New Order: Power, Corruption, & Lies

In my teens I got into Joy Division.  I thought of New Order as the crappy pop band they turned into after Ian Curtis killed himself.  But when I went to college the dude who worked at the record store I went to gave me a cassette of an early New Order live show & I had to admit it wasn’t too far away from my beloved Joy Division.  I found a cassette copy of Power Corruption, & Lies & became a staunch supporter of the “Those first couple of New Order albums are where Joy Division was headed” school of thought.
The last time I tried to listen to Power, Corruption, & Lies was on tour with my biological son a couple years ago.  I thought it was a good record & he’d be into it.  His reaction was something like, “Are these guys gay?  This sounds gay!”  So re-listening to it without thinking about Joy Division I get what he means.  It’s an early 1980s dance record.  One of the first successful attempts to take the dance floors back from disco.  I still think it’s mostly awesome.  “Age of Consent,” “Blue Monday,” “Leave Me Alone,” “5 8 6,” & “Ultraviolence” would all be on a New Order’s Greatest Hits for me.  The only song I think of as a clunker is “We All Stand” & that’s probably just compared to the rest of the album.  Just check out this record & if listening to it makes you gay, you were probably gay in the first place.