Having offered some pretty unremarkable non-New Order projects in the past, Bernard Summer is abck to have another stab at things within Peter Hook, now that New Order have split for surely the last time.
Aside from the lack of Hooky's bass lines, Never Cry... inevitably sounds a lit like New Order, but offers more straightforward guitar rock and debuts new vocalist Jake Evans, who shares lead duties with The Seahorses. At its best, it's Noel Gallagher on a bad day. Thankfully, Summer's vocal, as always, is great. It's hard to pinpoint what makes it so special. Maybe it's the way he manages to sound effortless, remote and yet slightly strained all at once, while injecting tiny fragments of emotion. Regardless, his iconic voice is one of the few shining lights here. Lyrics are occasionally a problem though. Summer has never been an especially challenging lyricist and while in the past there was a certain charm to the simplicity of his words, here his wordplay comes across as cliched and lazy. This is Home boasts gems like, "Gonna take you higher than a bird can fly/ Girl I'm so in love with you/ Don't even think that it is true."
Some songs here ware better than latter-day New Order, but that's not saying much. Never Cry... is not a terrible record, but it feels like Summer could have churneed this out in his sleep.
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