Thurston Moore is going to release three 7" singles in November and each one will have the same B-side, a cover of New Order's Leave Me Alone. I've said before that I'm not a massive fan of covers of New Order songs. Lonelady's recent cover of Cries And Whispers and Galaxie 500's slow burning take on Ceremony are two of the few exceptions. Thurston's cover will join those ranks, a rather lovely and chilled out take on the song, starting out quite Byrsdy and ending with a restrained squall of acoustic guitars and feedback. Thurston recorded in his version in Salford, Sumner and Hook's hometown, dipping his scuffed Converse into the River Irwell and coming up trumps.
New Order recorded the original at Britannia Row in Islington in 1983 and it closed their Power, Corruption And Lies album, a quantum leap forward from 1981's Movement. Hooky's divine bassline and Bernard's acidic guitar spiralling around each other for ages before Bernard starts singing his plea for solitude. People often cite Age Of Consent and Your Silent Face as the singles that Factory should have released from Power, Corruption And Lies if Factory and New Order had been in the business of something as mundane as releasing songs as singles that had already appeared on albums. Leave Me Alone is right up there with those two songs, a gem surrounded by jewels.
Leave Me Alone
Liked the Thurston Moore cover a lot. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this: it's brilliant. He makes it sound like a companion piece to Schizophrenia.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine used to have a booth at every NYC record collector show in NYC back in the 90s/00s. I was sitting with him one time and looked up and there was Thurston Moore and Tom Verlaine thumbing through New Wave and South American Hard Rock/Heavy Metal. Thurston was very vocal about each record he pulled out of a crate and I sat there quite amazed at his musical acumen. This makes me think there is certainly something special about Leave Me Alone for TM - you can certainly hear it i this wonderful version.
ReplyDeleteAnother Echorich classic.
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