Why does suddenly everybody (#1, #2) love the new New Order album? I don't get it. I've said before that it is my favourite of theirs. It is the most varied and consistent record in their career. In a way it is the most "Joy Division" like. What really annoys me is when people say they love the music but find the lyrics dull. New Order's music has never been about lyrics. That was always the big difference between them and Joy Division. Joy Division had a songwriter, New Order is Joy Division without the songwriter, so what do you expect? Shallow lyrics which go with the melodies have been one of their trademarks.

P.S. I have to agree 100% to what Barney sings in Crystal: "I don't know what to say, you don't care anyway"

Lou Reed: Magic & Loss So I found my personal favourite album about AIDS. It is not really about AIDS but it is about seeing your friends die from it. Magic & Loss is one of the few successful concept albums I know. It is quite fatalistic and cynic in places but what I like the most is the humour which is appropriate to the subject as it is very dark. It is gallows humour. In Goodbye Mass Lou sits on the hard chair in the church and feels very uncomfortable. He does not like death masses and thinks that his deceased friend would not have liked his own death mass either: You would have made it easier you'd say 'tomorrow I'm smoke'" (to be extended)