New Order

Don't call it a comeback. Well, yes call it one. Driven by guitars, sequencers, delay techniques and songwriting, the hit "Someone Like You" shows a newly refined taste for electronica, while epic rock singles such as "Crystal" reveal that New Order have clearly evolved since their days on the dancefloor.

It's not really supposed to work like this. When bands get older, they typically mature,
mellow out and grow pretentious, convinced of their innate artistry. But on Get Ready,
New Order's first album since the dancier Republicin 1993, the cantankerous paragons of
British New Wave electro-pop get aggressive. And they're mad at the kids. "You've got a
vicious streak for someone so young," Bernard Sumner sings in "Hanging On." On... More >

Obviously it's not perky enough, funky enough either, but their best (and third) album in 15 years (and probably last ever) sounds an awful lot like what kids today call pop. Electronic aura, hooks up front, Bernard Albrecht as boyish as Damon Albarn if not an actual young person, and generalized lyrics affirming a pre-9/11 reality. Give "Crystal" or the attempted Billy Corgan comeback "Turn My Way" a host of video cuties and innocents will think the mysterioso raveups are a new species of fun. Which in the better world we all deserve they'd deserve to be. (Grade - A-)