New Order- "Every Little Counts"

[I can't file this one under "Short Takes", since it's about a song I've lived with for years and still haven't gotten to the bottom of, I've never figured out how to fit it on a mix and never known quite how to file it. "Every Little Counts" is tucked all the way at the close of New Order's fourth album. It's one of their genius-yet-totally-not-danceable moments that I adore and most people don't know exists, and also a pretty perfect finish to a record full of introspective mood pieces. (Unless you happen to have a random import edition that tacks the lousy "State Of The Nation" remix onto the end and screws the whole thing up; your moment of reflection and solitude is rudely interrupted by the neighbors throwing a "TOTALLY 80S DISCO" party with a guest list consisting of everyone you hated in high school.) Anyhow, this is a killer tune, and you get to observe while I take a decade-plus of listening and attempt to dissect it... And quite possibly end up lost in a sea of overreaching hyperbole and metaphor.]



Now here's a supreme example of screwed-up heartbroken love song. It's a personal history out of sequence, a love affair and a terrible break-up and a mad schoolboy crush all at once. Endlessly contradictory and turning on itself, beginning with a declaration of importance, instantly backhanding it with an insult, and (in only the third line) the payoff: "I guess I should known I'd end up on my own". All this delivered in a near monotone, or at least the attempt of one... He sings and messes up and starts to laugh and barely recovers to continue. From there it's manner and staccato, mixing infatuation and bitterness without a pause for breath; you've heard that one unguarded moment, the rest you have to take from between the lines. The words are simple to almost an absurd degree, Bernard Sumner's knack for couching horrible emotions in the sentiments of youth on full display, hiding desire behind a scornful facade and not fooling anyone.

And y'know, this is one of the first things I point to in the eternal "HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY PREFER NEW ORDER TO JOY DIVISION?" arguments. Joy Division? Great, amazing, seminal band, masters of mood, lyrics and music playing off one another to create an air of foreboding that you can spot for miles. New Order? Given to writing tunes that you can hum along to instantly, somehow balance childlike wonder with intense grown-up pain, gift-wrap it all in a big shiny inviting package; you take it home, open it up, and never notice that ticking noise until it's too late.

But anyhow, back to this specific song. The music starts small. At the top, it's a close cousin of "Walk On The Wildside", bassline and a little percussion. It builds steadily as it goes, lyrics alternately reeling in and lashing out, instruments joining and volume ratcheting up and the wave of sound gaining steam until one last refrain and then partway through a phrase it stops. "Every second..." And nothing. Quiet. And then it hits again, bigger than ever, breaking into a giant churchtastic mass of synthesized angel voices and strings and handclaps (and lyrics hiding beneath the chaos, whispered so softly that it could take years to notice they're even there). A maelstrom in a cathedral in orbit. Huge, grandiose, awe-inspiring chaos that grows past the boundaries of the song itself and gets sucked out into space; spinning and flailing, a Cat 4 storm of wind and rising pitch and heartbreak and circling spinning noise falling to earth, building 'til the needle is pushed off the record in a mass of static and voices. And then everything's still. End of the song, end of the record, end of the pain and wonder and longing, it's finished and we're left behind in the silence.