New Order
Best of New Order (1995)

review by: Chris Orcutt
Date: 12/9/01

There has never been anything quite like New Order. My first exposure to them was as a DJ at my college radio station where one of their records was in rotation, and I was like, "What is this dance crap? This ain't rock & roll!" and then I'd put on the Replacements or something. But going back now and listening to their music makes me realize that if you like rock & roll, you'll probably like New Order.

And this is a great album, better than "Substance," an earlier 2-record set of mostly extended remixes. It shows how the band invented electronic dance music while never losing any of the emotional impact of a real band of musicians. "Age of Consent" is a great example: it's got a serious dance beat and synthesizers underneath everything, but it hits me as a really sad song about love and loss. I mean the first line is, "Won't you please let me go. . . " When is the last time you heard a sad dance song? But somehow the beat fits the lyrics and the mood of the song. And the playing is phenomenal; the bass player was easily one of the most inventive and melodic players ever. The same thing goes for "True Faith," "Round & Round," and "Blue Monday." They're these super dance songs with lots of programming over emotionally tense lyrics (How does it feel/to treat me like you do?), but most of all they're really, really well thought out and played by the musicians, including lots of great guitar work. Bernard Sumner is not a born singer, and it suits the music perfectly. On "Love Vigilantes" he kind of gravitates towards notes instead of hitting them right on and it suits the song - a harrowing story about war's end and its effect on a couple - just right; he's singing as someone who's an emotional wreck, and he nails it. There's other great stuff here: "Bizarre Love Triangle," "Regret," and "Dreams Never End" are standouts, though everything is worth a listen.

I think New Order got a bad rap because they were blamed for all the garbage that came in their wake, which was a bunch of talentless haircuts who thought all you needed was a keyboard and a drum machine to make music. All that stuff from the 80s and the bad electronic pop music that continues today shows how talented and precise these guys were and how perfectly they could create a song. It's pretty close to genius.