New Order’s 1983 album Power, Corruption & Lies boldly challenged culture and politics with its striking title. The album set a new standard for pop music, insisting that its audience recognize the world’s ethical disorder. In contrast, contemporary pop music is criticized for its lack of ethics and its focus on social-justice narcissism. New Order emerged from the remnants of Manchester’s punk band Joy Division, developing a new moral ethos. Punk turned post-punk, and New Order celebrated life and conscientiousness. The album’s opening track, “Age of Consent,” brought grace to the group’s previous glum explorations through synth chords that lightened the group’s depression, consenting to dance.
The album title’s origin stories point to New Order’s avant-garde and intellectual interests, and it also reflects the rebellious attitude that post-punk artists had toward the music industry. The band’s gentle tunes proved they weren’t ideologues, just twentysomethings who wanted to dance. The album’s generic criticism of power, corruption, and lies is criticism enough.
Side Two of the album bursts with sheer beauty, and “Your Silent Face” is an enigmatic, mostly instrumental love song. The lyrics transcend politics, and Gilbert’s organ notes provide a Bach-like pulse that elevates dance pop from generic to sublimely personal. “Ecstasy” starts as a march but becomes surprisingly jolly, and “Ultraviolence” overcomes cultural suicide and exploitation of youthful discontent.
New Order’s catalogue of music proves that art and pleasure are a deliberate, conscious answer to political terror. The significance of Power, Corruption & Lies lies in the band’s daring to call out moral depravity and social control. The album’s closing track, “Leave Me Alone,” foresaw the distrust of politics that many feel today. No honest person can deny the power, corruption, and lies overtaking this millennium, but it feels good that New Order made that knowledge a valiant bequest.
