New Order Album Review: Brotherhood

New Order’s follow-up to their masterpiece Low-life album was Brotherhood. Brotherhood has the reputation for being the most schizophrenic of New Order’s albums. When it was first released on vinyl, side one featured more guitar heavy songs than were found on any of the previous three New Order albums. 

On the other hand, side two felt more comfortably New Order-esque in its heavier reliance on synthesizers and keyboards. In addition, there is a ragged quality to the album that is unusual for a band normally known for polishing their music to a high sheen. Brotherhood remains the favorite New Order album for many fans, though I personally would rate it below Low-life and even possibly below Technique. That said, it was clearly 1987’s album of the year.

Where Brotherhood does stand as the singular accomplishment in New Order’s canon is in its finally jettisoning the shadow of Ian Curtis, the band’s leader singer in the 1970s when they were known as Joy Division. In my opinion, there seemed to be something inherent in nearly every song that New Order released prior to this album that seemed to be either about or directed toward Ian Curtis in some way. With Brotherhood, that no longer became the case. There is no hanging presence of Ian Curtis over this album.

Brotherhood get off to a great start. Paradise is classic New Order, with a persistent and driving drumbeat and the usual brilliance of bassist Peter Hook carrying the song forward. It has a slightly ominous feel to it that I’ve always felt was very similar to Chris Isaak’s greatest song ever, Dancin’. Actually, Paradise sounds very much like Isaak’s song right down to the opening drumbeat. I’m not sure exactly why both those songs have such a dark ambience to them since they are both fairly upbeat and up-tempo, but listen to them both and see if you don’t agree.