Outtakes and extras captured on long-delayed so-so compendium
CD and vinyl out now
6/10
At the risk of turning this website into the New Order appreciation society’s hub, this will probably be the last review dedicated to the pioneering quartet for a while. Lost Sirens follows up a year or two of (for New Order) intense activity, ranging from bassist Peter Hook’s various tours, books, live venue and releases (the ill-fated Freebass, the much-better The Light) to the ‘real’ (but not really ‘real’) New Order who regrouped for Michael Shamberg benefit gigs, festival appearances (including the magical Portmeirion-based Festival No.6 headliner) and
now this.
Essentially the last ever New Order recordings with Hook and Sumner in the same studio, presumably not beating seven bells out of each other, Lost Sirens is a compendium of out-takes from the Sirens Call sessions circa 2005/6 and features eight songs that either didn’t fit in with that album or never reached a follow-up, were it ever intended. Oddly, considering the premise of this release, it’s not half-bad. Scraps left lying around on the cutting-room floor, so to speak, are normally left there for good reason but, after a few listens, there are at least five efforts worthy of album-space with one or two good enough to be singles – well, in a parallel universe perhaps.
Though some way short of being a classic, opener I’ll Stay With You is better than most of Siren’s Call, Get Ready and Sumner’s Bad Lieutenant project put together – the trademark chiming guitars, insistent drums, ankle-deep basslines and simplistic lyrics all add up to above-average New Order and a great start. Elements of Pet Shop Boys creep into Sugarcane, a rather pallid attempt to poke fun at ‘superstars’, ‘perfect hair’ and the cringe-worthy line, ‘lawyers wanna deal with you’. Pass – what a shame the lovely intro motif doesn’t continue throughout.
Better is the light lounge-soul mood that is Recoil. Adapted from Scott Walker’s Seventh Seal, this downbeat little song is understated and quite unlike most New Order output, perhaps a pointer for things to come (if they were ever going to come, that is). Side one on the vinyl ends with another decent stomper, Californian Grass, albeit Americanized with grocery-store references and ‘a few dollars more’.
And so to side two and disappointment abounds on the new but clumsy reading of Hellbent, which starts off with a sound-enough intro before slipping into a distinctly average groove that I’ve forgotten already. Shake It Up is better – there’s some proper Hook-twanging going on and a sense of urgency, yet only merely hinting at the pioneering beats that New Order have delivered in the past. I’ve Got a Feeling is very much b-side quality, before the final song appears as some light relief. I Told You So first appeared in bubbling pomp-reggae form on The Siren’s Call, but this better Stuart Price version, previously issued on one of many remix 12” on London several years ago, slows the track down to the speed of Velvet Underground Venus in Furs.
It’s a pity that Rhino didn’t see fit to round up New Order’s post-Factory b-sides into a sprawling double CD/triple vinyl package. For now though, Lost Sirens is a suitable enough stop-gap though hardly a fitting epitaph for Britain’s most inventive and mythical outfit.