Saturday 29 August 2009
Bad Lieutenant
(photo: myspace.com)
It may lack overt synthesizers and Peter Hook’s trademark bass lines, but “Sink Or Swim”, the first single from Bernard Sumner’s latest project, Bad Lieutenant, isn’t that far removed from the last few New Order albums. Compare it to “Dracula’s Castle” from Waiting For The Siren’s Call or “60 Miles An Hour” from Get Ready and the progression is obvious. It may be more rock and pop than early New Order, but truth be told, the 2000s-model New Order didn’t sound anything like their earlier work, either.
According to their Myspace site, Bad Lieutenant has been working together since 2007 and features Bernard Sumner on guitar and vocals alongside Phil Cunningham on guitar and Jake Evans on guitar and vocals. Did you catch that? Three members, three guitarists, two vocalists… who’s drumming? It appears those duties were handled by one Steven Morris. Perhaps you’ve heard his work as one fourth of Joy Division and later New Order? Again, according to the Bad Lieutenant Myspace site, Morris and Blur bassist Alex James appear on some of the recordings, but Morris will definitely be joining the band live when they tour later this year. But don’t call it a New Order reunion, or Barney will have to set you straight; “There is some continuity to the music I’ve made in the past but this is very different – because different people are playing on it. This is just how I now want to make music – it feels right to me and I hope at least a few other people feel the same.” He goes on to sing the praises of Jake Evans’ er, singing: “It’s also important because it gives people the chance to hear a gifted new singer and guitar player who I think’s really talented.”
From what I hear it’s pretty much all Sumner on “Sink Or Swim” (Evans does some pretty standard harmonic duties and they do sound good together), but with little else available to sample, we’ll just have to take his word for it that Evans will get some front and centre time on the LP proper. If anyone can pull off a change in personnel and presentation, it’s Sumner. Of the four New Order-ites, his Electronic side project is the only one that produced any kind of decent music (thanks, Johnny Marr): Hooky’s Revenge and Monaco projects didn’t amount to much, and Morris’ work with wife Gillian Gilbert as The Other Two was quaint but easily forgotten. Time will tell if Bad Lieutenant is going to sink or swim: Never Cry Another Tear, their debut LP, will be out on October 12.
MP3: Bad Lieutenant “Sink Or Swim”
Myspace: Bad Lieutenant
Facebook: Bad Lieutenant
Twitter: Bad Lieutenant
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 29th, 2009 at 8:01 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
