Bad Lieutenant

Coming about a couple of years after the unofficial (and rather acrimonious) break-up of British rock legends New Order, Bad Lieutenant, formed by New Order alumni Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, and augmented by veteran indie-rock studio hands Phil Cunningham and Jake Evans, are starting to carve a name out for themselves amongst the cognoscenti. However, instead of the dance-inflected post-punk guitar-rock that constituted New Order's stock in trade, Bad Lieutenant offered a more Spartan, back-to-basics straightforward form of pop-rock that might be frills-free and rather unassuming, but is still compellingly melodic and engagingly accessible enough to make it to the mid-levels of the indie charts. Check out their first single, 'Sink or Swim', which makes for a very valid example of Bad Lieutenant's unpretentious artistry (with a minimalist-themed video clip to match).