New Order
Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (Warner Bros.)
Cheeky as ever, New Order – aka the Joy Division Luck Club – have emblazoned the front of this new release with a big, orange “No.” This is the first sign Waiting for the Sirens’ Call isn’t going to be a retread of 2001’s punchy Get Ready, the comeback that found Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and new-schooler Phil Cunningham (original keyboardist Gillian Gilbert has since retired from the band) manhandling rock riffs onto the dance floor. Less surprisingly, this follow-up backpedals into the group’s angstier days, sounding like a collection of cast-offs from ’93’s Republic. Opener “Who’s Joe?” underwhelms with the force of a knit battering ram, as do the generically hooky basslines of “Hey Now What You Doing.” It’s not until Sirens’ title track that something resembling a spark ignites and a genuine NO song bursts through the speakers sporting all the classic markings: Sumner’s dopey lyrics, Hook’s chiming bass, and lush, groove-oriented overproduction. It’s almost brilliant, but then the awful, shouty chorus of “Jetstream” makes you recoil in horror. There’s one smashing standout here, and that’s the closing remix of “Guilt Is a Useless Emotion,” a thumping, serpentine slice of pure New Order circa “Blue Monday,” but even that can’t save this grave “No.”
This article appears in May 6 • 2005.