Friday, November 06, 2009

Noughties By Nature #24: New Order - Crystal

The last ten years have seen New Order finally come to terms with their previous history, embracing Joy Division in a way that they had never done so previously, cementing their place in British music folklore with the films 24 Hour Party People and Control, and releasing yet another Greatest Hits collection with half the tracks being incorrectly labelled or pulled from the wrong source. Business as usual, then. We even got another split with a similar level of acrimony as their post-Republic break-up. This time it looks like they'll never play together again. But back to happier times, and their first single from Get Ready, their comeback album released long ago in 2001.

Yes, it's partly responsible for The Killers. Please don't hold that against Crystal. It's a celebration of all that New Order have ever been; twenty years of dance and rock reflected in a mirrorball. Everything is in its right place - the keyboards, the drums, Barney's gibberish lyrics, and yes, the bass of Peter Hook, driving things along just like it always does. It's the sound of a band remembering just why they were so good together. Nothing else on Get Ready or the follow-up Waiting For The Siren's Call came close to recapturing the old glories, but Crystal showed that they could still be as good as they were in the Factory era.
Ian Pointer

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[Album: Get Ready]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You could argue that New Order have embraced their (Joy Division) past precisely because they had forgotten how to write a decent song.

Still Crystal is a great song.

Matt