The main event of 1989 is the fall of the Soviet Union – starting with democratic elections in Poland, moving through various "revolutions" in Eastern Bloc countries and the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall. George HW Bush is sworn in as US President, and meanwhile the Iranian government put a bounty on the head of author Salman Rushdie over The Satanic Verses. Idiots.
Despite growing freedoms in Eastern Europe, elsewhere the Chinese government crack down on dissent and roll tanks into Tianenman Square. In the UK 98 football fans are killed in a crush at Hillsborough Stadium, an event that still lives in infamy due to poor crowd control by the police (and because The Sun newspaper spreads lies about the behaviour of the Liverpool fans, to this day your typical Liverpudlian will boycott it), and Thatcher introduces the deeply popular (ahem) Poll Tax.
And now back to the music.
Although much of this album is “classic” New Order (by which I mean “sounds a bit like Blue Monday”), the opening track, Fine Time, is very much influenced by acid house – or more specifically at the time, by the “Balearic Beat” of the Ibiza clubs.
All The Way and Love Less are more classic New Order in sound, electronica with Bernard Sumner’s nonchalent vocals over the top, and it feels like Peter Hook’s bass is competing with electronic replacement at times. Round & Round is a blend of the two styles on the album, both "original" and "Ibiza" New Order, with a bit of electronic samba going on. Run has a bit of a Manchester sound to it, somewhat like Inspiral Carpets and more that kind of indie rather than electronica. Mr Disco reaches Pet Shop Boys levels of camp, and for a lot of the more “party” style tracks I couldn’t help but think Marc Almond had got there first. Dream Attack has a lengthy, catchy, instrumental outro that also feels strangely traditional, like a synths ‘n’ sequencers version of the guitar-solo-to-fade of Eagles’ Hotel California. It’s a nice album-ender, leaving the listener wanting more as it fades away.
This album does demonstrate that New Order have very much become their own sound, and aren’t simply “Joy Division without Ian Curtis” any more.
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