Bad Lieutenant - Never Cry Another Tear

Having offered some pretty unremarkable non-New Order projects in the past, Bernard Sumner is back to have another stab at things without Peter Hook, now that New Order have split for surely the last time.

Aside from the lack of Hooky’s basslines, Never Cry… inevitably sounds a bit like New Order, but offers more straightforward guitar rock and debuts new vocalist Jake Evans, who shares lead duties with Sumner. Sadly, the newcomer’s voice is a painfully dull, generic Northern England Soul karaoke affair which is reminiscent of Embrace or, horror of horrors, The Seahorses. At its best, it’s Noel Gallagher on a bad day. Thankfully, Sumner’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 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. Sumner 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 clichéd and lazy. This Is Home, for instance, 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 are better than latter day New Order, but that’s not saying much. Never Cry… is not a terrible record, but it is pedestrian and uninspired and it feels like Sumner could have churned this out in his sleep.