Without You I Go Insane

Low-Life - May 1985
The Perfect Kiss/Kiss of Death - May 1985
Sub-culture/Dub-vulture - November 1985

It's hard for me to talk about any of these three releases individually without referring back to the others that came out that year. "The Perfect Kiss" and "Sub-culture" are singles for Low-Life, despite having different mixes than that of the album versions of the two songs. The release of this record and its related singles marks the beginning of the New Order's longest period of sustained high quality work and my favorite era of the band. There are no clunkers on Low-Life; the entire album is full of some of New Order's best songs.

As with their last two full length records, this one opens with an upbeat, pop classic. "Love Vigilantes" kicks off melodica, live drums and the band playing their instruments, leaving the programming for later tracks. This song feels like a relative to "Age of Consent", but more focused. Bernard Sumner delivers a great narrative about a soldier that returns home to his wife and child after fighting a war.

The second track is "The Perfect Kiss" which was the first single for the album. This song is an amazing combination of live instrumentation and programming. The album version is considerably shorter than the 12" single mix. It lacks an extended intro, the third verse (which happens to contain the song's title), and the full outro. The album take of "The Perfect Kiss" is still a great song, but to fully appreciate it, the full version must be heard. Lyrically, this is one of Sumner's best. It easily could be taken as a song about Ian Curtis and Sumner's feelings of failure for not seeing the signs of his friend's impending suicide. This song is a masterpiece and is easily one of my favorite New Order tunes. The B-Side to the single is just a instrumental remix of the A-Side.

Things get turn dark and slinky with "This Time of Night". Sumner makes a plea to a lover, who he cannot live without. It's about as sexy a song as you'll get out of New Order, but it's also a little creepy. That edginess draws in the listener like a moth to the flame.

"Sunrise" has to be one of the hardest rocking songs in New Order's catalogue. It pulls a feint with a low, slow keyboard intro by Gillian Gilbert, but Peter Hook's bass soon puts an end to that. Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris quickly follow suit on the guitar and drums, and the song explodes into violent action. The momentum is satisfyingly sustained until the track's conclusion.

The second side of Low-Life slows things up a bit with "Elegia". The cut of this instrumental track that appears on the album is about a quarter of the original twenty minute recording. While this moody, synth-dominated piece is well executed, it's probably a good thing that the band cut it down to about five minutes. If it was any longer, it probably wouldn't have had the lasting appeal that this version attains.

Things pick up a little bit with the lazy, but uptempo, "Sooner Than You Think". This is another stripped down, very live feeling song. It's a wonderful picture of band life on the road and parties in hotels. Extremely catchy, pleasant, and very underrated.

"Sub-culture" is the source material of the second single from Low-Life. The album version is pretty strong, despite some off key singing by Sumner. The single version, mixed by pop and hip hop producer John Robie, is a strange beast, though. On that version, Sumner's vocals are all but dominated by a chorus of disco divas. Also, moments are punctuated with synth-orchestra keyboard hits. I don't think these changes do anything for the song and they rob "Sub-culture" of its intimacy and directness. I think the album version is much stronger. Similar to "The Perfect Kiss", the single's B-Side is a remix of the A-Side.

Low-Life wraps up with the jittery, bouncy "Face Up". This is a very fun number that constantly feels like it's about to fall apart. The chorus is fun to sing and I can't help but yell "Guess what I'm gonna do to you!" at the appropriate moment. This is one of New Order's best album closers.

In my opinion, Low-Life is New Order's first full-length masterpiece. It displays a wide range of the band's various song styles, but all the tracks sit well together, forming a cohesive unit. Also, it establishes New Order as a band that is more than just a singles group. Low-Life ranks as my second favorite New Order album, ever.

Low-Life: 10 out of 10
The Perfect Kiss: 10 out of 10
Sub-culture: 5 out of 10