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New Order - Substance Audio CD

A fair review of the New Order "Substance" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all New Order reviews here, or go back to the New Order tabs.

New Order Band: New Order
Title: Substance
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Ceremony 2: Everything's Gone Green 3: Temptation 4: Blue Monday 5: Confusion 6: Thieves Like Us 7: Perfect Kiss 8: Subculture 9: Shellshock 10: State of the Nation 11: Bizarre Love Triangle 12: True Faith 13: In a Lonely Place 14: Procession 15: Cries and Whispers 16: Hurt 17: Beach 18: Confusion [Instrumental] 19: Lonesome Tonight 20: Murder 21: Thieves Like Us [Instrumental][Mix] 22: Kiss of Death 23: Shame of the Nation 24: 1963

Near-perfect collection of New Order's early singles
Unlike Joy Division, New Order's singles were nearly always their best songs. Like Joy Division, New Order's singles as a rule didn't appear on their albums. All of this makes 'Substance' an essential collection for serious New Order fans, as well as being the best place to start for casual fans. 'Substance' covers that band's most consistent and creative period, beginning with the final Joy Division song 'Ceremony' and ending with 'True Faith', which would become one of their biggest hits.

The first CD consists of New Order's singles from 1981-1987, containing all of their most important songs: 'Ceremony', 'Temptation', 'Blue Monday', 'Perfect Kiss', 'Bizzare Love Triangle', 'True Faith'. Apart from new recordings of 'Temptation' and 'Confusion' (both of which are superior to the original versions), these are all the original extended 12" mixes. This does mean a couple of songs drag on a little, but the quality of the music is so high that most of the time you won't care. While every song has a clear electronic and dance/rock influence, there is still considerable diversity here: the post-punk of 'Ceremony', the vaguely hip-hop 'Confusion', the blue-eyed soul of 'Thieves Like Us', the football chant of 'Shellshock'. The only dud is the 12" mix of 'Subculture', which is a shocker, marred by annoying backup singers and unnecessary studio affects. The 7" version on 'Low Life' is vastly superior to this.

The second CD consists of all the B-sides, and as with Joy Division's 'Substance', there are some real hidden gems here. About half the tracks are take-it-or-leave-it remixes and instrumentals of the A-sides, but there are 7 original songs. Beginning with the unsettling 'In a Lonely Place', it includes 'Procession' and 'Mesh' (actually 'Cries and Whispers')from the Movement sessions, the proto-industrial 'Hurt', and a pair of decent pop/rock tracks in 'Lonesome Tonight' and '1963'. The most interesting song here is the disturbing 'Murder', a chaotic tribal song that sounds like it belongs a horror movie soundtrack.

In all, this is the best collection of New Order songs around. The 12" mixes really highlight the impact New Order's early work had on dance and electronic music, whereas most other collections present songs in the more radio-friendly 7" mixes. And given the band's singles were their best tracks, there are no weak spots or embarassing moments which plague a couple of the studio albums. This is simply a great collection of innovative dance/rock music, and arguably New Order's best ever release.

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Outstanding collection of singles from a seminal band
By then, New Order was a leader of the early alternative movement and an established dance club band. Rising out of the ashes of Joy Division after Ian Curtis' suicide in 1980, New Order fashioned an amazing portfolio of music over the next few years culminating in this greatest hits retrospective in 1987.

Substance chronicles their early releases of songs penned while the band was still Joy Division all the way to their more mainstream success with "State of the Nation", "Bizarre Love Triangle", and "True Faith". It is an unconventional greatest hits album, featuring dance/club mixes and probably a little more material than warranted for a retrospective of their first 7 years. Still, a must have for any New Order collection and a nice complement to the later greatest hit releases - "Best of New Order" (1995), and "International" (2002), and "Singles" (2005). I'm personally a huge fan of their earlier stuff (nothing since has touched Bizarre Love Triangle and True Faith), and as such, Substance is the essential collection of New Order music.


New Order Substance 1987
I had this on vinyl and decided to get CD so I knew it would be great.


Worth boycotting on principle
However, none of Warner Brothers' six - count 'em, six - compilations contain all of those original 12" mixes. New Order was a singles band who did their best work in the 12" format. "Substance" has the most of them. But it replaces the original versions of "Temptation" and "Confusion" with re-recordings - and lops a minute or more off "The Perfect Kiss", "Sub-Culture", and "Shellshock". To remedy these defects, Warner Brothers requires you to purchase "Collector's Editions" of the three separate albums containing those songs. [If you do a web search for "sorting out the New Order compilations", you can get full details. ]

Well, screw that. All of the music from the original 12" records is available for free on the Internet, if you know where to look. You can also get the original sleeve art - something else "Substance" couldn't be bothered with. .


Classic Alt/New Wave Rock
Delivery took longer than most, but within time frame given. Album came in good condition (as promised). New Order defines 80's dance music.


You can see a complete list of all New Order discography, or go back to the New Order tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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