Jittery White Guy Music

I think it was around 1985, my sophomore year of college, when I got way into New Order , and Low Life was their latest release at the time. "Love Vigilantes" opened the album by highlighting the pop/rock side of the band, which I've always preferred to their more dance-oriented tracks. (Hey, nothing wrong with the same album's better-known "The Perfect Kiss"; but like the prior "Blue Monday," arguably the best club track of all time, it's not something I necessarily cue up when I'm sitting around listening to records.) It's a helluva way to open an album, four sharp snare beats paving the way for a simple yet endlessly engaging pop hook, that attention-grabbing melodica line coupled with Peter Hook's inimitably twangy bass riff. The lyrics are on the dopey side, a soldier returning home to the family who think he's dead--though it's cool to here Bernard Sumner take on more of a narrative than was typical for the band--but ...