inthefade:

New Order - Temptation

#44 on my list of favorite songs ever (and if this was an ordered list, would be in the top five)

It’s an August night in a sweaty night club where a band just finished playing some synthesized music that left us flat. We were expecting a punk band - they never showed up and this lifeless band played instead. The doors to the club are open and we can see cars go by on Merrick Road, hear the shouts of kids walking home late at night. We’re drunk. We’re hot and sticky and a little deflated. But we don’t want to go home. Not yet.

Someone climbs into the DJ booth and puts on a record. This record. This version. And then we’re singing. All of us, singing. There are some red lights glowing from the stage and one of us sees those lights as a beacon and he walks up the stairs to the stage and dances. And one by one, we follow him. Someone turns the volume up. We didn’t sing any louder because you sing this song in a quite, revered tone, like you’re having a quiet conversation with your heart. And we didn’t dance harder because what you did with this song wasn’t so much dance, it was more like you moved to it, moved with it and when the “up down turn around” part comes you sort of bounced on your heels a little and moved your head around, and that’s what we did on that hot stage. We danced and moved and we sang  quietly but together and we played the song two, three maybe four times until the owner said he was shutting down and then we moved out to the street and stood in front of the club, most of us still singing.

I can never define this song any other way. I can never think of it as anything but a glorious bookmark in a spectacular summer. I can never hear it as anything but the song we all carried close to our hearts like a secret that we needed to share.

It will always feel like magic.

previous songs

Man, I love songs like this. Particularly, because they ooze the above description. They make me think of nights of innocent, young fun and dancing and being stupid and happy and loving life. Feel-goodery. Et cetera. I’ve never had that sort of experience, honestly, but I hope to. I really need to start listening to New Order. That’s the first step, right?

Also, this must be mentioned. Must.