The Wait Is Over
New Order have always stood out: at times, classed as rock, at times as dance and sometimes, rather lazily, as “electro-indie”. They cannot be pop-pigeonholed. Their rock has always had a less gritty, more modern sound, although they’ve never skimped on their trademark insistent bass, so frequently unnoticed. Confident, pacy beats have been the main influence from their dance side. Their music has consequently trodden an individualistic but assured path between genres.
Waiting for the Sirens’ Call is another worthy addition to this tradition. It combines effortlessly fast-moving, almost danceable tempos with a wistful, reflective rock feel; several moments on the album, such as the title track, waver between easy-listening, foot-tapping harmony and occasional glimpses of a harder edge. The single Krafty contains some familiarly sublime moments, that momentary, harmonious surging of melody contrasted with deep, slow sounds.
It’s business as usual with the refrains, almost universally announced by a classic drum riff and then sung in low key, low effort Sixties tones; the lyrics themselves are nothing revolutionary either - “give me one last night/I’ll never let you go.” They’re treading safe rock-ground here and consequently most of the tracks produce choruses that can be sung along to with astonishing ease, but forgotten just as quickly.
Despite the fact that it works well, despite the fact that New Order have not lost their knack of fusing genres as diverse as electro and punk, and despite the fact that this is easily as good as their previous work, there is something amiss.
Part of the hypnotic attraction of New Order was their outwardly anodyne approach; are they still being consciously anodyne, or just slightly boring? They are now offering easy-listening music to a market that has lived through the Travis- and Coldplay-led cardigan-and-acup- of-tea stage; it is good, nay, great music, but seems devoid of real energy At the risk of damning with faint praise, this is definitely one for dinner party background music.
28th Apr 2005