Whilst it's still a good album I think it's by far their worst album. Having said that I really enjoy side two of it, particularly All Day Long.

As per the above comment brotherhood was my first album I got rather than bought. However I have bought it on every single format since so I can be forgiven for that initial pirate copy. Love brotherhood but not as good as technique, pc&l, lowlife and on par with get ready. Favourite track for me as it is when it was.
It was my favourite new order album at the time until technique came long. But since then I now also prefer lowlife and pc&l which is nowadays my favourite.

Not sure offhand where to find SB of "Angel Dust" but "All Day Long" can be found here.

Edited by user 17 May 2013 09:35:25(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Andy, what specific show is that? I may already have it.

Why yes, I do! Thanks for the reminder. :)

Always like Brotherhood. Uneven, but very much New Order.

Paradise and Weirdo are fine and always worth a listen, but then I tended to skip the last 3 songs of the first side. As It Is When It Was seems like Bernard's first attempt to write a normal radio rock song, and the studio version just doesn't work. Maybe it was in a way the first Bad Lieu type song. Bored me, then and now. The 4th track seems sort of like filler, the only thing I ever remember about it is that it is short and has sort of an "Isolation" bass line. Way of Life is a nice tune, but hardly of classic status.

BLT is near heavenly perfection, even thou I don't believe in heaven. I love Steve's beats of the album version, almost sort of a very naive attempt to be white boy hip hop. All Day Long seems to be dated the most, but the synths and bass are beautiful if cheesy, always good to hear. Angel Dust seems to have a lot of production work put into it, sounds more interesting than it actually is I suppose. Always like Every Little Counts, knew it was a playful VU/Reed pisstake from the start, glad to see them being creative and playful.

In retrospect State of the Nation is a big mistake, sounding worse each decade. Trying to jam all the aspects of New Order, and trying to be political, and then adding those horrible female faux soul backing vocals to make it pop dance... the song aims really high and ends up a clumsy mediocre track that isn't a very good dance song, nor a good rock song, nor a half way decent pop song. Shame is shameful with even more female vocals. I wonder who is to blame for the backing vocals. Tony Wilson's idea for world domination? Bernard? Gillian? A dare?

Edited by user 17 May 2013 21:54:39(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I didn't like "State of the Nation" when I heard it for the first time in the 80s, but now it's one of my favorites from 1986. Time changes everything...

With the invention of the iPod I find myself using 'shuffle' rather than listening to an entire album (unless it is a new release like LostS.). Brotherhood wouldn't be my first choice to listen to a whole album. Paradise is probably my fav song.

SOTN was great when I first heard it, but now I can only stand the 7" usually.

Need to get back into album listens...

I remember hearing Broken Promise on the radio one night. I leaped out of bed and cranked up the radion. DJ had not spoken but I knew it was NO. Bought the lp soon there after. My hippie liberal uncle bought it too which surprised me because he thought it as an acoustic lp. Good lp not their best. Thought I read somewhere that they recorded it because factory needed money. Also the only CD I own that "rotted." The inner metal disintegrated and is no longer playable.

I will admit this one goes on far too long but I'm certainly glad they released it. Really like the chorus to this. And the 'orchestral' synthy bits. And the guitar sounds, And the hop-hop drum machine sounds.

John Robie's efforts with New Order are probably not going to go down in history as among the band's finest. That juddering start/stop production, bits of the arrangement randomly crashing into each other, the blaring female vocals ruining any semblance of the track you were trying to enjoy... I just found it fucking dreadful and it's probably no coincidence Shell-shock or State Of The Nation don't feature in many countdowns of the band's finest tracks. He even managed to ruin the Sub-culture 12" on both sides as well. As a result, I think Robie's production ghost hovers over Brotherood a tad, which is why parts of the LP just don't work. It's probably not very surprising as he was technically the last producer they worked with around that time so they may have picked up some of his methods; Brotherhood definitely suffers as a result, in my opinion.

Hard to believe just over a year later they'd be working with Stephen Hague who would ditch all of those production gimmicks and actually coax some great melodies and music out of the band in the shape of True Faith and 1963, coincidentally tracks which have barely aged at all and still sound pretty modern by comparison.

When you listen to the rest of those songs including State Of The Nation & Shell-shock, I'm just amazed BLT made it out alive without a barrage of female vox and wakkah-wakkah guitars pushed way up in the mix.

Edited by user 18 May 2013 17:43:52(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified