New Order

New Order almost created their second masterpiece of guitar and dance fusion with this 1985 album. Some of the hi-gloss dance moments have not aged well and the gloomier moments seem meandering. That said, "Love Vigilantes" shows the band in untouchable pop form, while tracks like "The Perfect Kiss" and "Sub-culture" are impeccably crafted.

Signing with Quincy Jones' black yuppie pop label Qwest may be New Order's idea of punk
subversion, but it does make sense. The suicide of singer Ian Curtis in 1980 climaxed, quite
literally, the band's former life as Joy Division – British rock's most exalted celebrants of
doom. Without Curtis' eerie monastic howl, their attempts to graphically address and
transcend adolescent trauma with stark heartbeat music had to end. Realigned a... More >

Where once they determined to keep all affect out of their music, now they determine to put some in. Any dance-trance outfit that can lead off its Quincy Jones debut with an oblique "Love Me Do" quote has its heart (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) in the right place, so one doesn't want to quibble. But inserting affect isn't the same as actually feeling something, and it isn't the same as expressing (or even simulating) a feeling, either. (Grade - B+)