Your Silent Face

One of my all-time favorite songs, New Order’s sublimely evocitive Your Silent Face still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up each time I hear it. Hundreds of butterflies beat their wings against my stomach and the world seems to slow down. It’s terribly dramatic and coolly elegant, this song, and it along with so much of New Order’s catalog has had a huge and entirely positive influence on me.

Recently I have been absolutely overwhelmed by their 1991 (or is it 2001?) Radio One version of the song. It’s a couple things. First there’s the big new sub-bass that comes in at 1:03 and ads a gloriously funky propulsion to the track. More importantly is what happens at 4:04, when Morris’s drums suddenly crash the song and OH MY GOD! Sumner and Hook weave their garlands and for two minutes I am completely lost in June, July and August’s past and present and to come. I feel the blood coursing through my veins and the wind through my hair and the drama of it all makes me ache and swoon and it’s almost bursting with too muchness.

I want to cry.