Pitchfork

You know how annoying it is when an album's UK release date precedes the stateside release by weeks? Well, U.S.-based New Order fans, prepare to be jerk'd, as the band's upcoming album, Waiting for the Sirens' Call, has been given a UK street date of March 28 but won't wash up on U.S. shores on April 26. Produced by Stephen Street, Waiting for the Sirens' Call was recorded at various UK studios throughout 2004, and will mark the Manchester dance heroes' eighth studio album. Tracklist:

01 Who's Joe
02 Hey Now What You Doing
03 Waiting for the Sirens' Call
04 Krafty
05 I Told You So
06 Morning Day and Night
07 Dracula's Castle
08 Jetstream
09 Guilt is a Useless Emotion
10 Turn
11 Working Overtime

Waiting for the Sirens' Call was also recently given its public debut at a UK music biz event in London last week, and early reports have it pegged as "dancier" than the band's previous effort, 2001's Get Ready. As singer Bernard Sumner explained to NME: "The last album was guitar-heavy simply because we felt that we'd left that instrument alone for a long time and we thought that was what the general trend was and what people wanted to hear. But when we started doing live gigs, we found that people got off on the more dance-oriented and synth stuff just as much. This album really splits into two halves. It's a mixture of two, because that's what New Order fans like." Wait a minute. Isn't what New Order likes more important? Like, what if they thought country music was way better than all of that shit? Shouldn't they play that instead?

Holy fuck, what did we just say? Sorry, everyone. Is it too late to take that back?

As we were saying: The band is expected to tour in support of the disc, as well as hit some major summer festivals, but specifics have yet to be announced.

This latest release also marks New Order's first without founding keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, who has reportedly left the band permanently. Gilbert originally took time off during New Order's 2001-02 tour in support of Get Ready to take care of her ailing daughter, while hired hand Phil Cunningham filled in. Cunningham, who was also a guitarist in the Bernard Sumner/Johnny Marr "super" group Electronic, has now been pegged as a permanent band member.

In related news: As previously reported, fans will soon be able to see a biopic about the life of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, who hung himself in 1980 shortly before the band's first tour of the U.S. Currently under the working title of Control, the film is rumored to star Jude Law as the legendary singer, and will be based on the book Touching from a Distance, penned by Curtis' widow.

Additionally, the film is being co-produced by Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, who originally signed the band to the label Wilson recently told the BBC: "This is much more than the music; they want to do the real story of Ian. People have different ideas as to why Ian committed suicide, so maybe the film will reflect those different views." Poised to direct the film is Anton Corbijn, whose previous credits include music videos for Depeche Mode and U2, and a whole lot of photos of rock bands you've probably seen a million times.