New Order - Waiting for the Sirens' Call LP 2005

It may be a bit of a controversial statement but New Order albums have always been a bit patchy in my opinion. Great singles, the odd stormer of a track, but otherwise inconsistent. Only 1985's Low-Life seemed to really hang together as a coherent collection of songs with any sort of purpose, however listen to it today and it still sounds like a curate's egg of an album.

Enter 'Waiting for the Siren's Call', an album that I didn't know existed until I stumbled upon it by accident on Amazon. Having almost abandoned New Order after the uber-patchy 'Get Ready' I still felt I needed to complete the set with the final offering from the group. And believe it or not it's not at all patchy!

Maybe it's because they are now grumpy, podgy middle aged men, but this is by far the best New Order LP in terms of  the overall quality of all the songs. Don't get too giddy, there are no superstar tracks of the standard of 'Blue Monday' or 'True Faith,' but all the songs are really catchy, enjoyable and undeniably New Order. It's fair to say that if you liked the band's other offerings you'll like this too.

If you want a couple of standout tracks I'd go for the stringy sing-a-long of 'Hey Joe' and possibly best of all is the Low-Life throwback of 'Dracula's Castle'. For a couple of quid it's a bargain and it's definitely a case of last but not least. An essential purchase to complete the collection.