Customer Reviews

Movement

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

By now you know the story; death of I.C., birth of New Order, and all that. Yes, this is the first New Order album, but if you are seeking the New Order sound so familiar to most this is not where to look. However, if you are a devout Joy Division/Section 25/Crispy Ambulance fan as am I, I do believe you will love this record (as do I). Listen closely (or perhaps not that closely) and Ian Curtis is audible on several tracks. Barney is not bad at all at capturing the Curtis-type crooning. Also noteworthy is the fantastic intermingling of synth and guitar, here in inchoate form, later to become the quintesence of New Order. But make no mistake, this album is not a get-up and dance/feel-good/perfect kiss/Blue Monday affair. The fact is this album is fairly dark, and considering its history, captures the mood of the events that surround it. To this effect it is both brooding and mournful, and yet remotely hopeful and expectant. True, this might be a projection, but it is hard to take this album out of context.

I can't understand most of the criticism of this album by fans. I've been a fan of New Order for over 10 years and this album isn't their worst in my opinion. Their poorest effort would have to be 'Brotherhood'.

I believe the reasons for the doubts about this album stem from the fact that the band had just been forced into a new direction, they were unsure, stuck between staying the same for their fans in their JD days or moving on. The press expected too much as did fans. This was a band in transition and the shows that.

The dark mood and lyrics are still there but notice the beginning of a much more electronic sound. The signs are there for the future. Maybe the new electronic sound unsettled fans, that would be a reason for their criticism.

The opener 'Dreams Never End' is brilliant, a powerful backbeat with strong guitars.

There are moments where the band seem unsure of where to go and just add more atmospherics and guitars, but from a group in change I think this was a great effort.

Sod what sweaty fans may say over this album.Its awesome....i loved it much more then i expected.I could go on about this being the "transition period" or write stuff you already know.You obviously have a sense of taste otherwise you'd be looking up the neanderthal knuckle scraping Beady Eye.Moody,dissonant,glacial,unfriendly,surly....you can see why i don't review for a living.But what i do love is music thats good,music that matters,music that can't just be genetically modified and stamped.
Plus i can listen to the production of Martin THE GOD Hannett all day long.Movement is a great album and the price is a snip.Place that order.

New Order's first album, released in 1981 after the abrupt end of Joy Division, tends not to be mentioned much when New Order are discussed. It provides a kind of bridge between the two bands, as it was also produced by Martin Hannett. The shadow of their former band weighs heavy on this album.

The first track, Dreams Never End, is kind of a natural progression from Joy Division in that keyboards dominated more and more, and the drums sounded ever more mechanical. The tune is a dead ringer for The Cure's In Between Days (released years later). Truth is quite austere, along the lines of some of the Closer material, slightly reminiscent of Decades, although on this and most of the other material on this album, the vocals, handled mainly by Bernard Sumner are a little muffled and subdued. It was obviously difficult for him to take over vocal duties from Ian Curtis who was such a distinctive vocalist.

Senses, sounds very much like it had been created entirely using synthesisers and is an interesting precursor to Blue Monday, while Chosen Time is a little non-descript. The second half of the album sounds haunted by the ghost of Curtis, but this is by no means a bad thing. ICB (Ian Curtis Buried maybe?) is a fine song, driven by Peter Hook's bass, strong drumming from Stephen Morris and some fine guitar from Sumner, and is very danceable yet remaining a good song!

The Him is a doomy dirge which plods along with some ominous keyboards but is unremarkable, and Doubts Even Here is a similar exercise, though far better. It's probably the most Joy Division-like song on the album, with wintry keyboards and downbeat bass, and very Curtis-like lyrics (`day begins, collapsing without warning'), while final track Denial is all clattering keyboards and drums.
It's easy to see why this album is not well regarded by New Order fans as it is a little derivative of their former band, they hadn't really evolved into what they became. Nonetheless it's a good collection of songs, in that doomy early `80s vein.

This album is not strictly a New Order or Joy Division only album except in so far as I.C. is not actually the singer on it but the style is still so Joy Division because Bernard Albrecht is not yet quite the leader in a newish band.

It does have four of the best songs ever written in modern electric western European music and I don't mean several of the lamer,poppier efforts but these songs,for me make the album a five star just because no other band could write such original music and insightful lyrics probably then or now,on any record maybe only Rammstein or Laibach or others years after of their continental ilk,even given Joy Divison and New Order's own partial forerunners were Deutsche bands like Neu!and Kraftwerk.

Neither Joy Division nor New Order were culturally British bands as if the choice of name/s of persons and records and early singles/LP jackets like Futurist MOVIMENTO were simply accidental...plebeian autodidactoi though they were,they were culturally Europeans in a rotten Europhobic empire and that explains everything about their success and failure despite decadent influences like Liberal William Burroughs books,Glam and the industrial wasteland up north and wiggy Iggy Pop...it certainly explains Anniek and Stroszek about a continental outcast who escape Germany only to fail in Amerika as Curtis did the opposite and failed to escape Britain.

Despite the four weak songs on this record there are four serious and lyrically heartfelt ones that surpass everything on all New Orders later albums despite some greta stuff and hits on those and it's only a shame that the 5 song sampler that was a,I think,freebie cassette at the time are not inclusive extras,e.g. Everything's gone Green,Hurt,Ceremony et cetera.

This album keeps being called a transition album however thats with the benefit of hindsight.. when I first heard it it blew me away,, the combination of emotional and technological intensity has in my opinion never been matched in an album of its kind - it is the peak of that kind of music and played loud is both exciting and haunting. After it there was only one way to go - to lighten up. it should be considered a classic but because it doesnt fit neatly into the Joy Division/New Order story it gets avoided. I recommend another listen.. and pretend youve never heard of the band..

new orders true career charts from this in '81 through to Technique in '89, the rest is nostalgia - from both ours and
the bands perspective. the band hate it and from a musicians point of view I can see why, it's fragile in places.

whether the band are aware or not this album is an artwork, as much as PCL and Low Life. it captures losing a friend,
a singer, a world gone by. I came to this album retrospectively in '83 [as would be the want of the band], and it hooked me
in. I couldn't believe the band that created PCL made this stuff, they had worked hard at clearing their tracks.

Intensity gave way to optimism: time heals. NO became something new, something they do very well. a devotee to the band, both Brotherhood and Technique surprised me and that's creativity at work.

back to the tracks - everything makes up the whole, a whole that is as genuine as you could wish from any outfit. stand out tracks would be Dreams Never End, Chosen Time, and Denial for sheer drive, drive that gave NO weight which they never emulated. ICB, The Him, Doubts Even Here make you ponder the weight, the hope, the feeling.

This has been unfairly treated as the band's worst album which I think would be more suited to their most recent album , Get Ready . Having said that I give it three stars for the fact that it is not an album that most New Order fans can take . If you were a fan of Joy Division and also New Order this would be essential although you do notice the flaws in the album . But then again I wonder how would I feel if I were in there shoes and Martin Hannett would be yelling to make the music " more helium like ".

There are times when you feel that Barney is scared when he sings as there is this nervousness in his voice signalling that if he didn't sound like Ian Curtis , Martin would possibly yell at him and add on effects to make him sound like Ian .

Overall this album is very good . Flawed yes but under those circumstances and also with Martin Hannett still shocked that Ian was gone and starting his own decline , it's little wonder that the end result came out as it did . But you have to applaud the guys for the work they did under the trauma they went through . But saying that , buy this album if you love Joy Division and wondered how they came through and survived to this day . If you cannot tolerate Joy Division , stick to the others - this maybe a bit too much doom and gloom for your liking

'Movement' was the first New Order album, and it had a tough act to follow - Joy Division's final album, 'Closer', was probably the finest LP of the 1980s. Ian Curtis' death on 18 May 1980 robbed the band of their vocalist and leader; the rest of the group's decision to carry on was bold.

Gillian Gilbert, drummer Stephen Morris' partner, was recruited to provide keyboards and drums, and there was difficulty in choosing a vocalist. Kevin Hewick was auditioned before Bernard Sumner (guitar) took over, but on this album, the last New Order release to be produced by Martin Hannett (he was suing Factory Records at the time), Peter Hook supplies some of the vocals, or Bernard's are buried under a wall of sound.

The opening track, 'Dreams never end' is absolutely brilliant. It combines a nervous, claustrophobic bass intro with washing guitars and muted drums, then kicks into the main song which becomes more optimistic and upbeat as it progresses. However, it is a bit of a false dawn - the rest of 'Movement' sees the band trying to sound like Joy Division; Bernard's lyrics resemble Ian Curtis' but without the resonance and poetry. 'ICB' and 'The Him' are probably the best tracks apart from the opener, but they are all a bit of a disappointment.

There is still much to say about 'Movement' - it serves as a record of where New Order were going, and they became one of the best, if not the best, band of the mid-to-late 1980s; 'Dreams never end' is almost worth the asking price alone and the introspective, nervous tracks like 'Doubts even here' are atmospheric and interesting. On the whole, though, 'Movement' is only recommended to the hard-core Joy Division/New Order fan - casual listeners should try the excellent 1985 album 'Lowlife', 1989's 'Technique' or 'Substance 1987' with the beautiful 'Ceremony'.

Never had this problem but cd will not run on both computers. Therefore cannot get onto iTunes or my iPhone. Rather defeats the objective of being able to listen to this music when travelling. Works fine on CD player but had to blow the dust off it. Tested other CDs and they work fine whilst this and other New Order don't. Not happy.