2001 09 New Order "Get Ready" Mojo Review

The accidental tourists

Is the uber-Manc legends’ return good news or just hot gossip? By David Peschek

New Order
Get Ready 

LONDON

First album in eight years, after a slew of side-projects. Featuring guest contributors Billy Corgan and Bobby Gillespie.

ONE OF the singles bands of the '80s, New Order didn't actually make a consistently great album until the decade was almost over. 1989's Technique, and its fine if more conservative successor Republic (1993), tower over everything individual band members have done since, save maybe the first Electronic records. Even if - as with Echo And The Bunnymen 2.0 - the joy was primarily nostalgic, a genuinely triumphant appearance at Reading '98 suggested that New Order still had fire in their bellies.

Eight years down the line, with Ecstasy use now commonplace among the nation's young (and not so young), now that pop has assimilated New Order's glorious blueprint, it would be wonderful to say they were still vital. Technique succeeded by capitalising on the aftermath of the Summer of Love Mk II, which their own records had partly prefigured; Republic was their best collection of songs. Unfortunately, much of Get Ready is less a call to arms than the sound of an old man wheezing out of a creaky armchair.

It's recognisably a New Order record, of course, albeit one that's been left out in the sun for too long: Bernard Sumner's limited sense of melody hasn't developed significantly in 20 years, and neither have Hooky's lovely bass-as-lead runs. Much of Get Ready sounds haphazard, which in some ways is fine: after all, New Order have frequently stumbled upon greatness. But these songs often feel like rehearsal room jams that approach or exceed the five-minute mark without purpose or justification. Steve Osborne plays his hand subtly: Get Ready has a spunky, garagey raucousness, sure - particularly Slow Jam and Rock The Shack - but that's the only noticeable development.

Opener and first single Crystal has an initial thrilling energy but lacks focus, and drifts, though pleasantly enough; Vicious Streak has some appealingly atmospheric interludes. What really skewers Get Ready are Bernard's lyrics: capable of devastating moments of inspired simplicity (cf Bizarre Love Triangle's "Every time I think of you/l feel I'm shot right through with a bolt of blue"), he's really straining here. Ignoring some unforgivably banal fire/desire and notion/potion rhymes, there's Slow Jam's spectacularly duff: "The afternoon was very clear/The sun was beating down on meeee/l was thirsty for a beer/Then I had to go to sea." [Sounds like genius to me - Reviews Ed.]

As the man himself says: "That bird has flown too high/Pretty soon it will be tired." If you cherish fond memories of New Order, it might be best to look away.