‘Thieves Like Us’: the New Order song Peter Hook called “far superior” to ‘Blue Monday’
Joy Division were on the brink of finding international success when their frontman, Ian Curtis, tragically killed himself aged 23 in 1980. It was the eve of the band’s first-ever North American tour, but his increasing depression and epilepsy had become too much to handle. The remaining members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, had a decision to make. They could abandon music, or they could continue forwards as a new band.
Factory Records’ owner Tony Wilson told SPIN: “I think all of us made the mistake of not thinking his suicide was going to happen… We all completely underestimated the danger. We didn’t take it seriously. That’s how stupid we were”. After previously deciding that if anyone were to leave the band, they’d change their name to something else, the remaining members of Joy Division kept to their word and reformed as New Order, recruiting Morris’ girlfriend, Gillian Gilbert, on keys and guitar.
The band utilised a distinctively less melancholic sound, instead blending post-punk with synths and electronics. Inspired by New York’s dance scene, New Order created a unique and pioneering sound, subsequently becoming one of Britain’s most prominent bands of the 1980s. Their debut album, Movement, released in 1981, was sonically in tune with Joy Division’s dark sound, only with more synths. However, on their second album, Power, Corruption and Lies, New Order moved further away from Joy Division’s bleak tones and fully embraced the synthesiser.
Yet, a few months before its release, the band shared ‘Blue Monday’, a synth-pop masterpiece fit for the dancefloor, which would soon become their signature hit. The track peaked at number nine in the UK Singles Charts, spending 38 weeks in the top 75, although it topped the UK Indie Charts, remaining on the chart for 186 weeks.
‘Blue Monday’ remains the best-selling 12-inch record of all time, selling over one million copies in the UK alone. Hook extracted his bassline from an Ennio Morricone soundtrack, For A Few Dollars More. However, New Order were also influenced by Donna Summer’s ‘Our Love’, Klein + M.B.O.’s ‘Dirty Talk’, and ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ by Sylvester when creating the track.
Despite the song being New Order’s most recognisable and popular, Hook believes that their 1984 single, ‘Thieves Like Us’, which appears on the 1987 compilation, Substance, is a better track. The song, named after Robert Altman’s eponymous 1974 film, was written in New York alongside American record producer Arthur Baker.
Speaking to Q Magazine, Hook shared: “I honestly thought ‘Thieves Like Us’, the single after ‘Blue Monday’, was far superior. ‘Blue Monday”s not a song, it’s a feeling, but once people hear that drum riff they’re off.”
As Hook states, ‘Blue Monday’, with its heavy focus on building instrumentals, doesn’t follow a conventional ‘song’ structure, unlike ‘Thieves Like Us’, which focuses on its anthemic chorus about love. In fact, ‘Thieves Like Us’ is a perfect pop song, both infectiously danceable and richly layered with sharp kick drum beats, shimmery synths and a gravelly guitar that punctuates the rhythm, kept afloat by Hook’s anchoring bassline.
Listen to the track below.
