Guest Post - Ranked: New Order Closers II

New Order's Closing Tracks: Part 2 (5-1)

We will resume normal regular programming later this week with an album from 2001. For now, I’m delighted to welcome back Kevin Alexander of

On Repeat by Kevin Alexander

to complete his look at New Order’s closing tracks. I’ve been stoked to see how much people have enjoyed this collaboration and the concept. If you are interested in a cross-post or a guest article on your favourite last tracks from albums by The Fall or ten album closers from 2014 that you dig, do let me know in the comments or via email;

therunoutgrooves[at]gmail.com

Until Thursday, Kevin has his hands on the wheel…

Photo: Andrew Catlin (1989) / Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records/Qwest Records

Welcome back!

We’re counting down New Order’s ten closing tracks in order from worst to first. This is Part 2, covering the top 5. If you missed Part 1, you can grab it here:

Guest Post - Ranked: New Order Closers

5. ‘Run Wild’ - Get Ready

New Order have a lot of tracks that can read like an elegy- to say nothing of Low Life's “Elegia.” But perhaps none feel as melancholic as "Run Wild." Recorded in the wake of manager & longtime friend Rob Gretton's passing, this feels like a goodbye as the band moves on to its next chapter. 

Open hearts, empty spaces
Dusty roads to distant places
But all the time when I'm alone
I think of you and how you've grown
Far and wide, sweet and simple
Jehovah knows that I've been sinful
But if Jesus comes to take your hand
I won't let go, I won't let go

4. ‘Leave me Alone’ - Power, Corruption, and Lies

With Peter Hook's hallmark bass and Bernard Sumner's trademark push/pull of yearning & cold shoulder, ‘Leave Me Alone’ is peak early-era New Order. Power, Corruption, and Lies is a statement record- the start of what we know today as New Order. 

If the record is the sound of a new band emerging, ‘Leave Me Alone" is that same band fully formed.  

3. ‘Denial’ - Movement

The story of Joy Division morphing into New Order is one well enough known that it needs no repeating here. Still, it's worth noting that Movement shows a band in both mourning and transition. 

Besides the obvious lineup changes (and Hook singing on album opener ‘Dreams Never End’), there are hints of what's to come. 

Closer ‘Denial’ is strangely upbeat for a gothic and elegant record. It's still a song for the small hours (perhaps a nod to producer Martin Hannett's style than anything else). On "The Him," when an exhausted Sumner barely ekes out an "I'm so tired," it's hard not to say "me too." 

Movement is still a record coloured by grief, but ‘Denial’ showed us those first hints of light at the end of the tunnel. 

2. ‘Dream Attack’ - Technique

Most people might remember the 25th of March 1989 as the day they learned about the Exxon Valdez disaster. I remember it as the day I walked the few miles to the nearest shopping mall (and Ticketmaster outlet) to pick up tickets to see New Order for the first time. The band was on the road supporting Technique, their first record I'd discovered on my own. 

I'd heard the others that had come before, of course, but those were usually from places like my friends' older siblings who'd found them in the halls of their college dorms and brought them home. 

Having a record to call your own automatically boosts the quality of the music it contains. Music taste is rarely objective, but there really are no skips in this case. 

Sumner's lyrics have always bent toward the abstract; sometimes, he just needed the words to fit a melody. Other times, he left them open enough to be taken any number of different ways. 

I don't belong to no one
But I want to be with you
I can't be owned by no one
What am I supposed to do
I can't see the sense in your leaving
All I need is your love to believe in

In this case, I never really decided if this was a song about unrequited love or a desperate plea to get someone to stay. I don't think it matters. 

And the show? 30+ years on, it remains one of the best I've ever gone to see.

1. ‘Face Up’ - Low Life

My favourite track on my favourite New Order record. Low Life starts with a story of post-war reunion and ends with unbridled contempt- all to an upbeat sound you can't help but move your feet to. 

By the time we get to the song’s crescendo, Sumner is almost yelling, "Oh, how I cannot bear the thouuuught of you," and you're right there with him. I don't know who he was singing about, but I still don't like them all these years later. 

It's helluva an ending to a helluva record. 

---

Full playlist here:

Thank you again to Mitchell for having me, and thank you for reading! Do you have a favorite New Order closer? Did I get this list right? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Kevin—