New Order Compilation.

:)

Tough choice as I'm not a big fan on comps, but retro had a good mix of stuff, I know there's issues with it, but at least there was a bit of thought put into it.

By the way, Rising Dump? that sounds a bit painful!

Jed Stephens wrote: By the way, Rising Dump? that sounds a bit painful!

Not if I sit on a soft cushion.

1. Substance is way outdated. GOOD: New Order at their best. BAD: nothing past 1987, no Regret or Crystal.

2. (the best of) New Order is criminally subjective. GOOD: the quality was good, I think. BAD: it lacks such key songs as Ceremony or Temptation. And it's dated too.

3. International is not mentioned here, that's good, becuase somehow it feels lifeless, I don't why, everything is seemingly there... GOOD: the cover art; two rarities: Touched by the Hand of God 12" mix and Here to Stay (that's where I heard it first). BAD: It's really an updated but shortened version of Substance (even Temptation and Confusion were the 87 versions, to my big disappointment when I got it). Maybe it is good, after all.

4. Retro is a monster. I was bitterly disappointed. Everything is wrong. GOOD: Live tracks and SOME songs on the remix CD due to their rarity (Paradise, Confusion; um.. I don't remember others). BAD: the good concept is wacked completely. Take the remix CD "Club": how in the world would you put EGG and Shellshock with Blue Monday in some techno remix and then add... 1963 - of all songs! Dance to the fucking 1963! The "Pop" and "Fan" CDs are such a pandemonium of subjectivity that it's painful to listen to (though might be good for a novice). Okay, they had fucked down the Recycle concept, but still they could have come up with something better. Yes, put hits on one or two CDs, then put rare tracks on a third CD (Mesh, Subculture mirror mix to Such A Good Thing), put the most recent remixes and add new ones to a fourth CD (kinda like Depeche did, or like NO did in 1995 - but again they fucked that one up), and put an entire concert from 1985 or 1989 on a fifth CD. Done. If only... Despite all that, since the question what comp is there to recommend, I would never recommend any box-sets for that matter to anyone.

5. Singles would be perfect. GOOD: it traces the development of New Order sound perfectly, with all key songs in there. BAD: the sound is way too compressed. A missed opportunity here. I know people don't care, but the cover art was awful. The revision of True Faith design didn't feel right. It was surely a step back...

6. Total is a nice idea, but... GOOD: the sound quality is great, an unreleased track is there, a few unique edits for completists, too. BAD: Questionable chocies for some of the selected songs. Maybe too much of Joy Division? Why Isolation? Shadowplay would be a killer there. I know Isolation is "dancey" but Shadowplay was more representative. I never liked the trio version of Ceremony; it was way overrated in 1987-2005 merely because it was not available. Why Fine Time? It's a novelty track that brings nothing to a listener, while Round & Round is omitted. Krafty? I think Waiting For The Sirens' Call is far far better. I would remove one of JD songs to have room for Confusion.

I would make my own. The technology exists.

substance

I would recommend Substance first and foremost. If they liked that then they could investigate further. The singles CD would be just as good too.

"Singles", simply because its a good comprehensive entry point.

Don't get me started on Retro.

It should have been

1 - Hits : a revamp chronologically of singles, with Temptation-98, etc. 2 - B-sides : the bsides from 1988-02 3 - Remixes : best remixes not on (The Rest Of) 4 - Live at Reading 93 & 98 5 - DVD : PFD and Academy and Montreux 1993.

Who would complain at that~? And it avoids the messy question of unreleased live material that Barney hates

For me it's also Substance and it remains the only New Order compilation I have bought, although after getting it on vinyl at the time and then realising the cassette version included all the b-sides I did feel slightly cheated...

Substance uber alles!! :)

Shame we didn't get a sequel though - so I used my initiative to compile my own collecting together 1987 to 1990 before they left Factory.

I believe I did upload the artwork to my own revised version of the CD - from 1980-1990.

And let's not overlook the fact that they could always compile the LONDON YEARS under the specially adapted title SUBSIDENCE.

1. Regret
2. Ruined In A Day
3. World (Price Of Love)
4. Spooky
5. True Faith 94
6. 1963 Arthur Baker Mix
7. Blue Monday 1995
8. Temptation 98
9. Brutal
10. Crystal
11. 60 Miles An Hour
12. Here To Stay
13. Such A Good Thing
14. Krafty
15. Jizzstream
16. Waiting For The Siren's Call
17. Turn
18. Hellbent

For me, first I'd tell the person to listen to Substance. Then, if they wanted another compilation to listen to, maybe The Best of New Order, or International.

I bought Substance in 93 after buying Republic, my first NO album. It was interesting to listen to songs like "Procession" and "In a lonely place". I had bought Substance looking for the songs from the charts like "True Faith". It was amazing to hear these other amazing songs that sounded like nothing I heard before. The mix of guitar, bass and keyboards had a real edge to the sound. I then bought all the older NO albums as well as getting into Joy Division thanks to Substance.

International and Best of New Order are also quite good.

TrueFaith1.0 wrote: I bought Substance in 93 after buying Republic, my first NO album. It was interesting to listen to songs like "Procession" and "In a lonely place". I had bought Substance looking for the songs from the charts like "True Faith". It was amazing to hear these other amazing songs that sounded like nothing I heard before. The mix of guitar, bass and keyboards had a real edge to the sound. I then bought all the older NO albums as well as getting into Joy Division thanks to Substance.

International and Best of New Order are also quite good.

wELCOME Liam

I didn't know about New Order before the advent of the Internet. I listened to Joy Division for like 5-7 years, not knowing their story didn't end with Closer and Substance.

With Substance, it's greater than the sum of its parts. It has a lot of stuff I end up steering clear of - that version of Subculture, State of the Nation, the version of BLT (I don't like it, blasphemy blah blah), half the 2nd disc) but it's a distillation of all the weird and wonderful elements of New Order 1981-87.

The other compilations feel so obviously put-together, you could easily make them yourself on iTunes, whereas Substance works almost like a proper album. The track listing tells the story of the evolving order.

I have a fondness for the Best of because it was the first NO cd I listened to. Goes completely against what I just said above, but I have good memories of listening to it in a record store for the first time.

Substance disc 1 for me - bought it on tape not long after it came out - didn't really get the alternate versions on the 2nd tape, which was just as well as that one broke pretty quickly (I guess the tape was ridiculously thin in order to fit so much on there), so for ages I only listened to that first tape - as someone else said, works perfectly as an album in it's own right and it's the only compilation I'd still listen to in its entirety...

Snorri xxx

Substance was my introduction to the band, and boy, I would love a remastered version as it sounds flat as fuck in my car.

I guess there's more chance of Hooky getting up on stage In Paris next month to perform an encore of Dreams Never End

Singles probably gives the best overview (and I liked the artwork – it was appropriate to refer back to one of the singles, and the iconic uncluttered image works well on the CD format). Maybe the compression is annoying to some fans but a newbie wouldn’t think about that too much. Substance is my favourite though.

Speaking of which, I was in Rough Trade East Records recently and they had Substance displayed at one of their Listening Posts. Remember those? It was in a thin 2cd box, rather than the usual fat one, and on the back at the bottom it had a Factory Logo, with something like: Licensed from…Factory Communications(?). What is that, an American copy or something?

By the way if anyone here isn’t familiar with the Rough Trade record shops they ain’t dodgy so I don’t think this was a bootleg. Rough Trade are now one of my fave record shops (left) in the world. They’re stocking S&G’s Swing in there too…

I voted for Singles however just listened to Substance again tonight - WOW what a greatest hits that is, awesome all the way through and what a finish - TRUE FAITH

Retro