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January 10, 2002
New Order - Get Ready!
Fully expecting to be disappointed, I played the cd for the first time this afternoon. But before i get to that, let me tell you a little about my love affair with New Order.
When I was 16 years old, music was forbidden to me unless it was pre-screened by my step father. I had secret stashes of music in my locker at school - the Cure Head on the Door on Side A and the Smiths Meat is Murder on the second side. A whole bunch of home recorded tapes of albums loaned by friends.
I was a huge fan of music at the time. I could barely get my fill, and it being before the internet's swell of popularity, I felt alone with my musical taste. I used to search far and wide for anything relating to the stuff I was listening to, I ordered three copies of the Burning Airlines catalog so I could keep one at home, one at school, and loan one to some of my friends. I loved scouring the lists of 4AD releases and looking at the singles and T Shirts that I was forbidden to wear.
And then one day I was hanging out with my friend Aaron Hatz, and he suggested we go to Down in the Valley, a record store in which I would later work. We headed to the location in Wayzata, and I was impressed. I looked all around and only one thing caught my eye. A record by Joy Division called Unknown Pleasures. I bought it, $9 of money I didn't;t really have for an import copy on cassette, original Factory label imprint.
We got out to the car (which was a Mark Donahue model Javelin) and headed back up hi way 101 toward Gray's Bay where Hatz lived. I asked if I could put the cassette on, and Hatz agreed.
I put it in, and he hated it. He made me turn it off even before the second song began. I, however, had never heard anything so amazing in my entire life. The cure were crap pop, I thought, in comparison to what I had heard. I realized then and there that this would be a band that I would listen to for years to come.
Several weeks later I had copied or bought all of Joy Divisions cassettes, and was listening to them continuously. All day, every chance I had. I was excited that in a few years I would be old enough to be on my own and perhaps even see them live one day.
I was talking about that exact point with another friend who had just moved to Minnetonka from the East Coast (he had knowledge of the exotic and unfamiliar - bands like Throwing Muses and Dead Can Dance). He laughed, and told me, "Ian Curtis has been dead for six years."
Damn.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
That meant there would be no new albums. Nothing new for me to listen to. I was heart broken. I really was.
This same friend then told me that the surviving members had gone on to start a new band, and they were called New Order. I went to the record store that afternoon, riding my bike across the treacherous Gray's Bay Bridge. I picked the first cassette that caught my eye, one called Power, Corruption and Lies.
I brought it home, assessed that my step dad wasn't around, popped it into the cassette player. I listened for about three minutes before I pulled th cassette back out of the player thinking, surely this wasn't the right cassette. It had obviously been packaged incorrectly.
But no, the casette was labeled correctly. Perhaps my savvy East Coast friend was wrong.
What I learned, was that there had been a bit of a change. They didn't;t sound the same, they didn't sound similar. If I wanted that I would need to buy their first record, Movement. I was assured that this would be the right thing to do. I wasn't mislead. Movement was closer, but still not the same.
All in all I spent weeks listening to it, adding it to the rotation of the other Joy Division cassettes that I listened to. It grew on me. It grew on me enough for me to mistrust my initial thoughts about that another, horrid, New Order album I had bought.
I listened to it, and it, too, grew on me. And I continued to buy everything I could get my hands on for the next few years -- singles, videos and LP's.
And then.
In 1989 Technique came out. And it changed my whole world view. It was clumsy, electronic and catchy as hell. I loved it, listening to it almost the whole year through. I can still play the entirety of the album in my head, in order, with all the lyrics, my own pre-MP3 MP3 player.
I saw them live with Gene Loves Jezebel and The Sugarcubes. They were great. They had that fucking stadium dancing.
My love of all things Joy Division/New Order told me that I would never be disappointed by their output.
And then.
And then Republic came out. What the fuck is that, I thought as I pulled the cd from my brand new Sony CD player. I listened to it through exactly once, and never listened to it again. That one wasn't worth another listen. No way. Nuh-uh.
And then I heard a few years back that New Order was going to do something new, together. I had long since given up on them - The Other Two, Revenge, Monaco, Electronic (the most promising of the bunch) were all huge wastes of talent, totally self indulgent, bad bands.
october 16th came and went last year (2001) and I didn't;t go to the record store. I hadn't been in weeks, and the New Order record wasn't even on my list.
And then.
And then I was in the record store today, and was looking for something used to buy (I'm on a newly imposed budget - the last six months has seen me buy 6 records). And there, in the recent used arrivals pile was Get Ready.
I picked it up. The packaging is great. Wonderful, Peter Saville art work. I put it back, and then picked it back up again. I bought it.
I mean, after all, I owed it to New Order to give them one last chance. Right?
So I brought it home, put it in, sat on the couch and that's where I still am now a few hours later. This record is the best thing could have possibly put out. They learned form their mistakes - an overly electronically-based RRepublic showed that the band wasn't keeping up with the kids that make Electronica. The world didn't want more synth pop. It wanted guitars.
And guitars is what the gave us. The opening track starts with crushing guitars, pounding electronic beats. Th rest of the record is a mix of electric and acoustic guitar driven tracks. It's a mature record, for a band that's been around for 20 years.
No, don't worry. The awkward clumsiness is still there. His angst-y lyrics still sound as though they were penned by a heart broken teenager. Peter hooks bass lines still sound the same. But, it sounds good. It doesn;t sound like low Life or any of the other earlier albums. It just sounds good.
Go out and buy it.
Posted by tdotjay at January 10, 2002 04:40 AM
Comments
Hey this is Aaron Hatz...It's true I did hate Unknown Pleasures the first time T jay put it in the deck. But New Order soon became one of my favorite bands so it was only natural to give Joy Division another try. Long story short...JD is now one of my favorite bands.
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Posted by: Aaron Hatz at June 13, 2002 12:34 PM
