Sophia Piper
Howard of Effingham School, aged 12
This music feels more polite than the rock and roll of the 70s. The recording is a lot cleaner and it’s easier to hear the lyrics than on older songs. It’s hard to know what category this music belongs to as it’s a bit rocky and a bit pop. It’s not the type of music I usually listen to and perhaps not my favourite but I like the synthesisers and you can hear this type of sound coming back today.
Drum rhythms are interesting and feel like a mix of real drums and computer-based ones. Vocals are by Bernard Sumner and he has a nice range and expressive style. His voice is quite thin compared to the metal-music I usually listen to. I found myself wanting to skip through a few tracks as they seem to become a bit repetitive and have no new ideas. Some songs could be 2 minutes shorter as they repeat large instrumental sections in the middle quite a lot.
Philippa Willes
Housing Project Worker, aged 53
New Order, Power, Corruption and Lies opens to an unmistakable Hooky bass and continues with a lo-fi garage band feel to the drums and guitars, paired with now-classic electronic synth sequences. There are some unexpected non-vocal pieces, followed up with driving dance electronica. There are no stand out bangers for me here but I felt I should balance this against their output since, I’d consider these tracks classics in their own vinyl crate.
This album wouldn’t have been on my radar in 1982 but I have since developed a penchant for the distinctive sound of the band and its offshoots.
Kingston link:
New Order played at the Tolworth Recreation Centre in a Kingston Polytechnic organised gig in March 1983, a few months prior to this record’s release.
