One of my all time favorite bands is New Order, formed from the group Joy Division after the death by suicide of their singer Ian Curtis. Lately I have pulled all the albums out of retirement to go back through their material, and I am struck by the variety of their past work. I think many people are probably unaware of some of the best material they did in the early days, so this entry is an attempt to help unearth some of the New Order goodies you might not know of.
The album most people have probably heard is Power, Corruption, and Lies, which contains their biggest hits like Everything's Gone Green and Blue Monday. No doubt, this is a great album, and a good starting point for anyone new to New Order. All the songs on that album are great, and signal a real shift from the earlier Joy Division dark sound to a more upbeat but still thoughtful place.
For my money though, I still prefer their first album, Movement. Movement is much closer to earlier Joy Division work, but the guitar hooks are catchier. Dreams Never End and Senses are my two favorite tracks on the album. The dark textures play nicely against the brighter voice of Bernard Sumner.
There are a number of tracks the group did around the time Movement was released that never made the album. Of these, 'In a Lonely Place' is by far my favorite, and has been getting quite a bit of play on the ipod lately. Like Souixsie & the Banshees album Juju, or some of the albums by the Cocteau Twins, this track bridges the gap between traditional tribal sounds, Western chant traditions, and the new sound textures of 80's synth music. If you are sitting on a beach thinking about something important, this track can take you the perfect place in your head to work it out.
To lift you up from that thoughtful place and motivate you to get something done, I would suggest 'Mesh', a really fun synth disco number. Both Mesh and In a Lonely Place are on the second disc of the New Order complilation album Substance.
Great stuff from one of the greatest bands of the Post Punk era.
