"Confusion" Review (NME)

'Confusion' is that rare thing, a New Order title which actually figures in the lyrics of the song to which it's attached. The music itself, however, is more of a piece with all of the group's output this year - perhaps too much of a piece. In other words, it's another fragile slip of a song, delicately pinned to an extended electro dance track. The melody walks a thin line between simplicity and banality, the rhythm ditto. And while the finished artefact shapes up respectably well, I think the track would have sat better among the recent album tracks it so resembles.

A new New Order single should be something more surprising than all of this, and more surprising. Goes on a bit, as well : the 12" format finds room for one long version of the song itself, plus three Arthur Bakerised variations on same. This dance-mix fetish is all very '83 and trendy; it's also very easy and a bit bleeding boring. Ironic, too, in that New Order's audience aren't really dancers - or if they are, it's more by ideology than inclination.