Thanks for this. Good to see a long piece on Low Life, as i've said in another thread 1982-1985 era New Order is way more interesting to me than all endless JD stuff around these days. Pretty good writing though a bit clichéd in places but hey it's better than anything i could do.Though i thought we were going to get more on why his friend thought Low Life was "bollocks" or did i miss something? Was it because his friend was an old fan of Rolling Stones and such like or was one of the old JD raincoat brigade?

Brought back a lot of memories of when Low Life first came out, i too remember being absolutely stunned upon my first glimpse of the cover.It seemed light years ahead of anything anyone had ever done before.I played Low Life to death in 1985, great days.Pity Face Up was never released as a single though.

Oh ok, just glanced through the article again and the writer's friend regarded Low Life as bollocks because New Order's "move to a digitised pop present was a step too far" after Joy Division.Welll... i can maybe see his point but i guess in a way i always thought that it was a good thing in a way that Joy Division was before my time so i didn't have a closed mind to the possibilities of New Order. I'm probably viewed by old JD fans as one of "the kids " that only got into New Order through hearing Blue Monday which is kind of correct as BM was the first record of theirs that i bought but the song that really started my serious interest in them was Age Of Consent.My interest in them would probably have gone no further than BM if i'd never heard Age Of Consent.

The writer says of Thieves Like Us "as the one that sounds most anchored to its time" which i don't entirely agree with.It doesn't sound to me at all like any other song from 1984 , well you could argue possibly that the synths on the long intro could just about be mixed into Maddonna's Holiday maybe but apart from that no in my opinion.

Each to his own, which is English for fuck.
If New Order are a criminally over-rated band (that I happen to like), then Low-Life is their most criminally overrated LP (that I happen to like too). The first half slays but it's only four songs, including a pointlessly and crudely truncated Perfect Kiss. The second side is, in turn, boring - average pop - about whacking off - possibly the worst song they ever made. And that last bit works without the word 'they'. Give me Technique or PCL.

I put Low Life on the other day for the first time in eons.I can't decide if i still like it all or not really... Love Vigilantes is still undeniably stirring as are This Time Of Night, Sunrise and Elegia but Sooner Than You Think, the edited Perfect Kiss and Sub Culture just give me a headache now. Face Up gives me a bit of a headache but is still deliriously joyous.Hooky's bass on Face Up is possibly the most dizzyingly joyous thing he ever did.


When i first saw the sleeve it, to me, had a vaguely 1960s ish thing about it that i could never quite put my finger on yet at the same time futuristic all brought into the present.

Edited by user 05 June 2015 05:33:52(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I'm amazed people can make so much out of so little.

My favorite NO album though I also like Technique that much.
That's the album that made a NO fan a long long time ago

Mine had all four. Traded it in to Amoeba in San Francisco a couple of years back.

Albums dead boggy, but they all were then. Nice bit of HiNrg on the second aff though, but overall Brotherhoods better imo.