Ah gee, another New Order "Best-Of" collection. What is this now - their third or fourth?
I'm gonna be upfront about this: any New Order disc purporting to be the creme de la creme that does not include "Temptation" (the "Oh, you've got green eyes/Oh, you've got blue eyes" song) is engaging in false advertising. But take away that personal grouse, and you've still got a strong selection from one of the best damn dance-groups ever.
Never would've thought they could've done it actually. When Brit gloom popsters Joy Division passed with frontman Ian Curtis, I sure didn't expect much to emerge from the rubble. Wasn't much for Joy Div's strum and gloom myself: to these ears, the band's peak moment lies in its poppy swan song, "Love Will Tear Us Apart." So you can understand why I wasn't holding out much hope for the band with the second Nazi Germany ref in its name. '81's debut single "Ceremony" (co-written with Curtis) didn't provide much hope either. Sounded like rehashed Joy Division right down to the murkily mixed vocals.
It wasn't until "Blue Monday," the second single on International (Rhino), that the band's great nervous dance style emerged for this listener. Bernard Sumner found his own weedily neurotic voice; Peter Hook's strumming bass (one of the great dance-pop sounds) took hold, while Gillian Gilbert's keyboarding frittered with grandiosity without ever giving into it. Add Steve Morris's slippery-yet-tight-assed drumwork, and you have a near-perfect dance club unit.
By the fifth song on this collection, "Perfect Kiss," the band really kicks in as beat-crazy romantics - even if the band's idea of perfection is the "kiss of death." Once they reach that space, they never fully leave. Great songs and rhythmic exercises abound: "Bizarre Love Triangle" (presented here in an extended dance mix - part of the brilliance of New Order lies in the fact that their extended mixes never sound padded) or the cautiously optimistic "True Faith," to name two prime examples. Ideal music for a dweeb like yours truly who does most of his dancing in an office chair.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Why DO they always leave off "Temptation" (other than Substance)? It may be their greatest song, and is without question Bernard's best vocal. This drives me insane.
2 - Bill Sherman
I see that one of the mixes of "Temptation" is on the big boxed set. Have never favored the version that the band included on Substance, incidentally; prefer the original single or the track from the Something Wild soundtrack. But even the weakest version is still a prime cut. . .
3 - Eric Olsen
My fave is the Substance mix.
4 - James Russell
I have "Temptation" on the Trainspotting soundtrack. Since I've got the track in that form at least, the new best-of otherwise contains about as much New Order as I want, so I'm cool with it...