Album Review: New Order - Education Entertainment Recreation (Live 2018, 2021)

I’m probably going to come across like a grumpy old malcontent here. Par for the course, perhaps.

First things first – I love New Order. I’ve got almost everything they’ve ever released in one format or another, I’ve seen them perform live, at their peak, and on any purely non-scientific gut-feel basis, they’re probably the band I’ve listened to more than any other across the past 35 years. Hell, I even named my blog after one of their early minor “hits”, albeit an early minor hit that might just about be the greatest single track ever committed to vinyl. And the band’s debut album, Movement, is unquestionably my number one album of all-time.

And so, all of that said, when Ian Curtis died, and Joy Division morphed into New Order across the second half of 1980 and into early 1981, I really wish the band had taken some time to find a new vocalist who was a naturally “gifted” singer. I completely understand why that didn’t happen, obviously, and I also understand that the passage of time and an ongoing familiarity means that Bernard Sumner’s vocal is now intrinsically and irreversibly linked with the band’s sound and all of its most memorable landmark tunes. My issue is that he’s just not a particularly good singer. That is all too painfully obvious on the band’s latest live release, Education Entertainment Recreation.

(It’s probably no surprise then, that Movement, the album where Peter Hook takes care of a chunk of the vocal duties, is the one right at the top of my own pile. Despite Hooky having vocal limitations of his own, his voice gels masterfully with Movement’s more downbeat feels.)

Try as I might, as much as I don’t want it to be the case, Sumner’s vocal frailty is the biggest takeaway I have after listening to Education Entertainment Recreation. A frailty which is far less obvious - although still evident - on much of New Order’s studio-produced output.

Right. Now for the positives, because wherever you find New Order, you’ll always find a positive: Education Entertainment Recreation was recorded at London’s Alexandra Palace (the “Ally Pally”) back in November 2018 and it contains one of the most comprehensive career-spanning setlists found on any of the band’s live releases. And the music itself - beyond those vocal shortcomings - is absolutely stunning in every respect.

All of the big guns are fired – ‘Regret’, ‘Crystal’, ‘Sub-Culture’, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’, ‘Plastic’, ‘The Perfect Kiss’, ‘True Faith’, ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Temptation’, et al. Amongst many others – there’s 21 tracks in total, a double album (2x CD/3x vinyl), including a few gems from the Joy Division cannon, notably ‘Disorder’, and the three closing tracks ‘Atmosphere’, ‘Decades’, and ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. Sadly, nothing whatsoever from Movement.

There’s a bit of Sumner stage banter as he interacts with what sounds like a massive crowd, and there’s the occasional crowd singalong also in evidence at various points. There is a certain rawness to the whole deal, a sense that the band remain a tremendous live proposition, with an off-the-cuff, unscripted spontaneity, even. It is everything a decent live album should be.

Except for that one small but still very important (aforementioned) detail.

Then again, it is perhaps a little churlish to ever expect a perfect live album.

I did warn you.