good New Order appreciation--


"It wasn't merely the embrace of new technology that allowed for this quantum leap. In Sumner, New Order's earliest liability slowly evolved into its secret weapon. The band had borrowed elements from club music and guitar rock�two forms that, in the 1980s, seemed allergic to subtlety or intimacy�and crafted something large-sounding, smart, and reluctant. Once Sumner realized that he could never conjure Curtis' existential woes with the same literal force, New Order became a brilliant shell game of perfect moments, divine transcendence, wicked wit, and intense, hurtful bruising, all conveyed in the flattest, most matter-of-fact tones possible."