New Order – Get Ready

I looooove this CD & can play repeadedly!! I "discovered" it while reading a readers' comments about "Q" magazine having left "Get Ready" off a New Order best releases list. Shortly after reading that, the music video for "Crystal" was on Music Choice tv here. That is absolutely Excellent!!! Really quite precocious of New Order having fun with viewers! It's Great Video (can't give it away, for anyone who's interested & hasn't seen it; I highly recommend viewing it). That said, "Crystal" is a Smash song!! Followed closely by 60 Miles An Hour and Rock the Shack (but, then, I'm a big Bobby Gillespie & Primal Scream fan, as well & I think he & Bernard Sumner sharing vocals on this...sheer pleasure!; their vocals complement each other quite nicely). I also do like the fact that it is a much more guitar-soaked recording. I don't see it as a return to the Joy Division time at all. I actually can't understand how they had Bernard Sumner in their midst & Ian Curtis (R.I.P.) was chosen as a singer; but, then, to me, New Order completely changed the sound from Joy Division, to much more dance/rave driven, which I love, as well as these more recent releases with more guitar work. In fact, I've never appreciated bass guitar as much as after hearing what Peter Hook does with it!!!

When I first heard this, I was a little disappointed. Mostly with the lyrics, which don't even approach the strange, ambiguous deepness of their earlier albums but are rather simplistic and sometimes even silly. And "Rock the Shack" is just terrible. Having said that, I think the album is musically very interesting, and I still like all the songs beisdes "Rock the Shack". Every time I listen to it it seems better than I ed. I disagree with TIM in that I don't think it sounds anything like Republic, on which there were essentially no guitars and hardly any of Peter Hook's bass, whereas here guitars are everywhere, as is the bass. More guitars than New Order usually uses, actually, which is what's intersting about the album. Overall I think it's a good record, different than other stuff they've done (although one can hear some similarities to their earlier stuff which is maybe why so many reviewers claimed this album is a return to form... I don't think it sounds the same at all), but the lyrics are a weak point. Wooo... sorry to blabber so much, but I really like New Order so I wanted to post my long synopsis. Thanks for reading.

Why is everyone saying that this record harks back to the band's Joy Division days? If anything, it harks back to 1997 and sounds more like Oasis. Not a huge improvement on Republic, although Crystal is a stormer.