Power, Corruption & Lies (studio album) by New Order

Synth pop that is mostly driven by Hookie's consistently good basslines. Bernard is not a great singer, but his soft voice fits this better than the more somber vocals Curtis could have provided.

I think this album requires more than one listen and by the second one I can say that it is great. I love how it mixes synth pop with new wave, not everything is perfect, but they're creating something new. Age Of Consent, Your Silent Face and Leave Me Alone are my favorites and I find Ecstacy quite underrated.

The album slowly becomes more synth heavy the deeper you go into it and you can literally experience the transition of the group which is very unique. This makes this record quite important and also enjoyable to be a part of as you watch someone adapt their style and their whole musical personality. The actual music however is a bit mixed up and confused. At times it is brilliant with songs like Age Of Consent, The Village, Your Silent Face and Leave Me Alone but on most of the other tracks it is pretty poor or bland. I think 5 8 6 is the best example of this for me as it is 7 minutes long and never really goes anywhere. This makes for a very inconsistent listen which is never very effective for us. Overall, the importance of this album for New Order is massive but the quality of the music isn't incredibly strong and they do release better albums than this later in their career.

From Jboy56 03/31/2022 06:40

The early 80' were great times for humanity. and New Wave..

1980s Euro synth pop is not really my thing, but this album moved along ably without filling me with a sense of existential dread.

From VictorVale 03/13/2021 14:04

Nascendo o batidão synthpop! Grande álbum!

From planetneutral 12/20/2020 13:27

A number of catchy rhythm tracks, but nothing really stood out.

From Timestarter 08/31/2020 11:27

Fav. Tracks: Age Of Consent, 5 8 6, Your Silent Face, Leave Me Alone.

From teague 07/07/2020 01:36

Power, Corruption, & Lies sees New Order inching further away from their old sound in Joy Division. They ease you into it by starting with a straight post-punk song and the album slowly morphs into a synthpop project. Pretty great. Every song is enjoyable, definitely worth a listen.

You can still hear pangs of their previous band on this record, but more clearly moving towards synths.
Overall a great mix of the two sounds as New Order continues to evolve. Definitely one of my favorite albums in the New Order discography. Leave Me Alone is my all-time favorite New Order song.

Favorite tracks: Leave Me Alone, Age of Consent, Your Silent Face, The Village