Album: New Order

Waiting for the Siren's Call, LONDON

Despite the inclusion of auxiliary guitarist Phil Cunningham in the writing and recording process alongside Bernard, Hooky and Steve, Waiting for the Siren's Call adds little, if anything, to what we already know about New Order, and does it with a fraction of the drive and elan of their best work. Most tracks follow the standard New Order formula of scudding techno beats, impersonal vocals and hooks that sound almost too familiar, topped off with Hooky's trademark lead-bass lines - a by-numbers approach exemplified by the single "Krafty". A few tracks feature one-off gambits - there's a nice skank offbeat to the groove of "I Told You So", while "Working Overtime", with its raunchy bar-chords and swaggering mien, comes across like an oddly diffident Iggy Pop - but "Jetstream" is as dull a slice of AOR as New Order have recorded. The best track is the title-track, a Krautrock homage which lays a Kraftwerkian mellotronic synth tone over a pounding Neu!-style motorik groove - but then spoils the e

Despite the inclusion of auxiliary guitarist Phil Cunningham in the writing and recording process alongside Bernard, Hooky and Steve, Waiting for the Siren's Call adds little, if anything, to what we already know about New Order, and does it with a fraction of the drive and elan of their best work. Most tracks follow the standard New Order formula of scudding techno beats, impersonal vocals and hooks that sound almost too familiar, topped off with Hooky's trademark lead-bass lines - a by-numbers approach exemplified by the single "Krafty". A few tracks feature one-off gambits - there's a nice skank offbeat to the groove of "I Told You So", while "Working Overtime", with its raunchy bar-chords and swaggering mien, comes across like an oddly diffident Iggy Pop - but "Jetstream" is as dull a slice of AOR as New Order have recorded. The best track is the title-track, a Krautrock homage which lays a Kraftwerkian mellotronic synth tone over a pounding Neu!-style motorik groove - but then spoils the effect with a drab lyric. There are some shockingly poor songs here, studded with cliches like "Don't go down the road to ruin" and "Hold your head up high": even the average horoscope doesn't stoop quite this low.