Bernard Sumner has been in 3 bands with great band names: Joy Division, Electronic, and New Order. When Peter Hook left New Order in 2008, Sumner formed Bad Lieutenant, which may be one of the worst band names ever (the name was taken from the 1992 film). Even though I wasn't blown away by the early single releases streaming online, I bought this album out of curiosity. One of my favorite resources, Metacritic.com, gives this a rating of 59 out of 100. I have a difficult time giving albums a numerical rating, but I might have given this around a 50, so that's pretty close to Metacritic's 59.
Good but not great. Middling. Just OK.
The band isn't as good as New Order and relies more on guitar than synth, which is a throwback to early New Order days in some ways, but the songwriting just isn't as exciting. Almost more Britpop than technopop - if I wanted an Oasis album, I'd buy one. This music doesn't really call for much active listening. I keep waiting for something to grab me, make me stop what I'm doing, and listen. Good for non-distracting background music, though. I probably won't purchase any future Bad Lt. albums [ed. - no worries, there haven't been any], preferring to go back to my old New Order CDs. To be fair, I shouldn't always be comparing this band to New Order, but it's human nature [shrug].
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Peak on the US Billboard Heatseekers chart: #29
Tracks: The 14 tracks all blend together for me. None stand out and none are horrible.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None
Tracks: The 14 tracks all blend together for me. None stand out and none are horrible.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None
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