#synth-disco

Frequency of the Day

New Order - "True Faith" 1987 was not the greatest year in music history.  The Smiths broke up.  Echo & the Bunnymen broke up. R.E.M. broke up (no, THEY BROKE UP). Prince broke up The Revolution.  MTV broke up with all their original VJ's. And David Bowie broke up with all of us by releasing the mockingly titled Never Let Me Down. To simply blame the cocaine and the acid wash and the horribly overproduced snare drums and the ascendency of the compact disc and the grandiose save-the-world rock star sapping all the fun out of pop would amount to a rather glib whitewashing of a profound societal shift into grim cultural nihilism. And sure, the baby boom was turning forty, turning on the lights and telling everyone that culture was over, now go to bed.  And sure, we were all still visibly shaken by the long-term socio-economic implications of Andie choosing Blaine over Duckie. But when it came down to it, we were making excuses because we didn't know what to do next and felt we had no one to turn to for guidance. Enter our heroes, New Order. Yes, that same lot that had started the whole damned, damned, utterly damned decade off as Joy Division reminding us what being alive feels like, they were back to show us how to transcend our cultural death through embracing our contradictions (and the contradictions of the moment, seemingly nihilistic dread included). Think I wax hyperbolic? Please, a little approbation whilst I explicate.  So, that very band who had defined the bleakness of the initial post-punk moment, inspiring goth in the process, had then been reborn as the purveyors of synth disco bliss, the progenitors of all our conceptions of modern dance pop. And in 1987, at the very zenith of their powers, they put out that most contradictory of releases: the singles compilation of immediate and lasting cultural significance. Substance, released August 17, quickly became one of the most played, most effortlessly enjoyed, most important records of the late 80's, even though it was a singles compilation. Heck, it wasn't even a true singles compilation, being in actuality full of remixes and remakes, which are notorious for short-circuiting the good intentions (and credibility) of many a comp.  And yet, in keeping with its exception-proving-the-rule dharma, Substance's remixes and remakes somehow have the effect of enhancing, of illuminating, of [npi] synthesizing otherwise disparate tracks into a virtually seamless whole.  Further contradictions abound (and we finally getting around to the topic of the song above): "True Faith," the single released a few weeks prior to Substance and (the superior remix of which) used as the compilation's closer, not only achieved the rare feat of being the new single on the hits comp that actually fits in with the hits, but might actually be the best song on the record, surpassing even such seminal masterpieces as "Blue Monday" and "Bizarre Love Triangle."  As if to drive the point home, the contradictory lyrics of "True Faith" transcend their textual tale of drug addiction to envision redemptive joy within the heart of the vapid void, and in doing so perfectly account for the entire cultural moment: I feel so extraordinary Something's got a hold on me I've got this feeling I'm in motion A sudden sense of liberty I don't care 'cos I'm not there And I don't care if I'm here tomorrow Again and again I've taken too much Of the thing that costs you too much I used to think that the day would never come I'd see the light in the shade of the morning sun My morning sun is the drug that brings me near To the childhood I lost replaced by fear I used to think that the day would never come That my life would depend on the morning sun When I was a very small boy Very small boys talked to me Now that we've grown up together They're afraid of what they see That's the price that we all pay Our valued destiny comes to nothing I can't tell you where we're going I guess there's just no way of knowing New Order - "True Faith" via YouTube [glorious contradiction = an 80's dance video with no Bob Fosse references]