In his 2016 autobiography Substance: Inside New Order, Peter Hook writes: “I’ve often said that the magic of New Order was all that push-and-pull between the rock and electronic sides of the music, the yin and yang of Barney [Sumner] and me.” Power, Corruption & Lies, New Order’s second studio album released in May 1983, confirms this comment and features an even more electronic sound. With its famous cover art that depicts a reworking by graphic designer Peter Saville of 19th century French painter Henri Fantin-Latour’s Un panier de roses (A basket of roses), the record alternates between innovative electro-pop (5-6-8) and synthetic cold wave (Your Silent Face), but also more classic post-punk (Age of Consent). What’s more, Sumner’s vocals are his own and the influence of Ian Curtis is a distant memory. With Power, Corruption & Lies, New Order fused the influences of Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder to give birth to their own unstoppable compositions, cornerstones for the British electronic pop of that era. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz