Made to Order

New Order's latest single, Krafty, quite incredibly, has all the classic ingredients of their music. This is quite a feat considering the new wave veterans normally maintain two distinct sounds: straight-out indie rock and technicolour synthpop. The song uncommonly boasts two sets of basslines (Hooky's signature bass-as-lead layered over an '80s analog pulse), two sets of drums (dry drum machine during the verses and Morris' propulsive banging during the choruses), and of course Barney Sumner's deadpan delivery of his typically daft lyrics. It also has simple bursts of guitar, strings, tinkly noises and a wobbly synth solo.

There's so much instrumental variety packed into Krafty's four minutes that its utterly uninspired 3-chord (D, G, A) progression is actually tolerable. By and large I like it; my only problem with it is that it's a pastiche of sugarpop conventions and ultimately lacks character. Listen to it here (Mac users click here). I don't know how much longer these official links will be active so if you're checking here in retrospect...go out and buy the CD instead. ;)