Customer Reviews

Low Life

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the album that best strikes the balance between what they once were and what they were to become. They still remembered their beginnings while breaking new ground. Dance and club beats aside, listen to elegia and tell me that it isn't a powerful piece of music.

I just wish they'd come out with a remastered CD. The original I've had since 86 pales to the UK vinyl... come on, guys. Break out the master tapes and show us what's really there. We deserve it after all these years.

In my opinion, this is New Order's greatest achievement, album-wise. I may be way off here, but to me it seems to be the last album in which the suicide of their former Joy Division singer Ian Curtis is a priority in the lyrics. Perhaps they said all they needed to say to him and about him with this album and were finally able to go on their on way with each successive work. The leadoff song "Love Vigilantes" may very well be the finest kickoff album track of the 80's, a defiantly rock and roll song that almost seems out of place in New Order's quite impressive canon. Along the way you will be treated to such typical NO tracks as The Perfect Kiss and Subculture along with a stunningly beautiful instrumental "Eligia" and such amazingly perfect electronic-flavored masterpieces as Face Up and Sunrise. It's an album you can dance to and album you can listen to with the headphones on and the shades drawn and not be disappointed. If you only know New Order through Bizarre Love Triangle or True Faith, then this album will open your eyes to what else they can accomplish. If you don't know New Order at all, then I suggest you buy this and get prepared to lay out big money for everything else they've ever recorded. END

"Low-Life" is a near-flawless album of quirky pop that confirms New Order as one of the most exciting British acts of the last 20 years. Hands down, my favorite track is the disco bounce of "Perfect Kiss," a great tale of loneliness and detachment in the club scene. Most people are familiar with the extended version that appears on the 1987 compilation "Substance," but the edited version that surfaces on "Low-Life" is just as good. Other album cuts such as "Sub Culture" and the catchy "Love Vigilantes" are also of note, too. All the ingredients are here: Bernard's boyish vocal, Peter Hook's signature bass, and cheesy-cute synths. "Low-Life" features a New Oder still reeling from the suicide of Ian Curtis, who led the band when it was known as Joy Division. But it also helped shaped up the band's identity, as they were leaving behind their goth roots in favor of more accessible pop. Anyone who's looking to start a collection of their work should include this among their first purchases.

"Low Life" is New Order's definitive work, and a defining moment in 80's music. Finally finding their post-Joy Division voice after the splendid but less confident "Power, Corruption & Lies", New Order joyfully arrive fully formed on "Low Life". Every song bristles with energy and is celebratory, even when dark. Starting with the haunting but deceptively upbeat "Love Vigilantes" it's game on. "The Perfect Kiss" follows, yet another New Order classic, and "Low Life" is chock full of them. There is the darkly sophisticated "Sooner Than You Think", club favorite "Sub-culture", and the gorgeous, and I mean gorgeous instrumental "Elegeia". The incredibly buoyant "Face Up" ends things. The sound of "Low Life" is everything that made New Order so very unique, and what still sets them apart as absolute originals; no one else sounds like them. Musically the relentlessly inventive and energetic counterpoint of synth, bass, guitar, and percussion create a sound that simply compells and propels every song. Bernard Sumner's lyrics and enigmatic vocals bring the sinister contrast to the almost ebullient chemistry of the music. "Low Life" is a midnight sun of happy darkness, and one of the very best albums of the 80's.

I have all of New Order's albums, and I would give "Low Life" the nod as the best of the bunch. The album features a familiar pattern for the band. One made-for-the-dance-floor centerpiece song (in this case "The Perfect Kiss") surrounded by a lot of great techno rock gloom. The heartbreaking anti-war tune, "Love Vigilantes," that kicks off the album is the best song the band ever wrote. Nearly as good are the more danceable "Sub-Culture" and "Face Up" that close things out. New Order was the best (and most substantive) new wave band of the 1980s. On "Low Life," they show why that is so.

The folk song that opens this album really gives you no clue as to what is to follow. The version of the Perfect Kiss on this record is subpar to the remixed single version (which would be OUT of place on this record, just as Blue Monday is out of place on the cd reissue of P,C,L). But as this song is subpar to its single counterpart, Subculture blows away its overblown single counterpart, so they cancel each other out. This Time of Night and Sunrise outrock any traditional "rock" band out there, they're very dark and powerful. If you can listen to this recording on vinyl, turn it up all the way on side 1, its really draining in a way that only Joy Division or the Velvet Underground before them were able to capture. Side 2 that starts with Elegia is very complex. Sooner Than You Think is obviously the centerpiece of the album but Face-up is a nice close too. This album has a lot of soul, and that's hard to come by these days (and especially in so called soul music!). This album is also very mysterious (in a way that really only New Order albums are). It begs repeated listenings not only because of its depth but because it can accentuate any mood or feeling you have at the time. In other words, leagues ahead of everything and anything U2 ever did. But if you made it to this page, you should know that already. (I'd also like to point out that the 3 star reviewer specifically mentions 60% of the album as the highlight of the album, what's up with that?). In summary, Substance (and the singles) are good for casual listening, but like all New Order albums, Low-life transends itself as just a record and takes on a life of its own. It has few peers (Pet Sounds, The Queen is Dead, Born to Run). Buy it TODAY!

It is a shame that New Order didn't get more than scant recognition during their heyday in the 80's. They started out as Joy Division, the group which practically defined the alternative genre way back in the late 70's fter the death of punk, went through terrible emotional turmoil as their lead singer killed himself, then went forward to embrace electronic styles which would prove the forerunner to the techno of the 90's.

This was my first New Order album, having known nothing of the group except for a 12" of "Perfect Kiss" which I had heard on a radio mix show one night. I was duly impressed by the dance beat, electronics, and the cutting guitar right at the end. AWESOME STUFF. On the basis of that, I bought the album ... what a shock. I didn't normally get into alternative rock music (my normal tastes being the light poppier sounds of Erasure and Human League) but after a few listens, this album really GREW on me, it is a masterpiece!

"Love Vigilantes", a heartbreaking song about the Falkland Islands war, the ending of the song is a shocker. "This Time of Night" drips with darkness. "Elegia" is simply the best instrumental that has been done by any rock band, ever. The repeated synths hypnotize you, then suddenly a loud guitar jars you awake and grabs you by the throat ... just AWESOME.

Put simply, this was the album which forever made me a fan of New Order's music, and is why they are one of the BEST ever.

The anti-war homage which opens Low Life, "Love Vigilantes," is the finest song New Order ever recorded. Almost as good are "The Perfect Kiss" and "Sunrise." This album proves that not all synth-pop music sounds like it was made by mindless robots. New Order writes compositons capable of making you feel, think, and dance all at the same time.

This an awfully good album. I picked this up after purchasing Substance and Brotherhood back in the day.

I remember lying in my bed thinking this band is ridiculously good. Only two of these songs appear on Substance when realistically Love Vigilates would be the high point of most bands careers.

Pick it up and discover what the 80's were all about!

"Low-Life", despite its bleak title, has a certain spirit which suggests a sort of comeback, after the demise of Joy Division and the release of Movement. The lyrics are littered with references to moving on after the death of Ian Curtis.

"Love Vigilantes" opens "Low-Life" on an exuberant yet nostalgic tone, tinged with harmonica(!), with a tale about returning home from war (a metaphor perhaps?)

Then New Order give us "The Perfect Kiss" which is the acme of the New Order sound: layers of juxtaposed synth melodies, drums, and bass. I was disappointed by the way this song was edited down for this album, but only because the entire last verse is left out, which takes away from its immediacy. According to "Substance", the last lines we should hear are "My friend took his final breath/Now I know the perfect kiss is the kiss of death" (A lesson learned from a former bandmate, perhaps?).

The darkest song on the album is "This Time of Night" with its desperate refrain of "Without you I can't go on". This track is graced with an achingly beautiful piano line that stands out from anything else on "Low-Life".

The middle of the album is less stunning than the opening trio of songs, but is still fascinating, contrasting the overblown rock of "Sunrise" with the elegaical "Elegia" and closing out with "Sooner Than You Think", before moving on to the home stretch.

"Sub-culture" here, in my opinion, is better than on "Substance" (the song really didn't need the gospel singers). The synth line echoes and builds on the theme established by "Elegia", becoming mesmerizing at the end as Sumner intones "In the end you will submit/It's got to hurt a little bit". Expecting a Joy Division-esque closer, "Face-up" comes bouncing out of the speakers, its boisterous synths poking fun at all New Wave conventions. "Oh how I cannot bear the thought of you/We were young and we were sure/And life was just an open door..." sings Sumner as the song fades out... New Order are definitely ready to have a good time.