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For me its got to be 1987-1989. They released some of their best singles,did the Salvation! tracks and give us one of their best albums-and decent b.sides.
I cant shake the feeling that weve lost a great album around 1988-12/18 months before *Technique* The singles *True Faith,Touched and 1963* plus all the soundtrack stuff wouldve/could`ve been an album on the Lowlife and Technique level.
83-85 for me, some of their finest ever songs came in this period, as well as their highest number of gigs per year etc. A thoroughly productive period!
Have to agree with Tim 83 -85 great tunes and intense gigs, different set each night 
Some of the venues, where only as big as my Shed !
If we are talking about the volume of releases, then 85-86 is the answer but as for creativity, then 1982 is the year they developed their guitar / electro style. We All Stand, 586, Blue Monday, Too Late et all were born that year. If you have a copy of Milan from 82, first half are fast guitar numbers and are followed by a medly of 586, temptation and EGG then the wonderfull electronica of Sparks' 'When I'm With You'. Lovely Stuff
83-87. blue monday (i know, i know, but it was groundbreaking), PC&L, lowlife and true faith.
Can someone define creative?!
I think the best tunes were from 83-85 but surely the band themselves were at their most creative just prior to this, say, 1981-82, when they were coming to terms with technology and laying the formulae and blueprints for everything which came thereafter. I'm thinking of tracks like Temptation, 586, Blue Monday and The Village when they were tackling new technology. That's creativity for you. When Low-Life came along it's got a cracking set of tunes, but they'd been there, done that, before.
For me Technique was just really honing their, um, technique with what had already gone on before. Getting rid of the rough edges if you like.
Technique might be best described as their most assured and confident record...I also believe though it has the best track sequence of the album catalogue.
I think 88-93 with Technique, all the side projects and Republic, that was some great stuff.
Shit on Republic if you like, but I could sing along with every cut on there, and the singles were FANTASTIC.
I think it depends on how your life corresponds with whatever period of New Order music affects you most.
I think these singles cover New Order's most creative moments:
Everything's Gone Green Temptation Blue Monday Confusion Perfect Kiss Fine Time
Each one sounded genuinely different and explored new territory for the band's sound in terms of technology or new influences. I agree with what Al said that by the end of the 80s and with every album since they've simply been refining what they learned with those singles. They've had cracking singles inbetween and after that lot of course but most are based on the well worn Guitars/Keyboards format which was done to death by loads of bands post-early 80s.
So stuff like True Faith and Regret are great tracks and really well written but not really as creative as something like Everything's Gone Green IMO.
Most bands struggle to release even one truly creative single in their whole career so I reckon New Order should be very proud with those six!
84 to 89.
In this period, they seemed to finally find their sound with Low-life, but they kept on with experimentation. They tried more guitars on Brotherhood, and Technique seems to be a more polished balance of the two sounds. They seemed to be experimenting more with electronic sounds in this period and that's probably why the songs that are more electronic based - TPK, ShellShock, This Time of Night, Mr. Disco, Round and Round - all sound vastly diffferent from each other, while the guitar-based tracks still seem in a nascent stage.
I think listening to the beginning of Substance the distance they travelled from Ceremony/IALP to Confusion/TLU is staggering - they (re)invented themselves during this time, most of my fave NO tracks are from this sort of time and it culminated with what is for me their masterpiece, Low-Life, in 85 - so I'd go with first half of the eighties... But the second half wasn't far behind...
SHEDi xxx
Power, Corruption, and Lies era is their most original sounding and most timelessly produced, most creative, most likely to be imitated by other indie groups, most likely to listened to in 50 years. but then the whole mid 80s stretching back to Closer and 1979 is full of creativity.
by the late 80s they had refined their sound and started to follow trends more, trying more consciously to make "hits" as a challenge in itself. Technique is more the band doing what it does very well, from experience.
after Technique the band has relied on producers and remixers to try to stay fresh, no longer any desire to be innovators
That period in late 81 onwards when they were moving out of the '8 songs from Movement/Mesh/CW/Homage/Ceremony/IALP gigs' (because that's all they had), to the point where Procession, EGG, Temptation, LMA and the other PCL songs were being added to their catalogue and the gigs were getting longer and more varied and interesting. And then again when the LowLife songs started appearing as well, TPK, Sunrise and STYT in particular.
I would have to say New Order's most creative period was the time from BrotherHood to Technique. Seems like they were in fine form between those years more than any other. They seem like they were truly inspired.
I would have to say New Order's most creative period was the time from BrotherHood to Technique. Seems like they were in fine form between those years more than any other. They seem like they were truly inspired.
1982-1985
EGG, Procession, Hurt, Temptation P,C,L (and Blue Monday) Low-Life (and TPK full length)
I'll stretch the time period out to 1982-1989. The seeds of Blue Monday seemed to be sown in 1982 with Temptation-5 8 6 and some other tunes. PCL is amazing, Thieves Like Us and Lonesome Tonight in '84 are stunning bridges to Low-Life, Low-Life is amazing, then they get sideswiped by a big rig and end up in a ditch which explains the State of the Nation/Shellshock nightmare, but they right themselves with BLT, and good songs if not great production with Brotherhood, Touched, True Faith, 1963 and a mostly truly superior rerecoring of Temptation in '87, followed by Technique which was the pinnacle. I've started to listen to the old albums again and damn is Technique good. Just an amazing, amazing album. After that they imploded which is a massive bummer because like others I think we may have missed a potentially great album in late '87 if they'd not done the Salvation pap, and if they'd managed to hold it together and maybe perform a Brian Wilson (not tour, and just do an album) following Technique in '91.
Alas at least the band survived and while few have been totally happily with their work post-Technique there still have been some astonishingly good tunes: Regret, Special, At Close Range, Here to Stay, WFTSC, Turn etc.
I was hoping this would be kept to around a 12 moth period. Its only a matter of time before someone posts from 1976-2006.
