The Best 40 Crossover Tracks (22 – 20) – Littering the coffee tables of the dull and boring

In 1997, Roni Size, a DJ and producer from Bristol won the Mercury Music for his debut album ‘New Forms’.  I won’t say too much about that as it will feature on the Nearly Perfect Album Series relatively soon – but what I will say is that, with that one (sensible) decision, the judges on the panel of the much maligned Mercury Music Prize, outraged most of the indie fraternity.  The reason for that is because nearly everyone, critics, fans, bus conductors, all expected Radiohead’s much celebrated third album ‘Ok Computer’ to walk off with the prize (everyone it seems apart from the judges and Radiohead themselves, who openly criticised the award before, during and after the voting process) 

Karma Police – Radiohead (1997, Parlophone Records)

But as good as ‘Ok Computer’ is (and lets be clear, it is very good, but let’s also be honest, on reflection, some twenty five years later, its not even close to being Radiohead’s finest hour), it is not a patch on ‘New Forms’.   Very few records released in the mid to late nineties changed music in the way that ‘New Forms’ did.  It took drum n bass and thrust it in the faces of the record buying public.  It catapulted a genre that was previously largely only heard in clubs or on pirate radio stations (and I’m generalising a bit here, go with me) into the homes of accountants and estate agents as well as students, young people and music lovers. 

22 – Brown Paper Bag (Full Vocal Mix) – Roni Size (1997, Island Records)

See Also – Jungle Brother (Urban Takedown Mix) – Jungle Brothers (1997, Gee Street Records)

Previously the only drum n bass records that I’d heard of were full of long drawn out laidback tracks that made up what people called ‘Intelligent drum and bass’ which was more influenced by jazz and ambient music than the other stuff (which was influenced by unintelligent stuff like punk rock presumably).  The problem with intelligent drum and bass was that it littered the dull and boring coffee tables of men who thought it was still cool to wear caps well into their forties and thus ironically became deeply uncool.

If you have to explore that – then 4Hero’s ‘Two Pages’ is perhaps the best place to start.

Universal Reprise – 4Hero (1998, Mercury Records)

Talking of deeply uncool….

21 – Blue Monday (Hardfloor Mix) – New Order (1995, London Records)

See Also – Bizarre Love Triangle (Armand Van Helden Mix) – New Order (1995, London Records)

Don’t See Also – Blue Monday ’88 – New Order (1988, Factory Records)

Now the purists amongst you will of course be shaking your heads in disagreement and by and large you are correct – but the Hardfloor Mix of ‘Blue Monday’ was for the dancefloor aficionados of the Surrey Students Union indie club, the mix of choice.  The reason for this is probably more to do with the fact that it was on the ‘Wipeout’ soundtrack album and was for quite a while the only mix of ‘Blue Monday’ that I owned.

Talking of only owning one mix…

20 – 3AM Eternal – KLF (1991, KLF Communications)

See Also What Time Is Love? – KLF (1991, KLF Communications)

I once left my CD copy of ‘The White Room’ on a bus somewhere between Chatham and Rainham.  I had just bought it from a charity shop (along with a George Orwell novel) and placed it on the seat next to me, opened the book and forty minutes later totally forgot where I was, and in my haste to not miss my stop – I left the CD on the seat.  So if you found that and happen to be reading – could I have it back please? 

All of which meant that three years later whilst DJing in a student basement bar whenever I played the KLF it had to be the version I had on a crappy indie compilation CD (INDIE HITS!!! 15 alternative hits including The Farm and Candy Flip!!! – it was a present from my nan, shut up).  The fact that it had ‘3AM Eternal’ on it was pretty much the only reason I kept that CD for as long as I did.

Welcome to January 2024, The Best 40 Crossover Tracks (40 – 38) – Don’t Fear The Bleeper

January Hymn – The Decemberists (2011, Capitol Records, Taken from ‘The King Is Dead’)

Happy New Year folks, how’s the head?  I’m writing this a good two weeks before New Year actually occurs so I can’t really say what I did.  I do know that in the afternoon of New Years Eve I went to theatre to watch a pantomime, which I’m going to predict right now, that I hated and probably moaned about, particularly the ropey jokes, rubbish songs and terrible acting all the way.  Still, as my wife will no doubt tell me, it could have been worse, I could have been in the audience for a Michael McIntyre show so I’ll consider myself lucky.

This year on No Badger Required is going to be no different from the last year – each month a new theme will be ushered in.  As long as they are willing and able, at least three times this year the Musical Jury will be called into action – I think the first of those will be in March, followed by June and then the big autumnal countdown which will spread itself across September and October.  If you want to be involved you can drop a comment below – and I’ll do the rest.  In case you are wondering – themes this year include Chocolate Bars in Music, Tube Stations in Rock, Musical Antelopes and the Complete works of Haddaway.  Some or all of these have been made up.

Before all that though, we have to get through January and January as you will have read up the top of the page, is all about the Crossover.   Regular readers will know that on Sunday I have been going through fifty randomly selected 12 inches, a lot of the records that have been selected evoked memories of my time DJing at university.  I pretty much only DJed in a basement bar at a regular club night that specialised in indie and alternative music, but as music evolved, the amount of guitars played at those night reduced significantly as Big Beat, Drum N Bass, House and Techno become more popular.

So in honour of those heady nights I have (with the help of old raver Mr L) compiled my own Top 40 of tracks that filled the floor at indie discos, despite not being an indie track (although it might be a dancefloor friendly mix of an indie track) or as no one else calls them, Crossover Tracks.

I hope that make sense – I’m going to count down three a day until the Top Ten and we are going to start with possibly the only rave group that ever stood for election (and promptly lose their deposit).

40 – E-vapor-8 – Altern 8 (1991, Network Records)

See Also – Activ- 8 -Altern 8 (1991, Network Records)

On the 18^th January 1992, the NME put Altern 8 on its cover.  They sat in front of a couple of big Marshall amps clutching a couple of guitars, on the ground further guitars lay, all smashed up and battered.  The tagline shouted “Don’t Fear the Bleeper – All you Need to Know About Techno”- which is kind of clever wordplay – and whilst techno had been around for literally decades before that moment, for a host of timid 16 year old youths, it sounded new, exciting and like nothing else on the planet.

39 – Fight The Power ’95 – Dreadzone (1995, Virgin Records)

See Also – Zion Youth – Dreadzone (1995, Virgin Records) – especially the Underworld Mix – although it was far too long for dancefloors.

For some people (old ones), the exact moment that dance music and indie music met was when Bernard Sumner yelped at the start of verse 2 in New Order’s ‘Temptation’ and by and large they are right – but for me, the exact moment when I was comfortable with dance music and indie music rutting feverishly on the same song was an April evening in 1995 in the Students Union at Oxford Brookes University, when Dreadzone played ‘Fight the Power’ to a half packed room of student journalists, and student gig promoters.  Because right there and then, as I danced madly with the Entertainment Officer at Strathclyde University, light headed on free K Cider, Dreadzone sounded like the greatest band on the planet.

38 – Groove Is In The Heart – Dee-Lite (1990, Elektra Records)

See Also – Hippychick – Soho (1991, London Records)

Before I found an old CD single of ‘Groove Is In The Heart’ in a Guildford charity shop, the only thing I knew about ‘Groove Is In The Heart’ is that it failed to reach number one in the charts because ‘The Joker’ by the Steve Miller Band sold 12 more records than it.  That it was full of strange noises.  Turns out it was massively popular amongst the cool indie kids of Guildford (all six of them), with the hypnotic mix of disco, dance and guitars finding some of a spiritual home next to the likes of Soho and others.

The Best 44 4th Albums of All Time #11

To Bring You My Love – PJ Harvey (1995, Island Records)

“Bring me, lover, all your power”

Points 96

Highest Rank 3^rd (twice)

Long Snake Moan – PJ Harvey (1995, Island Records)

I mean technically, I could argue that ‘To Bring You My Love’ is the fourth studio album that PJ Harvey has played on.  Because in 1992, she features and is a named artist on at least two tracks on ‘Furthest From The Sun’ the debut album by West Country indie also rans The Family Cat.  That album nestles nicely in between her debut ‘Dry’ and her second/third ‘Rid of Me’. 

River of Diamonds – The Family Cat (and PJ Harvey) (1992, Dedicated Records)

I could argue that, but I think I’d be laughed out of the nations indie clubs and never be allowed back in again.  Because, whichever way you want to spin it, ‘To Bring You My Love’ is the third album by PJ Harvey a fact that I overlooked when I made this list, I got her albums in the wrong order and I didn’t bother to check it.  Although some indie knowitall’s will tell you that ‘To Bring You My Love’ is actually PJ Harvey’s debut album as a solo artist.  But we will ignore them because they probably just need feeding or something.

Obviously if I played the Family Cat card then we would need to revisit so many of the other acts in this list – New Order’s fourth album would become ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’ (I think) and we would need to revisit Radiohead because of their work on the second Drugstore album, Spiritualized would drop off the list entirely and I wouldn’t even know where to start with the Aphex Twin or Two Lone Swordsmen (although I suspect with the last one, Swiss Adam could tell us).  So we are not going there, I got it wrong, let’s leave it at that.

Your Silent Face – New Order (1982, Factory Records)

El President – Drugstore (featuring Thom Yorke) (1998, Roadrunner Records)

Hypnotized – Spacemen 3 (1991, Fire Records)

PJ Harvey’s fifth album was the monumental ‘Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea’ and I stupidly thought that came after ‘To Bring You My Love’, but it didn’t because stuck in the middle of the two of them was, ‘Is This Desire?’.   Which is of course what we should be discussing today.   That is in itself a marvellous record and I’m struggling to think how I overlooked it.

Is This Desire? – PJ Harvey (1998, Island Records)

As marvellous as ‘Is This Desire?’ is, it isn’t a patch on ‘To Bring You My Love’.  An album that positively sizzles with filth from start to end.  This is PJ Harvey at her most sultry, an album where she explores religious imagery, craves sex and is full of a lust all accompanied by this seethingly sultry bluesy indie rock sound.  It is an album full of angry guitars and the odd eerie sounding organ (particularly on the title track) and its fifth album excepted, probably PJ’s most complete record  – so consider yourselves lucky that I made that mistake.

Down by the Water – PJ Harvey (1995, Island Records)

Send His Love To Me – PJ Harvey (1995, Island Records)

Tomorrow we usher in the Top Ten and here as usual is a lyrical clue as to where will be starting

“I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses”

The Best 44 4th Albums of All Time #13

Brotherhood – New Order (1986, Factory Records)

“Livin’ a life that I can’t leave behind”

Points 93

Highest Rank 4^th (twice) 

Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order(1986, Factory Records)

A Guest Posting by Swiss Adam of the Bagging Area Blog

I’m not sure many people would claim that ‘Brotherhood’ is the best New Order album but in the 1980s New Order were one of the best bands on the planet, a gleefully obtuse and wilful band on the best record label in the world who were allowed to do what they wanted, make whatever singles and albums they wanted to. Complete freedom and independence. They crawled from the wreckage of Joy Division, embracing new sounds and unreliable technology and got on with making some of the best music of the era.

‘Brotherhood’ came out in 1986, caught between the sleek mid 80s magnificence of ‘Lowlife’ and the E’d up hedonistic acid house pop of ‘Technique’. It is an album divided into two sides- deliberately- which somehow never quite scratches the itch it sets out to scratch. It also contains possibly their greatest moment- ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’, especially in its full 12” glory, is dance- pop perfection, New Order’s marriage of synths and drum machines with Hooky’s bass and Bernard’s voice, a towering, monumental single. ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ towers over ‘Brotherhood’, nothing else on it quite measuring up. But no album with ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ on it can be anything other than worth hearing/ owning/ playing to death.

‘Brotherhood’ comes clad in a gorgeous Peter Saville sleeve, a photograph of a grey and silver sheet of titanium- zinc alloy, numbers and letters printed sideways. No band name. No album name. No band photograph. Modern art in the record shop racks. In the studio, a concrete box in Cheetham Hill, the tensions in New Order were threatening to spill over. Peter Hook loved playing live, loved touring and as a bass player with an instantly recognisable sound, thought New Order should get back to some guitar led, live sounding songs. Bernard wanted to go further into synths and electronics, disliked playing live and hated touring. Stephen and Gillian fell somewhere between the two. As the songs developed in the studio it was decided to split the album into a rock side and a dance side. Stephen Morris has admitted several times later that this ‘didn’t quite work’.

The rock side has five songs, all five sounding like classic New Order but slightly less than what they should be. The production (New Order self-produced the album) evens the songs out a little, they sometimes sound a little flat, the dynamics ironed out. ‘Paradise’ opens ‘Brotherhood’, kicking in with some typically great drumming, a fat keyboard bass riff and Bernard singing of leaving town forever. The guitars come in, very New Order.

Paradise – New Order (1986, Factory Records)

‘Weirdo’ follows, more guitars, a pacier tempo, Bernard a little flat and monotone in the verse, bursting into the chorus. ‘As It Was When It Was’ slows things down with an acoustic guitar intro and then drums and the first real Hooky moment, a wonderfully melodic bassline that could almost be sampled from ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. There’s a surge into the chorus, some whoops, more guitar- bass interplay. New Order gold. ‘Broken Promise’ is more of the same, rapid fire drumming, spindly guitars, rumbling bass, another set of Bernard’s finger pointing lyrics. Side One closes with feedback and thumping drums, Hooky sliding down his fretboard and then more bassline straight from the Joy Division notebook. Hooky says this song is ‘Age Of Consent’ played backwards. It zips along like that song, a lost gem. The rock side, or Hook side maybe to be more accurate, is great fun, five good New Order songs but essentially five album tracks. It’s difficult to hear any making a great single.

Broken Promise – New Order (1986, Factory Records)

Flip the disc over to the dance side and ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ knocks your head off. It’s followed by ‘All Day Long’, a downbeat five minute song led by a superb guitar riff, electronic drums and lots of space. Bernard sings softly of child abuse. As the song goes on the synths swell, Hooky’s bass chimes at the fore. A keyboard solo melody and guitar line play off against each other, the instruments layer and build into a huge New Order ending. From there the album lurches into ‘Angel Dust’, a sample of a wailing chanting vocal at the start, hammering synths and drums and distorted lead guitar. Thirty six minutes after dropping the needle we’re into the final song, ‘Every Little Counts’, New Order’s ‘A Day In the Life’, a low slung two note bassline, Bernard singing and sniggering at his own lyrics, “every second counts/ When I am with you/ I think you are a pig/ You should be in a zoo”. There are twinkling synths and guitar lines. There is “Doo doo do doo do do” Crescendo of instruments. A set closer of a song, building to a big ending and a wash of synths, noise and…. scrrrwwwwfltttttt, the sound of someone ripping the needle off the record. The first time you hear it makes you jump out of your seat to see what’s happened to your stylus. The second time, even though you’re expecting it, you still jump. And every time after. A New Order joke.

Every Little Counts – New Order (1986, Factory Records)

Like I said, it’s a good album, it’s New Order in the 80s. No one else could do this sort of thing. They made it sound effortless. What ‘Brotherhood’ lacks in places- zippier production, eight album songs on a nine track album, a strange tension between the two sides, a slight air of being caught between what happened and what’s about to happen (and that’s 1986 all over) it more than makes up for by being New Order doing New Order.

Thanks Adam.  When I first read this excellent review, I got to the end and just said “Yup”, to no one in particular because I agreed with every word.  New Order being New Order is still better than anyone else trying to be New Order.  

Here is tomorrows lyrical clue…..

“Dressed in a white shirt with my hair combed straight”

The Future is No Words – #10 – New Order

It is Sunday again.  Which means its time for me shut up talking and hand over to a band who will through the powerful medium of music help us to understand why words are overrated, on Sundays at least.

This week New Order explain this concept using an addictive bassline, some dubby electronics and some sunny vibes.

Kiss of Death – New Order (1987, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Substance’)

The Beach – New Order (1983, Factory Records, B Side)

Thieves Like Us (instrumental) – New Order (1987, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Substance’)

This might be the last instalment in this series, as I might try something new next Sunday. I also might not.

League Two Music – #14 – Salford City

She’s Lost Control – Joy Division (1979, Factory Records)

In 2014, a bunch of people including the (very?) alleged wife beater Ryan Giggs, the 70s soul band The Neville Brothers, Qatari royal family pet puppy (again very allegedly), David Beckham, professional nobody Nicky Butt and the excellent former footballer Paul Scholes bought Salford City Football Club, well them and the Singaporean property magnate and billionare Peter Lim that is (who also owns Valenica FC in Spain and is good mates with at least one of the Nevilles (Aaron I think).  Paul Scholes’ investment in this in the only thing stopping me from changing the word ‘people’ in the first line to ‘arseholes’, well that and my lawyers.

At the time Salford sat in the Northern Premier League but this didn’t stop Giggs announcing to the world that within fifteen years, Salford City would be playing Championship football.  Their first season in charge was fairly successful with Salford achieving promotion to the National League North via the play offs (Salford won a thrilling final 3 – 2 against Warrington, a team I think managed by Peter Reid’s brother).  The club also reached the second round of the FA Cup for the first time, with both of their matches being shown by the BBC.  Salford eventually lost to the mighty Hartlepool United after a replay.  I’m fairly sure that the warm balls of the FA Cup would have arranged a tie against Manchester United in the third round had Salford won.

Salford turned professional in 2017 and by May they had won promotion to the fifth tier of football and were immediately installed as favourites to get promoted to the football league.  All other clubs in the National League thumbed their noses at the club and accused them of trying to steal a place in the league.  Salford were paying several hundred of thousand pounds to Scottish Premier leagues sides for their best players – so its easy to see why.

However, they had to wait a season but on May 5^th 2019, following a play off win again (this time against Eastleigh) before they eventually won promotion to League Two, which is where they currently remain.  We are six years away from Giggs’ prediction and I’m literally hoping that it doesn’t happen. 

Slight Gillingham update, January has been a month of rebuilding and in the three games since the FA Cup lose to Leicester City, Gillingham have gained seven points and score seven goals.  For the previous league games before Christmas, the Gills scored six goals in total.  It’s a revolution.  Sort of.

Salford is stamped in musical legendary, firstly because it was the place where Joy Division and then New Order formed and called home (and I know I am massively simplifying that).

Round and Round – New Order (1989, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Technique’)

A photo of a working lads club was also used by some other mob on the sleeve of one of their recordings, but the NBR Contractual Ethical Policy clearly states that their name shall never be mentioned on these pages so we will move on.

In 1976, the Sex Pistols played a gig at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall and in the crowd, standing at the back looking curmudgeonly as he had to get a bus there from Salford in the rain (one expects anyway) was one Mark E Smith.  Smith, born and raised in Salford formed a band the second he left the venue and the rest is probably history and legend.

The Classical – The Fall (1982, Kamera Records, Taken from ‘Hex-Enduction Hour’)

One more, the Happy Mondays were also from Salford and for about three years in the late eighties and the early nineties, they were the greatest band on the planet.

Mad Cyril – Happy Mondays (1988, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Bummed’)

All of which brings us yippee yippee yi yiying to this weeks previously unheard of band who are a synth punk quartet called Sugarstone who sound like a cross between Nine Inch Nails and The Prodigy apparently. 

That’s Intense – Sugarstone (2022, Tri-Tone Records, Single)

A Short Series about Shapes – #1 – Triangle

Triangle – Field Mice (1990, Sarah Records, Taken from ‘Skywriting’)

I said on Friday that I wouldn’t mention the One Word Countdown ever again.  A promise that lasted precisely 72 hours.  Sorry.  I was going through the list of songs that I voted in my Top 30 but no one else did.  One of those was ‘Triangle’ by The Field Mice, a song which is just too darn good to ignore (it is according to me, alone, the 19^th best song with a One Word Title.  Ever.)  So in a petulant two fingers to the world I’ve devised an entire series to place it into and that really is the last time I will mention the One Word Countdown.  Probably.

I first heard The Field Mice on the John Peel show.  It would have been the summer of 1991 because I remember John Peel talking about them splitting up.  About six weeks later I found myself in possession of Indie Top 20 Vol. 12, a series of releases that packaged together a bunch of tracks from the Indie Charts at the time.  I had this on cassette, which was bright yellow and very low in quality.  Track eleven on that cassette was ‘Triangle’ an eight minute blast of indietronica that experiments with about ten different genres of music including acid house, and krautrock and it sounds a lot like the sort of thing New Order would have released about five years earlier.

It was quite a departure for the Field Mice because their earlier tracks took a more lo fi indie stance that was steeped in twee nostalgia with a nod towards the sort of ethereal sounds that perhaps bands like The Cocteau Twins.

Let’s Kiss and Make Up – The Field Mice (1989, Sarah Records, Taken from ‘Snowball’)

That track was of course covered a year or so later by their drinking buddies Saint Etienne.  There version is a piano led house stomper and it is almost as beautiful as the original.   The version below is the Sarah Cracknell version which is the only version I can find but I think the original single had a different singer.

Let’s Kiss and Make Up (Sarah Cracknell Version) – Saint Etienne (1990, Heavenly Records, Taken from ‘London Conversations’)

Of course New Order have a song has the word ‘triangle’ in the title.

Bizarre Love Triangle (Extended Dance Mix) – New Order (1986, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Substance’)

Which always sounds tremendous wouldn’t you say.   Easily one of New Order’s finest moments a proper head rush of synth pop, electronic hooks and another incredible drum opening, but its Bernard Sumner who makes ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ so addictive.  The way he delivers that opening line captures such as evocative image in my mind, especially the way word ‘Shot’ is almost spat out, as if right there and then, someone has hit him in the face with something fired out of a pea shooter.

“Every time I think of you, I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue”

Bizarre Love Triangle was covered by the Australian indie folk act Frente in 1994, and they had some relative success with it

Bizarre Love Triangle – Frente! (1994, Mushroom Records, Taken from ‘Marvin the Album’)

The Frente! version strips the song back into a semi acoustic track that sounds almost, almost as beautiful as the original, which brings us almost back to where we started because I first heard this version on an Indie Top 20 Compilation Album.

The One Word Countdown – #4

It’s got to be this time…..

Ceremony – New Order (1981, Factory Records, Eventually Taken from ‘Substance’)

Points 239

Fourth by a point!

Ok, I’ll get the arguments out of the way first.

I considered ‘Temptation’ and it would have done just as well in all probability.  It is a song that still forty years after it was released, fills dancefloors.  I also considered ‘Regret’ largely because its brilliant, but it was played at my friend Chris’ funeral last year and it has taken on a whole new meaning, and it would have annoyed me if it didn’t do as well as I would have wanted it to.

I also considered, ‘Procession’, ‘Confusion’ and very briefly ‘Shellshock’. All of which would have easily got into this the Top 20 of this dog and pony show of a countdown (Ok maybe not ‘Shellshock’).

In the end it had to be ‘Ceremony’. 

It might have been in an old documentary, but I remember Tony Wilson talking about New Order and the aftermath of the death of Ian Curtis.  “No band survives the death of their singer” he said and then with a wry look at the camera he winks, and says “Well apart from New Order”.  I may have misquoted him and I can’t find the bloody clip on You Tube to back it up – still you get the point.  What Bernard, Stephen and Peter (and later Gillian) did after Ian’s suicide was nothing short of miraculous.  The regrouping, the surge into a new direction and no song captures all that better than ‘Ceremony’ and that is basically the reason why I chose ‘Ceremony’ as opposed to all the others. 

If that’s not enough well, the guitar break at around 45 seconds in is one of my favourite bits of music of all time, and of course without ‘Ceremony’ you (probably) wouldn’t have all the brilliance of all the other songs that I have mentioned.  It is seen by many as the perfect response to the tragic events that ended Joy Division.  A song that is/was a Joy Division song (and performed if I remember rightly at their last ever live show) but given a new slant that hinted at the future.  It hinted at something different, it is a song that always to me at least, appears to have a glint in its eye, like its begging you to follow it, because there is a massive surprise waiting for you if you do.

The Musical Jury clearly agreed with me because it was one of only two songs (the other being the one at Number One) that was voted at the top of more than one Jury List

The New Order version is markedly difference from the Joy Division one, it is compared to that version all polished and shiny.  Bernie’s voice, the guitars, the drums all combining in a way that was as convincing and as confident as anything that Joy Division had ever recorded.

There is a rather wonderful cover version of ‘Ceremony’ that I have posted before but its so good it deserves a second airing.

Ceremony – Chromatics featuring Ida No (2017, Italians Do It Better Records, Taken from ‘Cherry’)

The Great One Word Title Countdown – The How Could You Miss… List

Pro>Gen – The Shamen (1991, One Little Indian Records)

There is, of course, as most of you will know, no pleasing some people.  My personal list of hard to please people includes, my dentist, barristers, Tory Voters, cyclists in the summer, anyone under the age of 19, and now on the end of that list I have added (in green ink) Most of The No Badger Required Musical Jury.

(I’m joking of course, I owe each and every one of them a pint, they are all lovely.)

Because, not content with being asked to participate in the greatest thing to happen to music blogs since, well the last time I tried something like this.  An honour, that, let’s be frank, all of you have rapidly typed onto the bottom of your CVs and highlighted it so that it really stands out.  Some of the musical jury, took it upon themselves to question why a bunch of other songs with one word titles were not in the long list that I had created.

There are since you asked, three reasons for this.

The first reason is that the song title contains more than one word, or brackets or hyphens or something.

Let’s take the song at the top of the page, ‘Pro>Gen’ by The Shamen.  You see that little arrow, that means its not one word.  It’s a separator, so we have two words ‘Pro’ and ‘Gen’.  Of course, the other reason here, is that its ghastly, which brings us nicely onto the second reason.

The second reason is that I don’t like the song or more probably that I liked another song by the same band with a one word title more.  For instance, ‘Regret’ from New Order was shelved for a much better song by New Order (Spoiler!) with a one word title but ‘Everlong’ by Foo Fighters was left off the list because its rubbish. 

Regret – New Order (1993, London Records)

Everlong – Foo Fighters (1997, Roswell Records)

The third reason, was simply, because, for whatever reason, I overlooked it.  Like these three smashers, which on any other given day would have and should have easily made it onto the long list. There were of course, a list of about 60 or 70 others that could have been included.

Birthday – The Sugarcubes (1987, One Little Indian Records)

Hit – The Wannadies (1997, Indolent Records)

Gorecki – Lamb (1996, Fontana Records)

Nearly Perfect Albums – #12

Power, Corruption and Lies – New Order

There are only two albums released on Factory Records on this list and they feature three of the same musicians.  Which means, as you might have guessed that ‘Chicken Rhythms’ by Northside didn’t make it.

‘Power Corruption and Lies’ was the second album by New Order and the reason it is included on this list instead of say ‘Low Life’ or ‘Technique’ (both worthy contenders as it happens) is because it was this album that laid the history of everything that came before it to rest (if that’s not too clumsy a phrase) and laid the foundations for everything that followed.  Well ‘Temptation’ and ‘Blue Monday’ (released two months earlier than this album) probably laid the foundations, ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’ hammered them home.

When I first heard this record as a 15 year old, I didn’t like it.  I think I was expecting to hear ‘Blue Monday’ but of course back then in 1990 I didn’t know that the band refused to put hit singles on their albums (although some cassette versions did have ‘Blue Monday’ on it) – and now, older and wiser this makes me love this record even more.

‘Power, Corruption and Lies’ is the sound of a band moving on, opening track ‘Age of Consent’ starts with one of Peter Hook’s finest basslines, its happy and forward thinking and then you get Barney’s lyrics ‘Won’t you please let me go…”and that joyously catchy synth follows.  Its one of the greatest opening two minutes of any album ever recorded to be honest.

Age of Consent – New Order (1983, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’)

But its not all about New Order being the clued up electro pioneers that they undoubtedly are, occasionally they revert back to that old sound, just because, they can.  ‘586’ for instance, starts its life as an instrumental that wouldn’t sound out of place on ‘Unknown Pleasures’ but then around the two minute mark it fades away to be replaced with possibly the greatest bit of the whole album, that tight electro blast that follows is just incredible.

586 – New Order (1983, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’)

If that electro blast in ’586’ is the best moment on the record then the best song is ‘Your Silent Face’.  There are very few moments in music that carry so much emotion (although I think I’ve identified three in this series already!) and the bit where Barney Sumner sings “no hearing or breathing, no movements, no colours, just silence” is just astonishing.  In fact the whole song is mesmerising from start to end – that synthesiser melody that runs through it, despite it being a very obvious Kraftwerk rip off shimmers majestically, through everything.

Your Silent Face – New Order (1983, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Power Corruption and Lies’)