Andrew's 80s Video Contest

For those of you that read Andrew Sullivan (and if you don't what's wrong with you?) he has been holding an 80s Music video contest to lighten the mood up a bit, and quite possibly inspired by his recent Pet Shop Boys concert. I e-mailed him asking why he never seems to mention New Order as well, the most influential band of the period and close friends with the Pets. Today, my prayers have been answered, as New Order's "True Faith" is the video of the day. Andrew writes:

New Order's "True Faith." I love the band - and still do. The video has it all: dead-pan choreography, surrealism, bad hair, concert energy, and a melody that still lives in my brain.

Of course it has all that and is probably the best "pop" song New Order has ever written. But it has many more elements that make it classic New Order. The fact that band members themselves are barely in the video (only in concert scenes). That the words "true faith" never occur in the song and there is a classic New Order "non chorus chorus." That the lyrics ended up being changed (removing a drug reference which they still sing live today) by their producer for fear it would run into trouble with American radio. That they went in expecting to record another track "1963" with "True Faith" as the b-side but changed their mind. The sleeve of simply a yellow leaf falling against blue sky is striking in its minimalist beauty. No band names, no title, nothing on the sleeve to distract from the mysterious image constructed by artist Peter Saville to match the music inside. The music itself is them, one knows it from the very start of the song...synths, high melodic bass, keyboards, drums, all working apart yet together in their always perfect time.

Here is first a rather silly interview and the song live- only 19 years after they first played it, it still sounds fresh to me!