From My Head To My Toes, From the Words In the Book

Power, Corruption & Lies - May 1983

The various sounds of New Order start to mature and come together in an album format with Power, Corruption & Lies. Live instrumentation pop songs ("Age of Consent") sit side by side with brooding Joy Division-esque holdovers ("We All Stand"), up-tempo dance tracks ("Ultraviolence"), and sweet slower ballads ("Your Silent Face"). The idea of mixing such different forms of music onto one album seems a bit of a risk, but New Order almost pull it off here.

Unfortunately, Power, Corruption & Lies just isn't that strong of a record overall. It contains two marvelous classics ("Age of Consent" and "Leave Me Alone"), two pretty solid tracks ("The Village" and "Your Silent Face"), but the remaining four numbers are duds as far as I'm concerned. "We All Stand" practically destroys any momentum generated by the opener "Age of Consent". "The Village" would have been better suited in the number two slot. "5 8 6" feels like a poor imitation of "Blue Monday", while "Ultraviolence" and "Ecstasy" sort of form a forgettable lump near the end of the album. The latter is almost redeemable, but its placement next to "Ultraviolence" sucks some of its identity away.

The two outer tracks are the stars of the record. "Age of Consent" continues the New Order tradition of starting the record with a killer song that will bounce around the brain for hours on end. It's a beautiful fast-paced pop song with vocals by Bernard Sumner that signify that he's left the mumbled monotone of Movement behind. "Leave Me Alone" is moving, sincere, and feature lovely overlapping guitars and bass. Around three minutes into the song, the guitars burst forth with more vigor and really give the song an emotional thrust.

Basically, Power, Corruption & Lies is a sandwich made up tasteless meat, some really good cheese, in between two slices of awesome bread. It's important as an indicator of the form the next few records will take.

6 out of 10

It should be noted that American version of this CD also contains "Blue Monday" and "The Beach". However, these two songs are not offically part of Power, Corruption & Lies. As a result, I've removed those two tracks when I ripped the album down to my mp3 player. Ain't technology grand?