BAD LIUETENANT - NEVER CRY ANOTHER TEAR (2LP)
Bad Lieutenant Never Cry Another Tear On 2 x Vinyl LP
Legendary Pop Collaboration Featuring Members of New Order, Joy Division and Blur!
With vocals and guitar from New Order frontman Bernard Sumner, the debut album from Bad Lieutenant rings with the familiar joys of beautifully observed minimalism and a voice of wonderfully understated north-western soul. But there’s also a new voice to be heard, one again from England’s north west. Singing alongside Bernard is Jake Evans, a talented musician from Macclesfield. This Cheshire town has had a significant part in the story to date. It was the point of origin of both Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris, one half of a band whose northern rock transformations seem to resound more powerfully with every passing year. A band called Joy Division. Bad Lieutenant are built on this sainted musical heritage, centering on Bernard Sumner’s voice and guitar and also with Stephen Morris drumming on some tracks. The album also features Phil Cunningham, a man familiar from both Marion and the most recent incarnation of New Order.
Bad Lieutenant’s blend of youth and experience, of local roots and musical futurism, is perhaps reflected in their favored rehearsal location at Stephen Morris’s hilltop farm where a full-size BBC Dalek sits in the corner of the rehearsal room. Morris is the band’s full-time live drummer, with theline-up as follows: Bernard Sumner (vocals/guitar), Stephen Morris (drums), Phil Cunningham (guitar/ keyboards/vocals), Jake Evans (vocals/guitar), Tom Chapman (bass). The very first Bad Lieutenant rehearsals took place at the Cotswold home of Alex James of Blur. Alex ended up playing on bass on some tracks on the Bad Lieutenant album, something that later gave rise to excited news stories portraying Bad Lieutenant as a kind of Blur/New Order supergroup. However, James’s involvement in Bad Lieutenant doesn’t stretch any further than his pitching in on a few recording sessions.
“We worked hard on the album and I’m proud of it,” says Bernard. “It’s also important because it gives people the chance to hear a gifted singer and guitar player who I think is very talented. This is just how I now want to make music.”
The resulting album centers on crisp, streamlined, 21st century guitar music underscored by keyboards and occasional melodica. The record includes Sumner’s seemingly effortless melodic invention, but now these familiar pleasures blend with vocals and guitar of Jake Evans. Perhaps Bad Lieutenant can be see as a new vehicle from a celebrated manufacturer, previous technology has been incorporated, but the overall appearance is new and it’ll take you where you want to go in novel and exhilarating style.
Bad Lieutenant Never Cry Another Tear Track Listing
1. Sink Or Swim
2. Twist of Fate
3. Summer Days
4. This Is Home
5. Running Out of Luck
6. Dynamo
7. Poisonous Intent
8. These Changes
9. Walk On Silver Water
10. Shine Like The Sun
11. Runaway
12. Head Into Tomorrow
13. Falling Trees
14. Split the Atom