New Order - Movement
#567
By Chris Roberts
November 13 1981
New Order
Movement
Genre: Alternative Dance Music of the First Order
Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Chris’ Rating: 3 out of 5
Highlights:
Dreams Never End
I thought it would be interesting to review both Depeche Mode and New Order’s debut albums. Both were bands I idolized in high school and college, and I figured I was still capable of having a black celebration on a blue Monday. Both albums are similar anomalies in the bands’ discographies—reflections of seminal band members (Vince Clarke and the late Ian Curtis) who would not enjoy the bands’ greater successes. And both albums draw direct lines from Kraftwerk, albeit in opposite directions. Depeche’s Speak & Spell was as fun and frivolous as a Jolly Rancher. New Order’s historic, important Movement is as fun and frivolous as a bunch of broccoli served in a cramped, sports bar where nobody is wearing a mask.
I may have heard Movement before this review, but if I did, I didn’t remember it. The only song that got me moving was the lead off track, “Dreams Never End,” which contains the DNA for the band’s later sound. It’s no “Ceremony,” (later versions of Movement also include this classic single), but it’s a solid starter. The other eight songs on Movement are Joy Division leftovers, or songs about Ian Curtis, or are just so-so songs. I couldn’t get excited about any of them. None of it is bad—it feels like music without a place in 2021. It’s bleak, but without the melancholic pyschedelia of Siouxsie or The Cure, or Bauhaus’ horror show. And not yet the vibrant, pulsing New Order featured on the Substance double-disk CD, my grail of of alternative dance music and remixes. When it comes to Joy Division, I would rather listen to Unknown Pleasures, or “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and even then, I’m in my fifties and living through a pandemic. Ask me again, when I’m sixty-four.
XXX
Like almost all New Order’s records, Factory’s in-house creative director Peter Saville created the cover. Saville was given complete freedom, and had the confidence, to do whatever he wanted with the Factory covers. He often missed deadlines, exceeded budgets and bypassed the band’s approval, but there’s no denying the results—he made the covers into award-winning, Factory brand statements, where the catalog numbers were emphasized over images of the band. After the “I know what’s cool” Unknown Pleasures cover, Monument is one of Saville’s most memorable designs—a sly tweak on a 1932 Italian exposition poster graphic. Imagine how this cover looked on the shelves of a 1981 Licorice Pizza, sandwiched between The Monkees and Ted Nugent. No illustration, no photography. Just thick bold type, graphic shapes and on-trend colors. The inclusion of color on Monument was an important choice, a psychological transition from Joy Division’s B&W aesthetic. As New Order evolved into a popular dance band, album covers like Power, Corruption and Lies, Technique and Republic would further explode with color.
https://open.spotify.com/album/2DI73ocB6x1ExxoJbT4QI8?si=qfTVq4QtReioaugLxV5Rbw
