Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)

Power, Corruption & Lies is the second studio album by the English rock band New Order, released on 2 May 1983 by Factory Records. The album features more electronic tracks than their debut studio album Movement (1981), with heavier use of synthesisers. The album was met with widespread acclaim, and has been included in music industry lists of the greatest albums of the 1980s and of all time. The cover artwork was by Peter Saville, and in 2010 it was one of ten classic album covers from British artists commemorated on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail.

Music

Power, Corruption & Lies, an evolution from New Order's debut album, Movement (1981), combines the band's roots in post-punk with influences from electronic music into a sound described as synth-pop, electropop, new wave, synth-rock, dance-rock, post-punk and dance-punk. According to Matt Mitchell of Paste Magazine, "[the album] was, at the time, the heaviest the band had ever flirted with electronica." Mitchell further characterized the album's sound as "a gentle portrait of ambient, post-industrial tenderness." The track "5-8-6" has been called "a literal interpretation of early house music", while influences from Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder has also been noted. Additionally, the album's sounds have been categorised as synth-pop, and darker songs such as "We All Stand" and “Your Silent Face” are contrasted with brighter and more optimistic songs such as "The Village”. GQ India assessed: "By doing what Joy Division had not been able to do – playing in America, visiting New York clubs, getting a serious hit with 'Blue Monday' – the light began to seep in through the once cavernous darkness of the New Order sound. The sheer force of Power, Corruption and Lies comes from the intensity of this newfound light and euphoria charging through their music." The hit single "Blue Monday" was recorded in the same sessions and released separately as a non-album twelve-inch single, later appearing as an added track on some CD versions of the album.

Artwork

Peter Saville's design for the album had a colour-based code to represent the band's name and the title of the album, but they were not written on the original UK sleeve (they were present on some non-UK versions), although the catalogue number "FACT 75" does appear on the top-right corner. The decoder for the code was featured prominently on the back cover of the album and can also be seen on the "Blue Monday" and "Confusion" singles and for Section 25's third studio album From the Hip (1984).

The cover is a reproduction of the painting A Basket of Roses by French artist Henri Fantin-Latour, which is part of the National Gallery's permanent collection in London. Saville had originally planned to use a Renaissance portrait of a dark prince to tie in with the Machiavellian theme of the title, but could not find a suitable portrait. At the gallery Saville picked up a postcard with Fantin-Latour's painting, and his girlfriend mockingly asked him if he was going to use it for the cover. Saville then realised it was a great idea. Saville commented that the flowers "suggested the means by which power, corruption and lies infiltrate our lives. They're seductive." In 2014, the cover was itself added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The Fantin-Latour still-life depicted on the cover, an overtly romantic image, is in stark contrast with the typography based on the modular, colour-coded alphabet. Saville and Tony Wilson, the head of New Order's label Factory Records, also said that the owner of the painting (The National Heritage Trust) first refused the label access to it. Wilson then called up the gallery director to ask who actually owned the painting and was given the answer that the Trust belonged to the people of Britain, at some point. Wilson then replied, "I believe the people want it." The director then replied, "If you put it like that, Mr Wilson, I'm sure we can make an exception in this case."

The cover was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010. Fashion designer Raf Simons used the album's cover art on one of his most coveted pieces from the Autumn/Winter 2003 "Closer" collection, ultimately producing four fishtail parkas in varying colours with various pieces of New Order/Joy Division artwork spread around the pieces. The street-fashion label Supreme included the album's floral motif as part of their Spring–Summer 2013 collection.