Brotherhood

Album: Brotherhood
Year: 1986

The closing track on Brotherhood was as close to a ballad as New Order was ever going to get, and was also perhaps the silliest, most light-hearted track that they ever did: not only does Bernard Sumner crack himself up during the opening verse — not quite to the level that Bob Dylan did on “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” — because he was very aware of the silliness.

And of course, none of this mattered because “Every Second Counts” was a near-perfect closing track for Brotherhood, one more comedown after the near-psychedelic coda of “Angel Dust,” and also closing the “disco” side of the record with a slow dance song.

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1319: New Order – “Every Little Counts”

Album: Brotherhood
Year: 1986

My favorite song on Brotherhood starts off as a drum-machine driven chill pill after the frenzy of “Bizarre Love Triangle” and buries its lyrical darkness in a combination of mumbled lyrics and a very very long instrumental section.

And in fact, it does such a good job hiding that lyrical darkness that I literally had no idea how dark it truly was until I read Peter Hook’s description of it as “the only song about child abuse you can dance to.” And even though I’d been listening to it for 30 years, I had no idea. But it’s all right there:

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1318: New Order – “All Day Long”