My New CDs: New Order, Low-Life

One of my xmas CDs really has me a bit nostalgic for my college days. New Order's Low-Life reminds me of the years when I had the time to dwell on music. My friends and I focused so much on music that we gravitated toward working at the college radio station. We were really in to music.

With Low-Life, New Order continued to explore both electronic/dance music and straight-up post-punk rock. The lyrics are often pretty dark (understandable since New Order was created when one of Joy Division's members committed suicide), but the instrumentation is diverse and the album holds together pretty well. You can hear their dance music style evolving on a few tracks, but you also hear the vestiges of their rock/post-punk beginnings.

Check out this video on YouTube of them in concert in Japan in 1985. This is not simply the stuff of the electronic dance music that you find on Substance a couple years later. The journey from Love Vigilantes to Sub-Culture is a fun one.

My roommate and I nearly wore out the grooves on this album.

On a totally different note: check out this Pachelbel rant. It tickled me.

The Day

• Workout: 3.5-mile run
  
• Music: New Order, Nick Drake, The Police, Miles Davis, Led Zeppelin
  
• The Police - Mother