appalling vocals. Just awful. But I tried. I listened to the whole thing. I even tried to like Sunrise, Love Vigilantes... but that dude's voice is terrible. And to think people criticize Robert Plant and Freddie Mercury.

This is the album when New Order moved into their own group instead of the ashes of Joy Division. They mastered the art of synth over traditional rock instruments. The lyrics on this album, though, are a little dry, and that’s what’s preventing it from going full 5 stars.

the second best New Order album on the list

love vigilantes is such a heartbreaking tune to start an album with but it def works

is this really what new order is known for tho? just put blue monday on and call it a day. sub-culture is actually what i'm here for. if only the first 30min of the album was like this. it was fine. mostly just blended into background noise. is this more worth listening to before i die than old khmer psychedelic rock? eh, not really. blue monday would've been, tho.

I mean this was fine? Nothing caught my ear, and I didn't necessarily hate it? 2.5 seems appropriate it feels like? It didn't stand out to me in any way.

Tråkigt

Låtarna med gitarr, bra. Låtarna med synt, mindre bra.

I enjoy new wave enough but there wasn’t much to this album that I haven’t heard before.

Synth pop; it kind of reminds me of a lot of other stuff from the time. Nice album start so far, on the 2nd song. It's only 40 minutes long lol. Yeah, it's a decent listen; I don't have too many notes yet. Okay, this sounds like it could be in ahs. Specifically, the song Elegia. lot of instrumental stuff, which I'm enjoying as a Focus Friday type album. The song " Sooner Than You Think " kinda feels very, umm... what is that movie?? american psycho.

I had not heard the whole album before. Seems like they were just getting their seas legs with this one but there are some great tracks on it.

80s Synthesizer, nice bassline

Canonical New Wave I hadn’t previously heard in album form, just happy to be here for it.

It's New Order, it's witnessing their evolution after Ian Curtis and Joy Division and it's witnessing what they will become. Loved to listen to this Easy 5/5

Амейзинг

If I could score it 6 stars, I'd be talking about giving it 7.

Solid new order album without any of the hits. Really liked the track elegia

I'm not a Cure fan but this sounds like Cure lite to me, just generic sounding early 80s bland pop that had absolutely no staying power. I did like Elegia quite a bit and Sunrise is alright, but neither can bump this up to a 3 for me. 2 stars

This whole album bangs, fucking hell all these songs are so good. I can hear how influential this was on so many artists

Sumner cannot sing…and that’s all a part of the charm. NO rocks. Never listened to this album all the way through before. Absolute knock on from me, as it’s so good. 5/5!

why is bro on the cover art

Good stuff, great band. It was a new album to me, without any of my preexisting favourite New Order tracks, which helped me just enjoy the sound. A low 4 or high 3- has one notable whiff (for me) of 'sub-culture', it's strange that was a single!

Nothing special.

1/2

Stunning. There are no truly stand out individual tracks in the way of Blue Monday or True Faith, but the whole album works perfectly as a journey from post-punk to the more electronic dance version of New Order.

Cool kinda weird sorta slow but also fast songs, I like the vibe of it

DAYUM, they cookin' Full on 80's and I love 80's

I really wanted to like this album. New Order has always been hit or miss with me. Really like Joy Division and I have always equated them in my mind, but they are so different. This one is very light and sunny, almost to the point of being cloying. “Love Vigilantes” is a great pop song but the production or sound or something is just off. I listened to Peter Hook’s live version with his band The Light and it’s faster and grittier, really makes it pop. “Sunrise” also has some really good riffs, but something is just restrained. I can’t put my finger on what it is because the music has potential. It just doesn’t sound right

this was really cool, i’d heard most of these songs but never listened in full. adding to my library

I really enjoy new order. It is crazy how they adapted their sound after being part of joy division. You can hear how this leads into the cure in any five to ten years. I will listen to this again at some point. 7/10 Top song... Sunrise

I don't like this style of music

Pretty chill album, would listen again.

Very 80s

this was alright, not really my jam unlike some other New Order i've heard

The first synth-pop album that can honestly be said to have been played by real live people. And the bass is doing its thing, folks.

I love New Order! The hits are great and the weaker tracks are still very enjoyable and listenable. I somehow hadn't heard a single track from this album before, so it was great to hear all of these tracks for the first time. You can definitely still feel the Post-Punk style that Ian Curtis left on the members, but New Order manages to balance the haunting style, that their ex-bandmate brought to Joy Division, with Synthpop and Dance influences. My favourite tracks were 'Love Vigilantes', 'Sunrise' and 'Sub-Culture', though the whole album was very consistent!

New order.

Boring

Gotta admit the selection of New Order albums for the book is strange, surely Power, Corruption and Lies and Brotherhood would have made more sense if they only got 2. Anyway I like the band so not complaining about this coming up either! Plenty of highlights on this - Love Vigilantes, Perfect Kiss, Sunrise, Face Up, there are lots of tracks I liked. The rhythm section is on point here, every song has a pleasing groove and had me nodding along. Loved it

qué puta maravilla. the perfect kiss es ORO.

Completely obsessed with Elegia. Sounds straight out of a video game / movie (and it turns out Hideo Kojima used it for a MSGV trailer so there you go). Excited to explore more of their discography!

Not my style

Enjoyable album.

Flashes of real brilliance, especially in the instrumentals. Otherwise just pretty good strong 7

Depressing in a fun way.

This is a nice one, like the sound. Think I will listen to it again.

Wow. I was really surprised with this one. A super sexy & dancy post punk/alternative record. Shit literally makes me wanna dance with a goth girl under the moonlight rn. From the stuff I’ve heard of Joy Division, this offers such a different vibe. I really like it. It’s a bit separated from the dark and literal lyrics from those days, and with this new order record, it’s a lot more ambiguous lyrically and plays off the dancy beats in such a fun way.

New order is my new favorites. The influence and the range that they have on the guitars. Both guitars just battling each other yet lifting each other up it’s an amazing blend love and yearn so much. The perfect kiss is just an 80s wet dream, synths droney vocals and multi instrumentals. Oh wait I meant my wet dream. Hidden behind an iconic discography Low-Life is a look into the love that one can have in the gothic. It feels like running through a castle exploring every room and hearing a new song at every turn. Take elegia for example. That piano and harrowing vocals take it to another level and the guitar just sings between the castle walls. This is perfectly crafted and yeah it’s amazing and something I am very glad I heard

Was kind of fun but don’t really remember anything that stuck out.

Well I just got done saying I don't like new wave, but Low-Life has more a of a rock flavor that I can get behind. Elegia was not that at all but was probably my favorite song. Just really pretty synth work with some guitar sprinkled in. All in all this still isn't my daily jam but I appreciated it and might like more from New Order.

The album was better than I was fearing, as New Order is typically not my style. That being said the album was fairly enjoyable. More melodic than I anticipated, while it didn't strike a massive chord with me it was still one I enjoyed listening to and wouldn't turn it off if it was on.

Fantastic, Elegia was definitely the highlight

This is very much my shit.

Good stuff. Not great stuff, but good stuff

Some cool sounds and fun instrumentation but the singing is just bad

The first track is fine, Love Vigilantes, mostly because I think of the Iron and Wine cover which is better. The rest of the album the vocal is so off key it's genuinely hard to listen to.

Electronic music and synth pop is not really my thing there are often many albums I would pick before I listen to something electronic but I have to admit this is pretty catchy in more than a few moments. The heavy deep synth beats and some of those brutal basslines really set the tone for Low-Life it is kind of melancholic but powerful. I think the bassplayer plays his bass as a lead melody instrument sometimes which is really cool. The vocals are solid. Nothing special or outstanding but fits the style in my opinion. I think they lost their old leadsinger who was in Joy Division with them so they had to replace that spot did a solid job as mentioned. After going through the album a few times I'm still not too sure what to think about it. There are those catchy moments but its also like expected not my type of music and the moments where I put Low-Life on will be rather rare. I still have respect for their new and old band and acknowledge their influence. 3,0/5

this seems pretty high for an album called low-life

“Love Vigilantes” has such a calming sound to it. I love the twangy sounds of the guitar mixed with upbeat synth in “The Perfect Kiss.” I also enjoyed “Sunrise” quite a bit. “Sooner Than You Think” is a bit weaker than the previous songs. Oh damn, the opening to “Sub-culture” is amazing, and so is what I imagine would be like a dance breakdown in the middle of the song near the 3-minute mark. “Face Up” was a great ending track. Overall, this was a great album. I’ve heard other New Order albums (at least bits and pieces), but I wasn’t familiar with this one. I’m glad I listened to it.

Really had hoped for more from New Order. This one is just ok.

Very solid dark wave album. A little too light in the more popular tracks, but there are more than a few hidden gems that slam dense bass in your face and are impossible to not bob along with. Very satisfying overall listen. Top tracks: Sunrise, Elegia, Sooner Than You Think

Incredible. Knew a few covers

Uneventful. Uninfluential. Unimportant.

Dancy. Enjoyed it.

I was expecting to hate this, and I'm surprised to find that I didn't. I didn't especially _like_ it, but it was listenable at least. 3/5.

A new wave band with a harmonica? New order is absolutely underrated and you can't change my mind.

It's taken me a long time to even like New Order. This was fine

Really solid album, had no idea who these guys were before this project. Listen to a lot of their stuff, love the mix of post punk and dance theme.

No se entiende nada la voz y suena mal. Pero el estilo de la música del disco muy bueno, igual siento que es bizzarre love triangle sin lo pegadizo de esa canción.

Good jam

🤖🕶️💥💋🌃

"this is okay I guess" -> "wait does this rule?" vocals are kinda awful sometimes. and it's 80s as hell (affectionate)

Found this a bit boring and repetitive unfortunately. Won’t listen again.

Classic 80s feel, but nothing that truly elevates it. Solid but nothing that really screams smash hit

80s slop poo poo

This album marked the transition from punks with synths to a more mainstream sound and vision Its fine, just not one of the NO records I reach for very often

Great bass lines. Love the mix of guitars and synths.

5/10

It's a solid album. Not my favorite New Order album but it has some gems. I couldn't get that review that it sounds like someone doing bad karaoke out of my head though. Spot on

This was better than the first album in that I didn’t skip through most of the songs…just some of them. The first song was the best, I thought maybe I had misremembered how bad the first album was. I was quickly corrected. This was just weird. It was like New England weather, if you don’t like the musical style, just wait a few minutes. Problem was it was like going from a downpour to a flood. A couple of ok songs but not great.

A poor man’s version of The Cure. Not impressed. What really blows my mind is that I was alive in the 80’s when band’s like this were supposedly blowing up because of critical acclaim, yet I never heard of most of them. Why is that?

Quintessential 80s synth pop. Always liked Love Vigilantes.

Love vigilantes would make a kick ass band name. Enjoyed the song, enjoyed the album. This is really good 80s pop rock. I can't say there is anything particularly remarkable here, but it's a solid listen.

Not sure why I've never really gotten into New Order, despite being a Joy Division fan. Maybe it's because there's such a big difference in sound between the New Order songs I know. But here you can definitely hear the similarities. The drums and guitars are similar, but somehow everything has a lightness to it, rather than a darkness. I struggled with the vocals at times (they sometimes drift towards Morrissey territory), but other than that I really enjoyed it.

Highlight: Sunrise, Love Vigilantes. In a nutshell: embrace the synth. The beats are great. Drums, bass, synth and keys, fantastic. It's the vocals that drag it down for me. There's something a bit harsh, a little off about their delivery. It's a departure record for New Order, for sure. Less post-punk sound, more synth but it keeps the rock parts and danceable beats we know them for. Overall: 4/10

I wasn't a huge fan of the beginning and the end, but I loved the middle of the record. "This Time Of Night", "Sunrise" and "Elegía" were the highlights for me. If I'd liked every track as much as those 3, this would have been an easy 5/5 for me. 4/5

Not sure why I’ve never given Low Life a proper listen, but now I can’t stop.

This is a great record, and I don't care that Bernard Sumner can't really sing. Quite gothic. It makes me yearn for the day when regular lads with good taste (and some songwriting skills) could become mega pop stars.

This sound is my weakness. It's repetitive, but it BANGS.

That's more like it

Everyone starts somewhere. Would probably listen again.

Solid stuff

Love that review that says this album is more suited to dancing than listening. Kinda weird that it has to be stated that different people make music for different reasons. What a fucking bozo take lmao. Anyway, this album is fine. Track 5 was pretty fun and a neat departure from the rest of the album. Very Tron.