Cover art for New Order's album: Power, Corruption and Lies.
Credit: Timothy Sexton | ©Timothy Sexton
Contrary to the ill-informed opinion of fans who should know better, New Order’s Power, Corruption and Lies is not their debut album, though it probably should be. After all, history states that a band’s sophomore album isn’t supposed to outshine their debut album, especially when the first album is one of the best albums of the year.
New Order made a huge leap forward with Power, Corruption and Lies. Anyone listening to this album for the first time directly after listening to the two Joy Division albums which preceded the deaths of both lead singer Ian Curtis and the band itself would have a difficult time figuring out that three of the four members were involved in all three albums. Whereas the Joy Division albums were guitar-heavy Movement was, as its title implies, a move away from that and toward a more electronic sound, Power, Corruption and Lies is techno gone wild. Although the current CD includes as part of the album both the groundbreaking 12 inch single Blue Monday and its instrumental remix The Beach, this review will consider the album as it was originally released on vinyl in 1983.
The album kicks off with a roar, courtesy of the almost manic Age of Consent. If you saw the original trailer for Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola, then you are familiar with this song. Its driving rhythm was used to great effect in that trailer. It’s a masterpiece of a song, currently the ringtone on my cell phone, and it’s also an apt opening number for this album because it is guitar-heavy with almost none of the broad wash of keyboards that almost every song that will follow contains. The lyrical centerpiece of the song is a theme that New Order would visit even more successfully in the single Blue Monday. “I'm not the kind that needs to tell you/ Just what you want me to.” Age of Consent is the perfect lead-in song because in a way it’s a goodbye to the guitar dominance of the band. New Order albums would be dominated by the synthesizer until the turn of the century.
New Order made a huge leap forward with Power, Corruption and Lies. Anyone listening to this album for the first time directly after listening to the two Joy Division albums which preceded the deaths of both lead singer Ian Curtis and the band itself would have a difficult time figuring out that three of the four members were involved in all three albums. Whereas the Joy Division albums were guitar-heavy Movement was, as its title implies, a move away from that and toward a more electronic sound, Power, Corruption and Lies is techno gone wild. Although the current CD includes as part of the album both the groundbreaking 12 inch single Blue Monday and its instrumental remix The Beach, this review will consider the album as it was originally released on vinyl in 1983.
The album kicks off with a roar, courtesy of the almost manic Age of Consent. If you saw the original trailer for Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola, then you are familiar with this song. Its driving rhythm was used to great effect in that trailer. It’s a masterpiece of a song, currently the ringtone on my cell phone, and it’s also an apt opening number for this album because it is guitar-heavy with almost none of the broad wash of keyboards that almost every song that will follow contains. The lyrical centerpiece of the song is a theme that New Order would visit even more successfully in the single Blue Monday. “I'm not the kind that needs to tell you/ Just what you want me to.” Age of Consent is the perfect lead-in song because in a way it’s a goodbye to the guitar dominance of the band. New Order albums would be dominated by the synthesizer until the turn of the century.
|
|