Power, Corruption & Lies - New Order

Never has an album title summed up the times were are living in..... and this was released in 1983!

Anyway I'm not here to start a discourse on politics in pop music. Quite the opposite. Instead I want to talk about image. And as we know politics and image don't go together....

New Order are the coolest brand in pop music. I don't think there has been any band that has maintained a consistently cool image; whilst the quality of the music may have dipped occasionally, the image has stayed resolutely strong. It could no doubt be argued that this is primarily due to the work of Peter Saville, the designer for the group's sleeves, but it is more than than; the image and the music seem to compliment each other. A certain detachment by the band whilst maintaining a strong image elsewhere maybe? Whatever it is, it works and I still can't think of anyone else who can match it. So there!

'Power, Corruption & Lies', the group's second album, is no exception. It starts from the outside with the usual striking cover, a reproduction of a painting in the National Gallery. Coupled with a lack of any obvious lettering or band name it's a bold move especially for a group who are at a critical junction in their career. It's a great cover and probably why it was chosen in 2010, along with nine others, to grace the Royal Mail's classic album cover series. Not that I am a stamp collector or anything.

Beyond the cover, however, the music gives off an even stronger message. It's the sound of a band finally coming to terms with the loss of Ian Curtis and emerging from his shadow. It's the sound of a band finding their feet. And it's the sound of a rain-soaked industrial Manchester filtering through synthesisers, baseline hooks, angular guitar riffs and off-kilter vocals.

It opens with 'Age of Consent' and one of Peter Hook's poppiest baselines and Bernard Sumner asking "Please let me go". Dark, synth heavy tracks sit alongside sunnier moments. But amongst the nine tracks on offer, the headlines belong to two. In '5-6-8' you get an embryonic Blue Monday and at 7min 31sec it's every bit it's equal. And then there is the sublime 'Your Silent Face' - the aural equivalent of a shaft of light beaming straight into your mind... or something like that... its energetic synth arpeggio offset against the lush chords which give way to bass and guitar melodies. To top this it has what must be one of the best closing lines to a song. It's a bit childish but I'll sign off with it. "You've caught me at a bad time, so why don't you piss off".

See you tomorrow!