WAIM Podcast #077 - Kevin Alexander On New Order's First Four Albums

Kevin Alexander is unabashed about his love for New Order. They are probably his favorite band if he’s pressed on the issue. He fell in love early and stayed deeply smitten through the intervening decades. It was with this knowledge that I asked Kevin to share his assessment of the first four albums by New Order. If there was a single person that I knew who was within my own orbit that was most qualified for this task, it was Kevin. The resulting essay, which was published just last week at What Am I Making, is the best sort of deep dive on the band’s early catalog. Kevin contextualizes New Order’s early releases with the weight and impact of Ian Curtis’s death and the dissolution of Joy Division, the band that would eventually become New Order. More than learning to become a new band after the death of their bandmate and friend, the remaining members of Joy Division created a new outfit, and a new sound that would help to define a musical movement.Kevin and I weave our way through New Order’s first four records beginning with the icy cool debut Movement on through to Brotherhood, an album that Alexander has referred to as having abundant “middle child energy”. We chart the growth of the band’s sound, explore the way that drugs and the local dance scene influenced the sonic qualities of NewOrder as they evolved and the separation amongst band members that occurred as technology took precedence over songwriting. There is extensive discussion as well of the band’s visual appearance, especially as informed by the artist and designer Peter Saville who designed all of the band’s early cover art. We also delve into a number of the incredible singles that New Order released in this window of time as well. It’s a critical appraisal of one band being formed from the ashes of another. It is a story of resilience, innovation, and even some bad luck. It’s a New Order story filled with a shade or two of unabashed love. Hope ya dig it. Cheers,Matty C Get full access to What Am I Making at whatamimaking.substack.com/subscribe