FTC Records is a bit of a strange label. They seem to specialize mainly in tribute albums. A tribute to The Cure was released over a year ago, and albums dedicated to David Bowie and Nick Cave are in the making. Meanwhile a tribute to Joy Division and its sequel New Order came out, with 14 different bands interpretating both ‘hits’ and lesser known songs. I must say I find the artwork not very tasteful, with a gravestone for Ian Curtis in a corner of the cover.
This is of course not the first Joy Division tribute album, and probably not the last. I remember for instance `A Means To An End` from 1995, which had good covers by Moby, Girls Against Boys and Low amongst others. New Order tributes are a rarer thing, though individual songs like ´Blue MOnday´have been covered a few times.
Amongst the 14 interpretions on ´Love’s Shattered Pride` there are both succeeded and not so good versions. In general the best known acts also have made the best covers. In the Nursery contributes the best cover version of `Love will tear us apart´since the Swans, with the elegant neo-classical sound the British duo is known for. The Brides do an entertaining garagepunk version of the early warsaw track ‘The Drawback’, with an organ sound reminding me of early Stranglers work. Audra does a nice slow and dark version of ‘Walked in line’, which is perhaps not as powerful as the Blood Axis or Von Thronstahl renditions. Furthermore Unto Ashes turn ‘The Him’ into a lovely medieval hymn.
I must admit I don’t like most of the other covers. They either do not add much to the originals, or are not performed convincingly enough, especially some vocalists do not appeal to me. BlackCycle does deserve praise though for their original electronic/synth attempt of recreating ‘Blue Monday’, though of course nowhere near as good as the timeless original.
In other words, this tribute resulted in a handful of succeeded interpretations, in honour of two acts which can’t get enough respect.
good review, thank you for the kind words:)