Peel Sessions (including New Order)

NEW ORDER THE DAMNED THE SCREAMING BLUE MESSIAHS STIFF LITTLE FINGERS SUDDEN SWAY WILD SWANS The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit)

What an odd selection. Only The Damned and The Wild Swans could be described as classics of their time or genre: The Damned (recorded in 77) because it makes you realise how desperate your ears were back then to have surrendered so helplessly to speeded-up hard-rock grunge. The Wild Swans because of that time in '82 when the world discovered nouveau pop, Liverpool (again) and the properties of the acoustic guitar. New Order’s contribution from 1982 is alarmingly dull, swampy and meandering until '5-8-6' leaps to the rescue, hinting at the impending germination of 'Blue Monday'.