1. Movement (1981)
The debut and ground
zero for New Order as Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris tried to
come to terms with the death of Ian Curtis and the end of Joy Division.
Everything about Movement reflects that enforced transition and the album’s
themes deal with grief, loss, insecurity, and uncertainty. Much like the music
of Joy Division, then. Stark and glacial, it’s a Martin Hannett production
masterclass, and a wholly necessary purging of the past before the band could
move on to embrace brighter and much bouncier things. As such, Movement
represents not so much a template for the direction the band would head, but
more an intimate snapshot of time, place, and circumstance. Many would suggest
that the terrific guitar-led opener ‘Dreams Never End’ is the main takeaway
from the album, but the whole thing is something close to perfect in my view.
Although Movement is not universally popular with all fans, it really is the
only logical starting point for your New Order journey, and nobody will ever
convince me it’s not the band’s best work.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘The Him’
2. Power
Corruption and Lies (1983)
Released eight
weeks after the band’s seminal ‘Blue Monday’ single, which would go on to
become the biggest selling 12-inch of all time, it’s probably fair to say that
sales of Power Corruption and Lies benefitted heavily from New Order’s
new-found crossover popularity. Despite all early editions of the band’s second
album omitting the track altogether - as was the Factory (label) way (at that
stage). Even without the game-changing single, Power Corruption and Lies has
stood the test of time better than most, offering a strong and consistent set
of tunes which, for the most part, strike just the right balance between the
dark and the light. The band was clearly keen to forge a path away from the
bleak soundscapes of the debut, and that’s never more obvious than on the
upbeat, uptempo opener, ‘Age of Consent’. Whatever the intent, the album
definitely represents a seismic shift away from the guitar-based aesthetic of
Movement to a much more radio-friendly electro-pop dynamic. Without crossing
over completely. At a guess, I’d say Power Corruption and Lies is the album
owned by most “casual” New Order fans.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘5-8-6’
3. Technique
(1989)
A highly acclaimed
release - by media and fans alike - which was strongly influenced by the
burgeoning acid house and techno scenes taking shape across the Atlantic at the
time of its release ... the high bpm nature of its content acting as a
precursor for the genre we know today as EDM. Although New Order had already
established itself within the club scene as a reliable DJ “go to”, Technique
was the first album to truly reflect that dancefloor popularity, and the first
full-length release from the band to reach number one on the UK album charts.
Includes the singles, ‘Fine Time’, ‘Round & Round’, and ‘Run’, plus a
strong selection of album cuts like ‘All the Way’, ‘Mr Disco’, and the superb
‘Vanishing Point’. A great way for the band to see out the decade it had helped
to define, and New Order was, by the turn of the 90s, almost completely
unrecognisable as same band who made Movement. And light years away from Joy
Division ... although the magnificence of Technique’s album sleeve would beg to
differ.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘Vanishing Point’
4. Brotherhood
(1986)
Brotherhood is
perhaps the most underrated album of the bunch. A bit of a gem, even. It
possibly resonates more strongly with me because it (more or less) coincided
with my only New Order “live” experience a few months after its release. But
it’s a super strong set that swaggers into life with impressive opener
‘Paradise’ and doesn’t let up through tracks like ‘Way of Life’, the glistening
synths of ‘All Day Long’, ’Angel Dust’, and the lighthearted ‘Every Little
Counts’. Also includes singles ‘State of the Nation’ and the now anthemic
‘Bizarre Love Triangle’. Given what went before, it seems a bit reckless to
suggest that Brotherhood is the album where Gillian Gilbert’s synth work really
comes into its own, but I think that actually happened. There may have been a
case for the now super-dated ‘Shellshock’ to be included here, but that single
was reserved for the Pretty In Pink soundtrack, and would appear on the band’s
Substance compilation a year later.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘Paradise’
5. Music Complete
(2015)
Music Complete was
lovely surprise after a decade of remakes, repackages, and cast-offs. It was
the band’s first album as a fully fledged five-piece (and the rest) and the
first without Peter Hook. We were entitled to expect nothing from New Order in
2015, and we wound with quite a lot of something. Mojo magazine called it the
“comeback of its year”, but even as a one-eyed fan I could never go that far.
All hyperbole aside, tracks like ‘Restless’, ‘Plastic’, ‘Tutti Frutti’, and
‘People on the High Line’ all added to the band’s wider legacy, and the odd suspect
moment excepted (lyrics, mostly), the album proved there was still post-Hook
life in the old dog yet. As ever, Sumner’s vocals leave a fair bit to be
desired in places, but he got some help on Music Complete, with Iggy Pop,
Brandon Flowers, La Roux, Denise Johnson, and longtime collaborator Dawn Zee
all adding vocal chops at different points. And yes, I do recognise the fact
that Sumner’s dodgy singing has become “signature” New Order for a lot of
people, and I retain some affection for it all the same. All told, a pretty
decent return to form.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘Tutti Frutti’
6. Low-life (1985)
By 1985, Blue
Monday had taken on a life of its own and the band was perhaps peaking in terms
of mainstream popularity. And Power Corruption and Lies was just as likely the
only real benchmark for many of those new fans (certainly not the case for
yours truly - see Movement). So Low-life was always on a hiding to nothing at
the time of its release. And while it wasn’t exactly a disappointment at the
time, as an album, as a complete set, I don’t think it has aged particularly
well. It was however, the first New Order full-length release to include
singles - in this case ‘The Perfect Kiss’ and dancefloor banger ‘Sub-culture’.
It opens with the popular ‘Love Vigilantes’ and builds nicely to the mid-album
peaks of ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Elegia’ but the rest veer too close to “filler” for
these precious ears. It’s not Sumner’s best vocal work either, and despite
Low-life’s enduring popularity with fans - which always surprises me when I
read such polls - it’s nowhere near the band’s strongest set.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘Sunrise’
7. Get Ready
(2001)
Get Ready
represented a barely anticipated return after an eight-year break and something
of a return to the guitar aesthetic of old. In fact, Get Ready is probably the
closest New Order has ever come to releasing a “rock” album. It opens with the
double whammy of excellent singles ‘Crystal’ and ‘60 Miles An Hour’, while the
third single, ‘Someone Like You’, appears much later and is rather more
forgettable. It also contains ‘Turn My Way’, which features Smashing Pumpkin
Billy Corgan on vocals, and ‘Rock The Shack’, featuring Primal Scream’s Bobby
Gillespie. That’s some heavyweight help, right there. More generally, Get Ready
is a little bit patchy in that it contains some of band’s best post-80s work -
guitar lines, returning to the minimalism of the Movement-era, etc, but also
some the band’s worst excesses - lyrics (again), and Barney’s singing (again).
But overall, a pretty decent comeback. I think, by this point, I was just happy
to have the band back in the fold.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘Turn My Way’
8. Republic (1993)
I realise it’s not
necessarily the popular view with many New Order fans, but Republic always felt
like New Order’s “jumping the shark” moment for me. Although in fairness that
moment had probably already occurred a few years earlier with the ghastly ‘World
In Motion’ (England World Cup) single. Republic opens with a run of the four
singles eventually culled from the album: ‘Regret’, ‘World (The Price of
Love)’, ‘Ruined in a Day’, and ‘Spooky’. Those singles only make the album slightly
more palatable for me. It’s another one that hasn’t aged particularly well;
it’s super cheesy in places and burdened with cringeworthy lyrics. There are
many examples, the best (or worst!) being the awful ‘Liar’. And try-hard
rapping ruins the gorgeous instrumentation on ‘Times Change’. The band’s mainstream
crossover was now complete to the point of near irrelevance (to me) by this
point. And that album cover!? ... ugh, so at odds with the rest of the band’s great
sleeves. Incredibly enough, Republic was nominated for the Mercury Prize of its
year and became the second New Order album to hit number one.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘Everyone Everywhere’
9. Lost Sirens
(2013)
When I first
learned that New Order had released a set of previously shelved or discarded
tunes recorded during the Waiting of the Sirens’ Call sessions eight years
earlier, I feared the worst. But Lost Sirens is actually not too bad. I mean,
it’s not great, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse (see below). Lost
Sirens did at least include the wonderful swagger of ‘Hellbent’, which first
surfaced on the 2011 compilation, Total, and an alternative version of ‘I Told
You So’, which was perhaps even better than the original take released on
Sirens’ Call. Elsewhere, opener ‘I’ll Stay With You’, and ‘Recoil’, were also
worthy additions to the band’s canon. On the other hand, ‘Shake It Up’ and
‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ are up there with the worst “songs” New Order ever
released. And yes, it does seem odd that I’m ranking the Lost Sirens leftover set
ahead of the “parent” album they were rejected from, but that’s just how I see
it.
EGG’s choice cut:
‘Hellbent’
10. Waiting for
the Sirens’ Call (2005)
Not quite the last
New Order album to feature Peter Hook (see Lost Sirens), but sadly, the first
not featuring Gillian Gilbert. It was also the first to include Phil Cunningham
(synth, guitar), although Cunningham had been a touring/live member of the band
since 2001. To be quite honest, even writing as a fan, Waiting for the Sirens’
Call is not an especially inspiring set. Aside from the funky electro of ‘I
Told You So’, it’s all a bit generic and there’s really not much to get excited
about here. It reeks of a band just going through the motions. Even the singles
lifted from it, ‘Krafty’, ‘Jetstream’, and the title track itself, did little
to allay fears the band had finally reached some sort of studio use-by date.
They remained a hugely popular touring band and a regular festival headliner
but we’d have to wait a whole decade before that studio “use-by” theory was
fully laid to rest (on Music Complete - see above).
EGG’s choice cut:
‘I Told You So’
But wait, there’s more ... a free set of Hooky steak knives and a Gillian Gilbert calendar? ...
Not quite, but it
would be remiss of me to devote so many words to New Order albums without
acknowledging the sheer majesty and wider importance of Substance (1987), a
compilation of the band’s early singles and their associated B-sides. Many of
which don’t feature on the regular albums, which makes it an essential album in
its own right. Sure, compilations like ‘Singles’, the ‘best of’ and the ‘rest of’, plus
Total, which draws in Joy Division work, are good value, as are a number of
live albums, but Substance really was quite special and served to fill in all of
those gaps from the 80s, the band’s best and most prolific era for singles.
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