Song: "Age of Consent"
Artist: New Order
Album: Power, Corruption & Lies
Year: 1983
Length: 5:16
Label: Factory Records
Rating: 4 1/2 stars (out of 5) on the AMG
One of the most difficult things in compiling this list is evaluating songs I used to love and listen to nonstop with songs that have topped my playlist in recent years. This is why there is such significant variation in the list I put together just a couple years ago on this site, and it's all really a work in progress. Do I still listen to New Order very much? No. Were they once my 2nd favorite band of all-time for close to a decade? Yes. Where does that leave "Age of Consent" - still an absolutely brilliant, powerful song, even if it doesn't make my playlists anymore? Well, simply at #25 I guess. Which is pretty damned impressive. And I'll leave the detailed accolades to Bill Janovitz of the All Music Guide.
As their name suggests, New Order was rebuilt from the debris of the beautifully bleak Joy Division, which was devastated by the suicide of the band's singer and songwriter, Ian Curtis, in 1980. Along with their new name, New Order took two albums and three years to find their winning variation on the Joy Division style. With their second album Power, Corruption & Lies (1983), New Order kept only the skeletal remains of the sound of their old incarnation, and added synthesizers, sequencers, and a substantial amount of melodicism to the formula. "Age of Consent," the leadoff song from the album, announced their intent, ringing out with Bernard Sumner's twangy guitar licks, Peter Hook's melodic bass lines, Stephen Morris' dance-music-informed drumming, and Gillian Gilbert's evocative synthesizer washes and countermelodies.
Sumner's surf/ spaghetti Western guitar and Hook's distorted bass offsets Gilbert's multi-layered keyboard parts -- mostly tasteful string sounds -- grounding the song in more elemental and organic rock & roll. But "Age of Consent" has a distinctly modern flavor for the era; it did not sound quite like anything else, even offerings from other synth pop bands.
The song's melancholy two-chord progression provides a launching pad for shifting synthesizer themes, guitar lines and rhythmic variations, and percussive sound effects, all of which share time in spotlight of the mix. As the song fades, seemingly coming to an end, Gilbert unleashes a gorgeous Brian Eno-like orchestral synth motif. Sumner has a far more boyish voice than his predecessor Curtis, and he sings a plaintive, infectious melody, with a lyric about missed personal connections: "Do you find this happens all the time/Crucial point one day becomes a crime/And I'm not the kind that likes to tell you/Just what I want to do/I'm not the kind that needs to tell you/I've lost you."
Top 40 Vague Space Favorite Songs (So Far)...
26. "Summer Here Kids" Grandaddy
27. "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" The Smiths
28. "Bankrupt on Selling" Modest Mouse
29. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" The Arcade Fire
30. "The Moon" The Microphones
31. "Bad Blood" Bright Eyes & The Album Leaf
32. "Gardenhead - Leave Me Alone" Neutral Milk Hotel
#25 Favorite Record of All-Time
Won't you please let me go
These words lie inside they hurt me so
And I'm not the kind that likes to tell you
Just what I want to do
I'm not the kind that needs to tell you
Just what you want me to
I saw you this morning
I thought that you might like to know
I received your message in full a few days ago
I understood every word that it said
And now that I've actually heard it
You're going to regret
And I'm not the kind that likes to tell you
Just what you want me to
You're not the kind that needs to tell me
About the birds and the bees
Do you find this happens all the time
Crucial point one day becomes a crime
And I'm not the kind that likes to tell you
Just what I want to do
I'm not the kind that needs to tell you
I've lost you [x5]
I've lost you [x5]
I've lost you [x5]
Anyone else surprised Bill is drawn to a song called "Age of Consent?"
Posted by: LegFuJohnson | November 12, 2007 at 06:14 PM
Snx for you job!
It has very much helped me!
Posted by: mallyclingind | March 22, 2008 at 07:01 AM
where to buy tramadol online tramadol online - tramadol hcl long term use
Posted by: JioatlCYPk | May 15, 2013 at 06:53 PM