by New Order
Released May 2, 1983 via Factory Records
Reviewed June 5, 2023
Top tracks (based on community voting)
Age of Consent (86%), 5 8 6 (46%), Your Silent Face (46%)
New Order's second studio album is an album which hits the highest of highs, and the most mediocre of lows. Opening with the seminal sounds of joyous basslines and the swirling of melancholic soundscapes, New Order come to energetically malaise life. Heartfelt but standoffish, the material feels like it wants one thing, and does another. Power, Corruption & Lies suffers at the hands of pacing issues; every time it releases itself, it shuts itself off. It doesn't know whether to stay or go, meandering around waiting for the way out. It's a stop-start ride with a capricious driver at the wheel. Bookended by the best songs Power, Corruption & Lies is a record which starts with its strongest, ends with its second strongest, and just occurs in between. In the throes of inconsistency. Is it worthy of the acclaim? Some of it. Do you find this happens all the time? – Peter (7/10)
Jared: 10/10 | Pax: 9.5/10 | Cam: 8.8/10 | Alan: 8.5/10 | Ben (Synth): 8.5/10
DeVán: 8/10 | Dominick: 8/10 | Peter: 7/10
Community Reviews:
A mixture that gets the whole essence out of post punk and synth pop to be the starting point of the relevance of the Manchester scene of the following years. – @music_4_sapoperros (10/10)
New Order is a legendary band, although at this point in their discography they were struggling to reinvent themselves. “Age of Consent” is an all-time classic, but the contents just cannot stack up to their other tracks. It’s still objectively great and deserves praise. – anonymous community member (7/10)
