0456. New Order
Technique
Of their last album on the list I said the music was great but the singing was off. On this one it's almost the other way around. Bernard's got a bit more experience and his voice has evened out, but the music-making's just less than it ought to be.
Apparently it's balearic. Could be influences from their Ibiza-stay during the recording (which does give Vanishing Point's lyrics about never beeing on a holiday, seem kind of ironic).
But then there's also the fact that they don't really sound like themselves. All The Way and a couple of more tracks almost sound like a Cure-cover (one of the poppier songs, not the ones that's shown up here) and only the last song, Dream Attack, really has the sound I associate with New Order's hits (or rather, True Faith, their in-between-albums single).
Maybe not a top-thousand album, but okay.