And so the post-punk veterans are back, 35 years after they released their first post-Joy Division record, and proceeded to write much of the history of leftfield electro-pop, forever epitomised by 'Blue Monday'. Despite the massive trawling of their lives and the often public displays of animosity (mostly emanating from the semi-buffonic Peter Hook towards erstwhile bandmate Bernard Sumner), New Order have retained their enigmatic edge, amplified by their idiosyncratic and career long cross-fertilisation of rock and pop with dance and electro music. Of course, the death of Ian Curtis will always cast a huge shadow over their lives (and those of their older fans), made even more so in recent times via the release of both the acclaimed Control film and the equally brilliant Joy Division feature length documentary, both made (just) while Hook was still in the band, but after the release of the last New Order offering, 2005's Waiting For The Siren's Call. This is the first without Hook; Tom Chapman is now on bass duties. Music Complete also sees the return of original keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, for the first time since 2001's Get Ready. And there are some guest spots from Iggy Pop, Brandon Flowers and La Roux's Elly Jackson.

 
Ever since Joy Division found their feet in the late 70s, Sumner, Hook and drummer Stephen Morris have always had a musical chemistry that didn't shy away from attempting to move the dancefloor, continuing to evolve their sound in the 80s in particular, taking in influences from the nascent worlds of electro and dance, their music becoming increasingly sophisticated and club friendly as that decade progressed, via the likes of 'Blue Monday', 'Thieves Like Us', 'True Faith' and 'Fine Time', and culminating in the Technique album, perhaps Music Compete's spiritual forebear. At the same time, and to varying degrees, guitars were still a feature of the band, but more so with their later releases. Music Complete is indeed a combination of these two strands, but with the emphasis on 'dance'.
 
Lead track and first single, 'Restless' is classic New Order, a driving and melodic guitar groove, with Tom Chapman neatly approximating Hook's distinctive bass sound and style. Sumner's slacker grunge vocal, at odds with the title, but typical nonetheless (and bearing in mind his history of Prozac use), sounds like someone monging out in a hammock, rather than someone pacing up and down. No doubt Sumner is being ironic and/or sarcastic, as if he's talking about someone in the third person. "I want a nice car, a girlfriend who is as pretty as a car/ I want respect as much, as much as I can get…"
 
The ghost of Joy Division will never leave New Order, and the opening Martin Hannett style atmospheric sounds of Singularity, complete with more Hooky sound-a-like bass, harks back to those days, before it erupts into a faster paced rhythm, and some dancefloor friendly acid-trance grooves. With The Chemical Brothers' Tom Rowland at the controls (who also has a hand in the crunchy deep house terrain of Unlearn This Hatred), the track alternately builds and breaks. It's turbulent, menacing, and a roaring beast of a tune, cleverly put together by one of the maestros of UK dance. Similarly, the Richard X produced 'Plastic' takes New Order deep into dance territory with its Morodoresque synth pulse waves and delicious MDMA-fuelled groove, overlaid by a simple vocal melody. Again, rather typically, the understated Sumner goes for the jugular: "One of these days, right when you want me baby, I will be gone/ You're like plastic, you're artificial, you don't mean nothing, baby."
 
Interestingly, there are signs of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Relax' at the beginning of the europhile 'Tutti Frutti', a rhythmically dense, and trippy balearic house banger, that carries a decent pop tune within, although it's let down by Sumner's uninspired, and all-too-often hazy vocal delivery, while the retro electro-funk of 'People On The High Line' also suffers a bit from the monotonal, rather emotionless voice, redeemed a tad by some nifty bass work.
 
After getting over the surprise of hearing what sounds like Jeff Wayne's 'War Of The Worlds', there's the added shock of hearing Iggy Pop on 'Stray Dog', a spoken word performance somewhat akin to Vincent Price on 'Thriller'. His innate gravitas, yet playful theatricality, is a breath of fresh air, helped immeasurably by some decent words: "If the secret to happiness is unconditional love why don't you love me/ Well, sometimes I do, like when you are away, I feel the need for you." New Order then get their guitars out again for the darkly grooving 'Academic' where Sumner seems to feel more at home in the vocal department; there's some soul in there. However, it takes a good two minutes for 'Nothing But A Fool' to find its feet, the opening segment an indifferent attempt at stoner psychedelia, before Morris does his furious hi-hat thing, and the rhythmic bass a la Silversun Pickups, lifts and propels the song to more agreeable heights, aided by La Roux's Elly Jackson on vocals. Similarly, 'The Game' is multi-faceted; one half is bleeping pop-dance, the other half epic intensity. The two just about piece together as a whole, while the Stuart Price produced closer 'Superheated' is an unusually uplifting electro-based romp, sung by Brandon Flowers, whose voice is not so dissimilar from Sumners.
 
It's been a long wait, but finally one of the most iconic bands of recent years have returned with one of their best albums, a mostly successful and magisterial fusion of dance with pop, and electro with indie. Is this the end? Music Complete, as a title, seems to suggest it may well be… If it is, they should take a bow or two and enjoy what should be a standing ovation.
Jeff Hemmings
 
Website: neworder.com