New Order Singles

Rising from the ashes of the legendary British post-punk unit Joy Division, the enigmatic New Order triumphed over tragedy to emerge as one of the most influential and acclaimed bands of the 1980s; embracing the electronic textures and disco rhythms of the underground club culture many years in advance of its contemporaries, the group's pioneering fusion of new wave aesthetics and dance music successfully bridged the gap between the two worlds, creating a distinctively thoughtful and oblique brand of synth pop appealing equally to the mind, body, and soul.

Finsbury Park, 9th June 02 With music that celebrates the thrill of the moment and played a pivotal role in the emergence of electronica and techno, New Order established themselves as one of the great bands of the '80s and '90s. Here they're seen in their Finsbury Park concert from June 2002, playing many of their now-classic songs and their 'comeback single', 'Crystal'. A documentary made during the setup and sound check takes the viewer backstage and close-up. Like the companion volume 316, 511 offers one of those rare opportunities to see this enigmatic band on camera talking about their music and their future.

New Order's first compilation album, Substance (1987), finally broke the group through to commercial success in the U.S. Its second one, The Best of New Order, isn't exactly Substance II. The previous set was a singles collection, and Best Of does pick up that story, including a series of songs - "True Faith" (in a new remix), "Touched by the Hand of God," "Blue Monday 88," "Fine Time," "Round & Round" (in a new remix), "Run," and "World in Motion" - that were bigger hits in the U.K. than in the U.S. (Also included is the group's biggest U.S. hit, "Regret" as well as its charting follow-up, "World [The Price of Love].") But in addition, the compilers have included one song each from the group's albums - "Dreams Never End" from Movement, "Age of Consent" from Power, Corruption & Lies, "Love Vigilantes" from Low-Life, "Vanishing Point" from Technique, and "Ruined in a Day" from Republic…

Tastes and sounds were changing quickly in the late '80s, which prompted New Order's most startling transformation yet – from moody dance-rockers to, well, moody acid-house mavens…

New Order scored a hit all over again in the spring of 1988 with a remix of its 1983 song "Blue Monday," which became a U.K. Top Ten hit for the second time and made the U.S. singles chart, helping sales of the compilation Substance, which went on to become New Order's first gold and platinum success in America. "Production supervisor on remix" was Quincy Jones, the head of New Order's U.S. label, Qwest. This maxi-single contained both the remix and a dub version, along witb remix and dub versions of New Order's 1987 U.K. single "Touched by the Hand of God," for a running time of nearly 28 minutes.