Do you like your indie rock with a little orchestration? How about a lot of orchestration? This week is for you, then. Sure you might expect it from Father John Misty, but what about on the debut solo album from Kim Deal? Get ready for lots of string, horns, and elegance. Also this week, Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom have made a psychedelic holiday album, and New Order have given their fourth album the Definitive Edition treatment (and it doubles as this week’s Indie Basement Classic).

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews the latest from Opeth, Michael Kiwanuka and more.

I am currently in Montreal for the 2024 M for Montreal festival and you can follow my exploits here.

Speaking of New Order’s Brotherhood, I spoke with drummer Stephen Morris about the album’s new box set and lots more.

Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More (4AD)
One of the coolest people in indie rock, Kim Deal shows her sweet side on her first solo album which she made with the late Steve Albini

Back in 1991, Kim Deal and her then Breeders bandmate Tanya Donelly (also of Throwing Muses and soon Belly) dueted on a cover of Chris Bell’s “You and Your Sister” that appeared on This Mortal Coil’s third and final album, Blood. Drenched in strings, it is gorgeous and heartbreaking and I’ve wanted Kim to do something like that again ever since. If you have too, your wish has been granted on her first-ever solo album, Nobody Loves You More. The wonderful title track opens the album on a sweet and gentle note. “I don’t know where I am, and I don’t care,” Kim sings as strings begin to swirl. “I just stop at the sight of you, standing there.” After the second chorus, the arrangement bursts into widescreen technicolor, a full orchestra with horns and woodwinds, and you could imagine Gene Kelly dancing to it in 1947. I have listened to this song at least 30 times and that part always gets me.

Nobody Loves You More is not an album of Glen Miller-style big band music — it’s a bit all over the place, actually — but its best moments are the sweet, romantic ballads. There’s “Are You Mine,” the kind of early rock ballad high schoolers slow-danced to in 1960; the swooning “Summerland” (“I hear music blowin’ in the breeze / It’s dazzling”); and the Velvet Underground-y “Wish I Was” where Kim, who just turned 63, finishes the title with “…young” in the chorus. These songs, which include a few that lean more towards the indie rock Kim played in The Breeders and Pixies, are warm and bittersweet but not nostalgic, and just what you wanna hear her doing in 2024.

Most of Nobody Loves You More was recorded with the late Steve Albini, who she worked with in Pixies and The Breeders, and it features Kim on almost all instruments, but she does get help from her sister Kelley, Breeders drummer Jim McPherson, and Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinley on closer “A Good Time Pushed.” The three songs not made with Albini are the most outside the box: “Crystal Breath” could be an ESG song and features Savages’ rhythm section (Fay Milton and Ayse Hassan); “Big Ben Beat” is also experimental but more in a late-’90s alt-rock way; and eerie instrumental “Bats in the Night Sky.” It is the quiet love songs that will stick with you though.

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Father John Misty – Mahashmashana (Sub Pop)
Planet Earth and Planet Tillman align for the best Father John Misty album in a while

Father John Misty’s last album, 2022’s Chloë and the Next 20th Century, was a bit of a digression for Josh Tillman. After dabbling in orchestral arrangements on his two previous album, he fully committed to the bit, transporting back to ’30s/’40s style jazz, though he kept his lyrical references firmly in the now. It was good but maybe not what anyone really wanted from a Father John Misty album. Mahashmashana, however, is. Tillman has couse-corrected, leaning into his sweet spot, still orchestral but more in a ’70s Glen Campbell way. He’s also laid off the metatextual irony, just a little, for what is his most thoughtful, at times even sincere, album since Fear Fun. Don’t worry, there are still plenty of references to life in L.A. (SoCal grocery store chain Gelson’s comes up in the album’s opening lyric), religion and ten-dollar words (“panopticon,” “anthropocene,” etc). He also hasn’t abandoned writing songs with his own name in the title, or epic ballads, but the melodies and arrangements are memorable and bring rock and pop back to the table. My preferences lie more with “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All,” a strutting end-times country-disco banger, than a song like “Mental Health” whose chorus has him singing the title over and over against a full orchestra, but it’s hard to deny a song like “Screamland,” a kitchen sink tour-de-force that makes good use of all of its seven minutes. Maybe it’s just the apocalyptic times but Mahashmashana feels like Planet Earth and Planet Tillman have aligned; the world burns while Father John Misty fiddles.

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Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom – A Peace of Us (Carpark)
A lightly psychedelic selection of deep cut holiday song covers makes for a welcome, trippy addition to any yuletide playlist

Are you the kind of person who loses themselves staring through the blinking lights on a Christmas tree? A Peace of Us, a holiday album from Luna’s Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips they made with Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, is for you. Britta says it’s “like Bing Crosby…on acid” and while that’s a succinct, punchy (if glib) description I don’t think it’s entirely accurate. These are mostly holiday covers that owe a lot to the ’50s and ’60s (many from that era, most with that style of arrangement), except that Sonic Boom adds his magic pixie dust — gurgling synthesizers, spacey echo effects, a love of handclaps — for an extra sparkly wrapping. A Peace of Us has just the right amount of psychedelia without ever losing the holiday spirit, and you could play this while unwrapping presents and your Aunt Linda wouldn’t bat an eye. There are some real deep cut gems here, too, including “Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown” (originally on the soundtrack for underrated Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and Brook Benton’s 1963 single “You’re All I Want for Christmas,” both of which are sung in the purest of voices by Britta. They both make a case that a ’60s-style country album by Phillips, produced by Sonic Boom, would be pretty special. Add this one to your holiday rotation whether hot chocolate, eggnog or mushroom tea is your winter beverage of choice.

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: New Order – Brotherhood (Definitive Edition) (Warner Bros)
New Order’s underrated fourth album is the latest to get the Definitive Edition treatment

I don’t think Brotherhood is anyone’s favorite New Order album (apart from my college buddy Rob, shoutout Rob!) but I do think it’s underrated in their ’80s catalog. The band had just come off making their two incredible albums — 1983’s Power, Corruption & Lies (widely regarded as their best) and 1985’s Low-Life (my personal fave) — both of which broke new ground in the way they mixed electronic music into more traditional rock. Almost anything would’ve been a disappointment after that killer one-two punch, but Brotherhood was rushed out, written and recorded almost immediately after releasing Low-Life while they were also touring the world, and it shows the first cracks in New Order’s armor. It’s unique in their catalog in that Side 1 is all “rock” songs, while Side 2 is synthpop, more or less, which didn’t exactly play to the band’s strengths. “I always thought, and I still think, that New Order’s better moments are when you mix the two things up and you get something completely different,” drummer Stephen Morris told us, “but for this particular endeavor, we were strictly delineated to the guitars on this side, synthesizers on that side, and never the twain shall meet.”

Even if it’s “an over-egged custard,” as Morris puts it, New Order were incapable of making a bad album during this time and Brotherhood has aged well over the last four decades. The album includes “Bizarre Love Triangle,” a shoulda-been-massive-hit for the band when it was released and which is now one of their most beloved songs, but there are also a number of the band’s best deep cuts here, including the shimmering “Way of Life” and acoustic ballad “As it Was When it Was” from Side 1; and “All Day Long,” which incorporates classical music elements, and album closer “Every Little Counts,” which is a tribute to Joy Division’s Ian Curtis that ends with an homage to The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” before slamming shut with a fantastic sonic joke.

Brotherhood has been newly remastered for this Definitive Edition and is a marked improvement from the overly compressed remaster from the 2010s. As for the bonus material, there are two CDs worth, including non-LP singles from the era (“State of the Nation,” “Shellshock,” and “Touched by the Hand of God”), remixes, their instrumental score for Beth B’s film Salvation, and nine previously unreleased tracks including demos recorded in Japan. There’s also two DVDs featuring music videos and live/TV performances from the era, including a 1985 Tokyo concert which was released at the time as a VHS called Pumped Full of Drugs (which may also explain how they were so prolific at the time). They did a really nice job with this and if nothing else it’s a good excuse to revisit this overlooked album. If you don’t want to pony up the dough for it (it is expensive), the music is also on the streaming service of your choice. Bring on the Technique Definitive Edition!

Read my interview with Stephen Morris about Brotherhood here.

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Beyond “Blue Monday”: New Order’s Best Deep Cuts

“Dreams Never End” (1981)

New Order were still underneath the shadow of Joy Division in 1981, a hard shackle to shake. Unsure how to progress after the death of Ian Curtis, both guitarist Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook sing lead on New Order's debut album, Movement, and both sound like they're trying to mimic him. "Dreams Never End," which features Hook on vocals, is musically bright and sunny, with Hook, Sumner and Gilbert's instruments swirling around Stephen Morris' insistent, danceable beat. The Cure would crib liberally from this for their 1986 single "Inbetween Days."

“Procession” (1981)

Following their debut single, "Ceremony" (which had been played live with Joy Division), their next release was "Procession" which felt like a natural progression from Joy Division's Closer, with glacial synths washing over a frantic rhythm section and Bernard Sumner's brittle guitars. Recorded and released before Movement, "Procession" nonetheless feels past it, with Bernard Sumner coming into his own as lead vocalist. While a single, "Procession" didn't make it on to the main tracklist for 1987's Substance, but was instead relegated to the bonus disc of the CD. But it's a pivotal song in their evolution.

“Turn the Heater On” (1982 John Peel Session)

Keith Hudson's "Turn the Heater On" was Ian Curtis' favorite reggae song, says Peter Hook in his Substance memoir, saying it was where Bernard Sumner "got the got the idea for using the melodica," an instrument which would turn up in New Order songs like "Your Silent Face" and "Love Vigilantes." Barney's only playing guitar at the end, after he's stopped singing," adds Hook, only kinda joking that "That became the whole template for the band."

“The Village” (1983)

Power, Corruption & Lies is a perfect record, and none of the songs were released as singles -- "Blue Monday" was tacked onto the U.S. CD release -- so every song could theoretically fit on this list. There are moments of sadness and desolation, but there are also songs of unabashed joy. In much the same spirit as "Age of Consent," "The Village" bounces along like the first day of spring with Sumner singing "Our love is like the flowers / The rain, the sea and the hours." The mid-section instrumental -- with guitars, synthesizers and drum machines joining forces -- remains one of New Order's most magical moments.

"The synths are incredible from 1:45 so in your face but not overpowering ... then they disappear - my whole taste in music seemed to change because of this song" - The Charlatan's Tim Burgess on "The Village"

“Leave Me Alone” (1983)

Many of New Order's most genius moments come from the interplay between Peter Hook's bass -- which is almost always played high up on the neck to where some mistake it for guitar -- and Bernard Sumner's guitar. Is there a more perfect example than on Power Corruption & Lies' closing track? The bass hook opens the song, but it's when the chiming guitar lead enters that "Leave Me Alone" truly blooms. (Gillian Gilbert adds further, crucial, counterpoint guitar lines.) A grey-hued portrait of loneliness ("On a thousand islands in the sea / I see a thousand people just like me"), it's one of New Order's crowning achievements, fading out with two more minutes of gorgeous instrumental melancholia.

“Thieves Like Us” (1984)

This is the big concession to the "no singles" rule on this list. While "Thieves Like Us" went to #18 in the UK in 1984, it does not have the stature of "Bizarre Love Triangle," "Temptation," "Blue Monday," "Sub-Culture," "True Faith" or even LP tracks like "Age of Consent" or "Love Vigilantes." But it is one of New Order's best, most deeply emotive songs -- it's Peter Hook's favorite (you can see his full Top 10 below) -- that needs all six minutes and 36 seconds to work its magic. Bernard Sumner's vocals doesn't even come in till two-and-a-half minutes into the song, long after we've been seduced by the song's NYC hip-hop inspired rhythm section and majestic washes of synths. While the song works well as an instrumental -- it plays over the "making the dress" montage in Pretty in Pink -- Sumner gives a great delivery with a whole lot of "Loves," in his signature, fragile style.

PETER HOOK: THE TEN BEST NEW ORDER SONGS from his memoir "Substance: Inside New Order" 1. "Thieves Like Us"
2. "Leave Me Alone"
3. "Homage" (unreleased)
4. "Too Late" (John Peel session)
5. "Someone Like You"
6. "Ruined in a Day" (K-KLass Remix)
7. "Every Little Counts"
8. "Age of Consent"
9. "Temptation"
10. "Eligia"

“Lonesome Tonight” (1984)

"Lonesome Tonight" is, according to Peter Hook, New Order's ode to Elvis Presley. Bernard Sumner was apparently obsessed with a version of "Lonesome Tonight" (where The King can't stop laughing) and suggested to the rest of New Order they try jamming it on stage one night. That bit of C-F chord improvisation became this song, which Hook calls "a glorious tune even though it's nothing like Elvis', given away in true fashion as a b-side." (It's the flip to "Thieves Like Us.") New Order rarely needed more than two chords to create something amazing (see all of Power, Corruption and Lies), and when the synthesizers crest halfway through, it evokes Joy Division's "Atmosphere." If you're wondering, that is Peter Hook clearing his sinuses at the four-minute mark. "When Barney heard me hocking up phlegm into a handkerchief he suggested we put it on at the end because the contrast between something so beautiful and something so awful might be interesting. He was absolutely right."

“Murder” (1984)

New Order have always had a way with instrumentals and this one's a real tour-de-force, a pounding goth nightmare powered by Stephen Morris' propulsive drumming, a sinister bass line from Hook and Sumner's three-note, cyclical guitar hook. The song also makes great, creepy use of movie samples of Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Malcolm McDowell in infamous big-budget softcore film Caligula. "Murder," which has been covered by The Charlatans and K-X-P, was originally only released as a single in Belgium, but later appeared on the second disc of the Substance two-CD set.

“Elegia” (full version) (1985)

An ode to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores, specifically the pocket watch scene from A Few Dollars More, "Elegia" opens side two of 1985's highly underrated Low-Life. While the five-minute instrumental is carefully paced, exploding into full Sergio Leone glory in the last minute, the original 17-minute version is even better. "Dylan Jones - then editor at id magazine --asked us if we’d like to do some music for a short 15-20 min art film," Stephen Morris says. "We went into a studio in Wembley and did a marathon all night session. The film never happened, but we liked 'Elegia' so much it got edited down to fit on the LP." As Morris says, "Hooky's bass melodies on 'Elegia' are majestic."

"Elegia" is one of three New Order tracks to appear in Pretty in Pink ("Thieves Like Us" and "Shellshock," which appears on the soundtrack album, are the others), and you may have also heard it in Stranger Things, and the trailer for video game "Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain."

“Sooner Than You Think” (1985)

Like Power, Corruption and Lies, Low-Life is a near-perfect album and picking from the many great songs is difficult. Following "Blue Monday" and "Thieves Like Us," New Order really came into their own as far as blending rock and club music. While the albums that follow would more often than not have songs that were either "rock" or "synth," Low-Life let things intermingle in wonderful and surprising ways. After a building, minute-long intro that is mostly guitar, bass and drums, "Sooner Than You Think" shifts gears and lets the keyboards take over. "A very unusual tune, showing exactly why I used to love New Order," says Peter Hook in his memoir. "We were so versatile." As the lyrics describe, the song was actually written after "a party in [New Order's] hotel" in Zurich in 1984. "I think some members of the Furious Five were there, no Grandmaster Flash," recalls Stephen Morris. "There was a very loud blaster in a very small room - other hotel guests were not amused - complaints were made, maybe I dreamt the Furious Five bit? But not the Swiss police though."

“Face Up” (1985)

This one should've been a single. "When we first wrote Face up in early 1984 we thought it was the best thing ever," says Stephen Morris. "Face Up" is another New Order song where two disparate parts have been grafted together, with an an atmospheric intro ("inspired by Caligula" says Hook) that then drastically shifts gears into music that all but demands you bounce up and down. Sonically, "Face Up" is pure ebullience, the kind few besides New Order can do with guitars, but the lyrics -- "Oh how I cannot bear the thought of you" -- are a decided kiss-off from a spurned lover. "I couldn’t understand why some people didn’t get Face Up’s euphoria, but maybe you had to be playing the drums to fully get that," adds Morris.

“Way of Life” (1986)

As the '80s progressed, New Order became more and more known as a synthpop band, but they remained a clever, inventive rock band on album tracks, as is evidenced by the entire first side of 1986's Brotherhood. "Way of Life" closes out Side A, beginning with another gloomy fake-out intro before blossoming into a wonderful pop song with a chorus so infectious it seems impossible they would bury it this deep into the album. Hook says "We were trying to emulate 'Age of Consent' so I just played the riff backwards, and voilà."

“Every Little Counts” (1986)

New Order were guilty a few times over the years of what Peter Hook calls "five o'clock in the morning lyrics." Sometimes that meant something special, like "you caught me at a bad time, so why don't you piss off" (Power, Corruption & Lies' "Your Silent Face") and sometimes it gives you the opening lines to Brotherhood's closing track. "Every second counts when I am with you / I think you are a pig, you should be in a zoo," which Bernard Sumner cannot get through without laughing. (He also didn't feel a need to do another take.) And yet, "Every Second Counts" is still pure gold, making great use of orchestral samples, harmony and Sumner's winning "do de do de dooh" chorus. "Every Little Counts" is also a perfect album-closer, with a massive, woozy swell from their Emulator sampling keyboard -- "with Barney holding all the keys down at once, using both arms" -- and then a great final joke that definitely freaked out some vinyl listeners at the time.

“1963” (1987)

Like "The Perfect Kiss," this b-side to 1987 single "True Faith" is a story-song about a doomed relationship -- and perhaps firearms -- set to ultra-catchy crystalline synthpop. There's a case to be made that it's better than the A-side (which was one of New Order's biggest hits and their first entry into the Billboard Top 40). For people like Peter Hook who wished more of Peter Hook's distinctive bass stylings made it into the the final product (it doesn't show up till right before the slow fade out), Arthur Baker's sublime remix adds in more string instruments -- bass and guitar -- throughout.

“Vanishing Point” (1989)

Both Stephen Morris and Peter Hook's favorite song on 1989's Technique, "Vanishing Point" is one of New Order's finest electronic dance songs (and it really should've been a single instead of either "Fine Time" or "Run"). Like "Thieves Like Us," this one is in no hurry to get to vocals, with the 90 second lead-in playing like an overture, leading us through the major melodic points; when Sumner does begin with "Grow up children don't you suffer / at the hands of one another" it's a cinematic experience. "Vanishing Point" has the best chorus on the album and the best breakdown and "drop" (before they called them that), that was clearly influenced by the two months spent in Ibiza making the album (and spending a lot of time at the club).

“Dream Attack” (1989)

individual lanes, but the album closes with the glorious "Dream Attack" that brings the whole record together, mixing ragged guitar solos, windswept acoustic guitars, sampled orchestra hits, sequencers and live drums -- plus another great chorus -- all together as only New Order can do. Bernard Sumner apparently had The Eagles' "Hotel California" in mind with the song's two-minute jam outro which, in their hands, works. Gillian Gilbert, who played those wonderful acoustic guitars, says, "To me, Dream Attack' sums up the whole album. It’s bright breezy and uplifting...a good song to walk off into the sunset to."

“Special” (1993)

New Order were not especially getting along in the early-'90s, but got back together to make a new album, as they were low on funds after their label Factory Records (which went belly-up the year prior) and their troubled Manchester club, The Hacienda, depleted their bank accounts. Republic was, by all accounts, not the most pleasant recording experience with Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook butting heads constantly. There's not much of Hook's signature bass on the album, but there is some unfortunate rapping by Sumner. Republic does contain "Regret," one of their best-ever singles (a Top 40 hit in the US), and some of the old magic can also be found tucked away near the end of Side 2 with the sultry, moody "Special," which is driven by Hook's bass and another great chorus. Lyrically the song is perhaps referencing the demise of Factory Records or the group itself: "It was always special, like water down the drain." New Order went on an eight-year hiatus not long after its release.