Power, Corruption & Lies

The most prominent track on Power, Corruption & Lies is 'Age of Consent,' known for Peter Hook's driving bassline and Bernard Sumner's urgent vocal delivery. Other key tracks include 'Your Silent Face,' which features a distinctive synth melody, and '5 8 6,' a track that evolved from earlier New Order material and previews the dance-oriented direction the band would fully explore on subsequent albums.

'Blue Monday' was released as a standalone single in March 1983 on Factory Records, separate from the Power, Corruption & Lies album, following the band's practice of keeping singles off LPs. This was a deliberate decision by New Order and Factory Records label head Tony Wilson, which meant the album's original tracklist never included what became the best-selling 12-inch single of all time.

The album cover features 'A Basket of Roses' by 19th-century French painter Henri Fantin-Latour, chosen by designer Peter Saville after discovering a postcard of the painting. The juxtaposition of a classical still-life painting with the album's dark electronic post-punk sound became one of the most iconic sleeve designs of the 1980s Factory Records catalog.

Movement (1981) was New Order's first album after the dissolution of Joy Division and retained much of Ian Curtis's shadow with darker, more guitar-driven post-punk. Power, Corruption & Lies (1983) represents the band's confident shift toward synthesizer-driven dance music, blending electronic rhythms with melodic hooks in a way that defined New Order's signature sound for the rest of the decade.