Normally just skip this one.... It does nothing for me....

I think “We All Stand” is a brilliant song, but it doesn’t make much sense coming out of “Age of Consent” or going into “The Village”. It kills the excellent, propulsive energy established by “Age of Consent”, an energy which could’ve been maintained by a different track.
Were the song placed alongside the other, more sonically dark tracks on the record - “Ultraviolence” and “Ecstasy” - I think it would’ve worked far better.

Honestly, the placement of “We All Stand” is my only real gripe with the otherwise phenomenal Power, Corruption & Lies (still my favorite New Order album, and perhaps my absolute favorite record).

Edited by user 18 May 2018 16:35:08(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks, yeah i do recall reading your review of this one, good summary.







Absolutely agree.The placement of We All Stand was always weird and like you, my only gripe.Having it as second track after opener Age Of Consent is a real dampener after the first song's breathless starting sprint.I'd have put The Village as track 2 to keep up that opening momentum, then have We All Stand as track 3 to give us a chance to get our breath back.Then if We All Stand was track 3 the slow languid vibe would segue into the slow languid vibe of the first minute or two of 586 before that song puts the foot down on the accelerator and things really get going again.But in that scenario you'd have maybe too much slow languid vibe if We All Stand was followed by the slow languid intro to 586 so it's a tricky one.

Sometime back i created in my iTunes a version of Power, Corruption & Lies that included Murder.I went for having the track sandwiched between Ecstasy and Leave Me Alone.The nearest song to Murder on the album in my opinion is Ulltraviolence, it has a similar vibe.But do you have Ultraviolence followed by Murder? Maybe a bit too much darkness that way so i stuck Ecstasy in between.

... i also agree that We All Stand shouldn't have been track #2. when i first heard the track, i thought it should've been a B-Side if anything. would've been easier for me when playing the record, so i wouldn't have to get up and skip it every time. :P

Couldn’t agree more. I love every track and PC&L (and technique) still sounds as good today.

I agree on pretty much everything you say, Michael.

We All Stand, IMO, doesn't come anywhere near the horror of Rock The Shack, Slow Jam, Chemical and Liar.

Jetstream ain't too bad. I think it's mindless pop, really. Nothing offensive. I think it was the whole New Order:Sisters Sisters thing that made most people balk at the idea. It didn't help that the song wasn't great. I think that that combination has probably given it a worse reputation than it (probably) deserves.

Johannson / Fox. Neither float my boat, so to speak.

The only thing I'd disagree with you on, Michael, is the 'list is long' statement. Apart from the four I mentioned above, I'm struggling to come up with any more really terrible songs by the band (granted, Working Overtime, Jetstream, Run Wild, Morning, Night & Day, Krafty, Superheated and a handful of others don't appeal to me, but I know others that like them).

I personally think that New Order, more than most bands, can be singled out as producing very few 'duffers'. Even their average songs are pretty damn good, especially when compared with the vast majority of bands out there.

This includes their peers.
For instance, I bloody love Depeche Mode. After JD / NO (they are one band, IMO), they are definitely my second favourite band. However, they've probably written more dross than they have good songs. It took them four LPs to make a halfway decent one; five before they made a great one (Black Celebration). And don't get me started on their post-SOFAD output.

Compare that to NO. The second LP is a bona fide masterpiece. If you include the JD ones, that's four pretty much 'universally agreed' British classics in the first five LPs. Talk about smashing it out of the park from the outset. If you include their next two LPs (Brotherhood and Technique), you've got 5 out 7 classics. Not bad for 4-5 ruffians, with zero musical training, from Salford/Macc/Manchester.

Anyway, I've rambled enough.

Edited by user 02 June 2018 05:50:01(UTC)  | Reason: Typos, again...

See - he's struggling to get to 10. :-)

Try All You Want is a stretch.

I used to really dislike State Of The Nation and never listened to it.
Now, I really like it. Not their best, I know, but still pretty good.

Edited by user 04 June 2018 11:33:29(UTC)  | Reason: Typos, again...

I like We All Stand - especially as it appears in Pumped Full Of Drugs, with the sequencer bassline, and a drum machine playing the rhythm track:

We All Stand, Tokyo, 1985

People tend to forget their reggae connection. They covered Turn The Heater On during their second Peel Session because it was a favorite of Ian's. Too Late from the same session has that dubby feel, and the Italian tour dates in 1982 were super dubby, with extra long versions of some songs segueing together, lots of delay thrown in, etc.

Rolling Stone, Milan, 1982

I Told You So feels like a nod to that time. People hate it, but it's one of the tracks on WFTSC that I don't skip.

Apart from the obvious (Working Overtime, Rock The Shit), my least favorite "classic" era song is As It Was When It Was. I hate that song.

- 50pn

One of my favourites, esp the PFOD version with the longer outtake.

Same here, it just drags.

I do prefer the Peel Session, way better with the synth bass. I'm afraid Hooky's slightly casual bass work on the album version ruins it a bit. Agreed it kills the opening of PCL too. However trying to improve the PCL track list is a tough one. Maybe Ultraviolence second but then you can't follow that with The Village and where do you put We All Stand? Its way too confusing!