New Order "State of The Nation" Reviews

NEW ORDER

State Of The Nation (Factory)

HITHERTO, New Order dance singles; have been magnificently and hypnotically similar — bled white, stretched like the palest, thinnest canvas across the rack of Electro or High Energy, to be punished, routinely, by their metronomic imperative; a synthesis aspiring to masochism. Bernard's vocals are strained but stoical, uttered from a prostrate position, Kafkaesque. Hence the compulsion, the vicarious pain. That's the natural-ness of New Order, a state of tension under constant siege — that nagging, pitter-patter pitter-patter.

"State Of The Nation' is, however, quite possibly the worst New Order single to date. It's the same thing, only snapped loose, crumpled and sagged, led by a chant that could have come from Toyah, or the UK Subs. A disappointment - they're a presence pop can't long do without. Can they ever be pinned back down again?

NEW ORDER: Shame Of The Nation 

(Factory)

Play that hamfisted, bland, cliched, ropey old funk-dog white boy! This has got to be taking the piss. Not only does it involve the nation / inflation / situation rhyme that is avoided by the most inexperienced of rappers, but the music would cause frenzied retching at a Festival of Light disco, so clean is it, so disgustingly flimsy.Too much Boddingtons and too many packets of pork scratchings. New Order should really pull their socks up. This record would suggest that they've been given far too much rope by their critics in the past.