The bright disco of ‘Sugarcane’ has a catchy, unmistakeably New Order chorus, but the weak lyrics during the verses prevent it from being a classic. ‘Recoil’ is easily as good as anything they’ve recorded over the last 20 years, with its mysterious and elegant sound that provides a departure from their familiar electronic style. ‘Hellbent’ has some excellent guitar sounds, and I presume this one was produced by Stephen Street since parts of the production sound exactly like the work he did with Dubstar. Then there’s the infectious if slightly throwaway ‘Shake It Up’, the lovely ‘I Got A Feeling’ plus a different (and superior) version of ‘I Told You So’ that suggests they were probably listening to a lot of Velvet Underground at the time.
Then there’s the two tracks that stop ‘Lost Sirens’ from being as great as it could have been. The lightweight opener ‘I’ll Stay With You’ is made even worse by some truly uninspired lyrics, which is also a problem for the pedestrian ‘Californian Grass’, New Order at their most boring. But if you combine the best tracks from ‘Lost Sirens’ with the best moments from ‘…Siren’s Call’, you end up with a GREAT album. But ‘Lost Sirens’ isn’t that album, and I’ll give it a 3 out of 5.
[Rating:3]
You can listen to the album in full HERE (link opens in new window)
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