The year is 2001, I am heading off to law school, and totally, utterly alone in a new place. I am slowly rediscovering my love of 80’s bands and I come across the latest video from New Order – Crystal.

Imagine my surprise. “What happened to them? Didn’t they age? Where have they been for 8 years?” Confusion settles in and just like that I am bewildered by New Order all over again. Obviously, it wasn’t New Order playing in the video. They hardly appeared in any of their videos, but for some odd reason, this video changed my sense of direction and style for years to come. I needed skinny jeans and floppy hair. I needed less metal and screaming vocals and more mod stylings and synth-pop textures.  As New Order was redefining themselves on Get Ready, I was going to redefine myself (or whatever that meant). For others, it did the same thing.

The Killers put out two videos that were homage to New Order’s – Killers, the orginal version of Mr. Brightside (above) and Somebody Told Me. I am glad I wasnt the only one who ended being moved by this record. It always made me laugh that The Killers stole so much from this quirky one off video and song.

Largely though, it turned out to be a transitional song and record in my life. I would never say Get Ready was nearly as complete or thorough as Power Corruption and Lies or Low-life , but for me, it was an incredibly important record that let me truly move on to a much more important portion of music and without it, I might have missed out on.