release date: Jan. 30, 1989
format: digital (FACT 275)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,39]
producer: New Order
label: Factory Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Fine Time" (3,5 / 5) - 2. "All the Way" (4 / 5) - 3. "Love Less" (4 / 5) - 4. "Round & Round" (3,5 / 5) - 6. "Run" (4 / 5) (other link) - 9. "Dream Attack" (3,5 / 5)
5th studio album by New Order released as FACT 275 on Factory Records. I heard a few tracks from it then, and decided that it wasn't worth it. I guess, I wasn't ready for their acid house and dance-pop combo with synth pop. To me, it was just dance pop music, and in those days, that meant: bad. 15 years later I bought the album after listening to "Run", thinking "Now, what album is that from?". I had to look through their back catalogue, and found so many positive reviews telling stories of how New Order was one of the sources to the techno and electronic revolution of the 90s, and my new heroes were The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy. Today I get why New Order is mentioned as a source. Nearly all their albums of the 80s point to what later became techno. And Technique and Republic (1993) contains some fine proto-'house' material. Well, even today I can listen to "Round & Round", although, I don't find it great, and I couldn't stand it when it was a dance floor hit. Anyway, despite the album mostly shows how they're perfectly capable of incorporating the band's characteristics when adapting to new styles. It's the second New Order album to be enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]
