Album: “Brotherhood”

Description

New Order: Bernard Sumner (vocals, guitar); Peter Hook (vocals, bass); Gillian Gilbert (keyboards, synthesizer); Stephen Morris (drums, background vocals). <p>Recorded at Jam Studios, London, England; Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland; Amazon Studios, Liverpool, England. <p>BROTHERHOOD is a document of growth for New Order's ever-expanding sonic landscape. Packaged in the stark, utilitarian style that was the Factory label's trademark, the album belies its minimalist presentation with a sprawling, intricately crafted collection of pop gems, inspiringly diverse, yet uniformly infused with the band's trademark sincerity and off-kilter melodic sense. The album opens with the deceptively straight drum hits of "Paradise," which quickly adopts an intense double-tracked vocal and with it, an air of danger that offsets its soaring melody. <p>New Order developed into masters of intellectually stimulating dance music, an elusive combination of qualities. The album's biggest hit "Bizarre Love Triangle" exemplifies this rare mixture--atop a throbbing, heavily sequenced dance beat is played out a drama complete with consistently engaging musical shifts, dramatic lyrical turns, and a chorus that's instantly memorable and nothing short of gorgeous. The wistful vulnerability of "All Day Long" dissolves into a sprawling, regal affair and the supremely sweet "Every Little Counts" show yet another dimension to New Order's sonic richness.