New Order Lost Sirens
Rhino/Warner Bros

New Order have revived tracks that unintentionally hit the cutting room floor following Peter Hook’s controversial departure from the band in 2006. Lost Sirens is a collection of ‘left over’ tracks from the infamously expensive and tedious recording sessions in which not only 2005’s ‘Waiting For The Sirens Call’ was birthed but also a large amount of animosity between keystone members of the revered band. Finally, after a drawn out copyright war/disagreements over a slew of creative and production decisions on the recordings/world tours, the band have unleashed ‘Lost Sirens’ for those curious about what didn’t make the cut for ‘Waiting For The Sirens Call’. Everything about the album smells like textbook New Order: the simplistic cover art, the title, the song names, the ambitiousness and utter pop aesthetic. But there is a lot to be desired here.

Fans and followers of the band are familiar with the pulsating basslines, joyously 80s synths and sickeningly infectious pop vocals of Bernard Sumner by now, but ‘Lost Sirens’ isn’t a cookie cutter New Order release and it suffers for it. Even Bernard himself admits the album clocking in at 40 minutes with 8 tracks is incomplete and a departure from their previous works. Whether the idea of an unfinished New Order album that doesn’t exactly sound ‘New Order’ appeals to longstanding fans is up for debate but a few key elements of the ashes of Joy Division’s phoenix, New Order remain: Bernard Sumner’s sometimes ambitious, good hearted and at the best of times despondent lyrics and quintessentially 80s melodies, the shimmering guitar moments, the occasional ‘out of the blue’ piano based track (as witnessed on the slow moving, ‘Recoil’) and with these key ingredients it’s easy to enjoy ‘Lost Sirens’ but loving it is a little bit more of a strain.

Peter Hook’s creative input is sorely missed, it’s barely even present on this ‘lost’ tape. His instrumental presence is in a way completely silenced as those pulsating bass solos of yonder disappear into the ether of Sumner’s often cheesy and overplayed guitar moments. As a long time fan of New Order it’s hard to admit defeat, hard to accept that maybe the magic that the band once harnessed has long left with its originating members, namely the influential Hook whose musical input shaped the band’s groundbreaking sound during the 80s. That’s not to say some of the moments on ‘Lost Sirens’ aren’t as influential as their earlier works, at around 3 minutes 11 on the track ‘California Grass’ we bear witness to some of Sumner’s most enticing guitar pieces. The ‘lotsa fun’ album opener ‘I’ll Stay With You’ incites some lyrical genius as well as summoning subtle, sweeping synths that would make ‘Substance’ proud. I have to reiterate - California Grass is brilliance encapsulated, like a Jesus And Mary Chain/New Order hybrid, easily one of the best songs they've released in about 15 years.

If you’re expecting a signature New Order release imprinted with the dynamic musical synergy created when you mix Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris then you’re going to have to sit back and smell the roses. Following a slight disbandment the band suffered instrumentally, there’s something comforting and entirely unique about the way those three originating members pumped out the jams together and although it’s been abandoned on this ‘lost tape’, we should be thankful that such a record was even blessed enough to see the light of day after years of passive aggressive arguments, legal disputes and animosity. ‘Lost Sirens’ is what an incomplete New Order record tastes like and it’s better than almost all of the half-baked album releases we’ve witnessed over the past few years. If this is an incomplete New Order record it’s easy to comprehend why they’re capable of creating such magic when they’re operating as a united band.

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