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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Joy Division

  • Infatueighties #72: New Order’s “True Faith”

    For the longest time, I thought this song was sung by Depeche Mode. Don’t look at me funny. I’m sure there were times you couldn’t tell DM and New Order apart, either.

    Forming from the ashes of Joy Division after Ian Curtis hanged himself, New Order’s music was a little more on the commercial dance/pop side, with only slightly less dour lyrics. I’m sure lines like “I used to think that the day would never come/I’d see delight in the shade of the morning sun” attracted the producers of the movie “Bright Lights, Big City” (you know, it’s the one where Michael J. Fox plays a drug addict…what? you don’t remember?) enough that it wound up on the soundtrack. The song itself perfectly captures the rush as well as the comedown that many drug addicts experience (not that I would know, I’m scared to death to ever use coke. Remember, I came up in the age of Len Bias).

    Despite New Order’s near-legendary status as a band, “Faith” was one of only two Top 40 hits the band had (“Regret” was the second, six years later…no, “Bizarre Love Triangle” never hit the Top 40). Enjoy the video…and don’t do the coke, kiddies. It’s bad for you.

    …and no, I don’t know why the people in the video are slapping one another, either.

  • At The Wrecka Sto’ 10/30/07: Party Like It’s 1999

    Ah, it almost feels like the glory days of the music industry are back. Seven or eight years ago, if The Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears were releasing albums on the same day, record executives would be pissing themselves with anticipation and it would practically be raining money.
    Nowadays, not so much.
    Britney still has some cachet. The “Gimme More” single has been surprisingly successful. Actually, it’s her highest charting record since her debut single, “…Baby One More Time” back in 1998/1999. In addition, her new album Blackout has gotten some very good reviews (although most reviewers are quick to point out that the quality of the album has very little to do with Britney herself). Despite all her efforts to sabotage it, Brit-Brit’s career might not be over just yet.
    On the other hand, BSB, who were the first act to break the million-in-sales barrier in the first week with 1999’s Millennium, are probably done for. Losing Kevin Richardson, who really did nothing but smolder visually, doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. But their sound is passe, their 2005 “comeback album” fell slightly short of a million copies sold, and something tells me this new album might be their sayonara and to expect members to start popping up on “Dancing With The Stars” in the next year or two.
    Not to say these are the only two artists with albums in stores today. You can grab The Eagles’ first studio album in nearly three decades today-but only at Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club stores (or through walmart.com). You’ll have a much easier time finding the new efforts from VMA-winning metal band Avenged Sevenfold and Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan’s solo project, called Puscifer. New albums also arrive today from jazz/soul specialist Will Downing (his first since being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that has left him wheelchair bound) and alt-rap/country artist Buck 65.
    On the re-issue tip, soccer moms everywhere can rejoice in the first hits compilation of Andrea Bocelli’s more pop-oriented work, while eyeliner clad Eighties freaks will dig a series of expansive Joy Division re-releases that hit stores today. Speaking of eyeliner (among much other make-up) there is an Insane Clown Posse hits collection arriving in stores today, and somehow it seems appropriate to end my listing of this week’s key releases on that note.
    Get a complete list of today’s new releases here: