New Order – Blue Monday
This is just a 12″ single of another big song for New Order – which actually hit number 5 on the US dance charts, where nothing else they did previously ever made a mark. The nature of the synth sound is such that when I put this on to play it, the familiar sounds were bopping along in a slow groove for quite a while before weirdly droning vocals started and I realized I hadn’t switched the turntable to 45. It sounded just fine until the vocals came up; in fact, I might prefer the slower speed, because when I dialed it up to the right speed, it was just that ’80s thwacka thwacka sound. I know people love New Order, and I’m not against them, but as I said last time, I only ever play New Order to try to figure out why I still have these discs. This one, too, is an Italian pressing, a gift from my long-time roommate, and as such is special to me.
Also special to me is the packaging, which, like Power, Corruption & Lies, echoes the form of a floppy disc of the day – and at a time when my job entailed using 8″ floppy discs (single side, single density, baby!), I appreciated the nod to what was then brand new technology. Worth it for that. But no, this doesn’t get a lot of plays.
I utterly adored these early New Order releases when they were coming out in real time. I probably played the 1981-83 EP the most of all of them, actually. They could pretty much do no wrong in my book . . . until 1989’s “Technique,” which I found myself utterly loathing, perhaps because they changed, perhaps because I changed. It so put me off my feed that I stopped listening to the old stuff too, for probably 20+ years. Same thing happened to me with The Cure and “Disintegration,” which I could not stand, despite having devoured and loved everything that came before it. Dunno what it says about me that “Technique” and “Disintegration” are now considered canon classics. I did return to listening to old New Order (1981-83 still a fave) and Cure a few years back, and have enjoyed them again.