New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call

It's not greatful to say 'this sucks' to a group that truly moved pop music's boundaries but isn't that also a somewhat sad story - 'Waiting For the Sirens' Call' suggests a dangerous tune by its title and should have sounded like 'sirens' indeed kicking off one last air-raid alert for a band that started showing worrying signs of falling apart... but in the end you get the simple picture - New Order turned into old prats with desperately naive songs as if they're a bunch of just-discovered youths.

Their landmarks are still there but these are washed off so hard as well, not easy to serve and make people swallow every time. One the ever-present trendmakers which stood their test of time - in fact, tests were many succesfully passed - however, 'The Sirens' Call' passes hardly for C+ and that is mainly due to its sleeve's exceptionally negative statement. Innovation is still there as far as Mr. Saville is concerned. As for New Order - they are now a legend but there is danger they transform this legend into their own caricature.

I like this album better than their last. It's still much more rock-focused than their older work, but I feel that the songwriting here is stronger than it was on Get Ready. It's still not quite at the level of some of their classics like Brotherhood or Power, Corruption and Lies in my book, but it still has that intangible quality unique to New Order's albums that keeps bringing me back for more listens.

New Order's record covers are as celebrated as their music. The infamous Peter Saville designed almost all of them, from Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" in 1979 onwards.

So, naturally, New Order turned to Saville to design the cover for "Waiting For The Sirens' Call". The world-weary designer had, of late, been giving interviews professing his boredom with music and the music industry, but all the same, complied. His design: a striking Photoshop comp of a lady rising out of a huge tidal wave. Everyone was happy.

Then on the 26th December 2004, the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake disaster occured; a tsunami that killed over 200,000 people. The record company, management and band looked at the artwork, and panicked. They needed a new sleeve, quick...

Saville's response to their new request, writ large in striking simple red letters:

"No"