-> yes, i'm intentionally ignoring the 'new' artwork.

New Order- Brotherhood (remaster)

brotherhood was a turning point for me, when it came to new order, and not in a good way..

this was the point at which they had lost their way, with the exception of 'way of life', and 'bizarre love triangle'... and maybe even 'angel dust' it just doesn't gel..... the guitars clash, the keyboard tracks falter....

it was then that i knew they were fallible, just as any other group had..

the build up was great, having heard the 'bizarre love triangle' mixes ahead of time, i knew they had the potential to go big, and along with the video, i had no idea how HUGE they would truly become....unfortunately that momentum did not carry over, with no other singles appearing, and they imploded shortly afterwards..

yes, substance came out, and for all we knew, that would be their swan song... with this last studio album to be their unfortunate legacy...

too bad, because they had the potential to continue to be great..

they never did find the chemistry, even 21 years later, they faltered badly, with each remaining album getting worse, and worse...

So lets talk about specifics: for the album

1. i've done a comparison with the tracks from it, compared to the UK release and the Canadian release, and this version holds up pretty well without any major issues..

2. way of life is the standard track to crank up to hear the difference in the loudness at the end, it is still clear, and doesn't clip

I'm listening through altec-lansing speakers, and also through headphones

3. for the softer passages, listen to every little counts, very clear, no distortion, no dropouts...

4. Tracks are complete and not missing parts, no glitches, or stutters.

5. in some countries, the album included 'state of the nation', so that's included here also..

The bonus disc:

1. there's good and there's bad news here, on one hand, they actually did a decent job of showing their critical tracks from this era, and also delving into substance era tracks....they threw in some rarities, soundtracks, and a promo mix...very good selection

2. THE SOUND QUALITY IS ATROCIOUS... i've been very lenient on them for their other releases, but this is just ridiculous, clicks, pops, horrible, horrible, where did they come from? didn't anyone check?

3. evil dust is good to have, if you didn't have the funky alternatives compilations, the CDV, or retro...

4. true faith -dub, is the very rare eschreamer dub, which is odd, but nice to finally have on cd..

5. where is the 'paradise (remix)'? that would have made a lot more sense.... another missed opportunity.. ===================================================

by the way, another negative, is that the artwork has morphed into some horrible liquid looking piece, that might resemble the original....no thanks..

back to the final points, i don't like this album, i've never really liked it.... however, compared to the rest of their output, its actually better than anything that came out after their first break up and substance..

i'd rate it very low on the scale of must have albums, and possibly just get it for the bonus disc, and if you're a collector

i'll post a few more graphs, and charts of some of the tracks for comparison..

later -1

Ally wrote:

-1 wrote: 3) evil dust is good to have, if you didn't have the funky alternatives compilations, the CDV, or retro...

Evil Dust wasn't on Retro.

good catch Ally, yeah, i thought it was on the bonus disc....haven't listened to it much...

will change that in other places i've posted the review..

later -1

How does the sound quality of this compare to the original vinyl? On the 12", every song, except BLT, Paradise, ELC and All Day Long sound like ass when turned up. I'm assuming the problem is the original mastering. Your thoughts?

I just compared Broken Promise from Retro with the new remastered version. it seems the channels are switched. at the start of the retro version the bass is in the right channel and the new version has it in the left channel. Do you think this could be the case with other tracks?

i will post a more thorough comparison of the tracks shortly..

later -1

it appears the error is with Retro and not the new versions. Only the Brotherhood tracks though oddly.

broken promise:

here is broken promise from the uk release,

here is broken promise from the canadian release,

here is broken promise from the uk remaster

as you can, there is an improvement in the output levels, they are not clipped, or maxed out either..

the tracks sound clear...

later -1

here is a closeup of the end of 'broken promise',

THE REMASTER has the CORRECT channels..

the end of the Uk version

the end of the remaster

later -1