A good collection of New Order songs (Substance - New Order)

Member Name: gorvifal3

Product:	Substance - New Order
Date:	29/10/05 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great dance tunes

Disadvantages: None

Substance is a compilation of songs from the band New Order taken between 1980 and 1987.

If you are not familiar with New Order, they were formed from the band Joy Division after the lead singer Ian Curtis took his own life. The members of the band include Bernard Sumner (Vocals, Guitar), Peter Hook (Bass Guitar), Steven Morris (Drums) and the Gillian Gilbert (Keyboard, Synthesizers). In my opinion it is very difficult to put New Order into a box and classify them by the music they play. New Order seems to be able to produce a variety of different types of music, some is very dance based, whereas some is more indie guitar based music. I personally think New Order were pioneers in developing dance music during the 1980’s and setting the scene for future dance music. Substance contains dance remixes of some of New Orders original songs.

The compilation comes on two separate CD’s each with 12 tracks. There is not much to the cover design for this compilation; it is just black text on a white background, with some artistic prints on the leaflets inside.

The compilation does not include all New Orders work between 1980 and 1987, just some selected songs. Four albums came before this compilation, “Movement”, “Power, Corruption and Lies”, “Low Life” and Brotherhood.

I can’t really pick out the best tracks from the first CD, as in my opinion most of them are good. If push comes to shove I would say my favourite tracks on CD 1 are Everything’s Gone Green (a dance based instrumental), Temptation (a romantic song, featured in the film Trainspotting), Blue Monday (probably New Order’s most famous song), Perfect Kiss (probably my favourite – a lot of synth on this track) and True Faith. You can only find songs like Everything’s Gone Green and Temptation on this compilation and no other album. However, The Perfect Kiss can be found on the album “Low Life”, on this compilation the track has been remixed and for the better in my opinion. There is a remix of the song Subculture (another dance tune) also from “Low Life”, in my view this remix is not that good. As far as I know the version of True Faith (1987) is one of the earliest and I think one of the best. I think I prefer the 1987 version of True Faith rather than later versions because you can hear the raw synthesizer in the background. Later versions of True Faith just sound to polished to me.

The second CD contains lesser-known songs and also some remixes of songs from the first CD. The best tracks on the second CD include Mesh (I think this is a song about the Falklands war, I am not sure, a drum machine is used giving a machine gun effect), Hurt (similar to Everything’s Gone Green but with more vocals) and Murder (a guitar based instrumental, in my opinion the hidden gem on CD2). There is also an instrumental remix of the Perfect Kiss called Kiss of Death.

Many of the songs on Substance are now over 20 years old and in my view they still sound good. Some people might still consider a lot of the music different and cutting edge in 2005 (especially some of the tracks on CD2).

If you have never listened to New Order before I think that Substance is a good collection to start with. An alternative would be “The Best of New Order”, but I think Substance is more interesting and you would be more likely to buy more of their albums.

If you decide to buy Substance after reading this I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading!

Summary: Not an album but a compilation of New Order's work up to the year of 1987