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New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call

© Chad Bowar

They've been a band for 28 years, and New Order for 25, and after all these years continue to make great music. Fans have been waiting for four years for a new album, and Waiting For The Sirens' Call doesn't disappoint. One of the most difficult things for a band to do is keep their sound fresh and current, and New Order does a great job doing that on their new album. They are able to blend rock and dance and infuse it with many influences including pop, punk, electro and dancehall. They have the ability to keep their trademark sound, but infuse enough new things to keep it interesting.

There are a few changes to the band in the past few years. Gillian Gilbert has retired, and tour guitarist/keyboardist Phil Cunningham is now a full fledged band member. Waiting For The Sirens Call was a very collaborative project, using many different producers including Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur), Stuart Price (Madonna) and John Leckie (Pink Floyd, Stone Roses). New Order also produced some of the tracks themselves. Ana Matronic from the Scissor Sisters make a guest appearance doing vocals on "Jetstream."

Speaking of vocals, Bernard Sumner sounds great on this album. In the early days his vocals were sometimes buried in the mix, but these days they are front and center. Peter Hook is one of the best and most creative bass players you'll ever hear, and as usual he shines. New guitarist Cunningham fits right in, and drummer Stephen Morris is solid as a rock.

Here's a tracklist of Waiting For The Sirens' Call, and comments about each song from the band:

1. "Who's Joe"
Morris: "It's a nice uptempo number, along the lines of Guilty Partner and Dream Attack. It came quite easily, it was deposited on earth fully formed, a lovely baby. And it's got a funny clangy noise in it. My speciality."
Sumner: It reminds me of Joy Division, it's got that heaviness."

2. "Hey Now What You Doing"
Sumner: "It's fresh. It doesn't remind me of anything we've done before."

3. "Waiting For The Sirens' Call"
Sumner: "It's my favorite track. The backing track's brilliant. Hooky's bass is fantastic on it."
Hook: "Barney's done really well with the vocals and the lyrics are really good. They're about traveling, I think."

4. "Krafty"
Hook: I was working with Hybrid, and wrote this middle bit of a track and thought, that's too good to leave there, I'm having that. So I asked them and they said that's fine. And it turned into "Krafty." And it's just great."

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