New Order In Flux
Founding members step away as expanded ‘Best Of’ emerges
In late June, it was announced that founding New Order members Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris will be stepping away from touring with the English dance-pop icons “for the foreseeable future.”
“Due to personal health reasons, Stephen and Gillian won’t be touring for the foreseeable future and will not be joining for this show,” a statement preceding the band’s gig at Primavera Sound Festival in Chile this coming November. “Bernard, Phil and Tom are really sorry that Stephen and Gillian can’t join us this time, but unfortunately the circumstances make it impossible.”
Frontman Bernard Sumner will carry on as New Order with longtime auxiliary members Phil Cunningham (guitar) and Tom Chapman (bass), with former member Peter Hook quipping that Sumner might as well call it a solo tour.
As for the band playing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony to honor New Order and Joy Division receiving dual entry into its ranks, it remains unclear whether or not Gilbert and Morris will attend in November.
In spite of all this flux, however, coming out this Friday is a richly expanded edition of the group’s celebrated 1994 collection (the best of) New Order, which alongside the Joy Division Permanent compilation that was released the following year, offered the ultimate primers for young fans learning about both groups from the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Hole and Nine Inch Nails (though Olivia Rodrigo recently stated to Anthony Fantano she preferred New Order to Joy Division to the delight of hip parents everywhere, I am sure).
“New Order are in a very devious way, a completely uncomplicated group,” wrote longtime group associate Paul Morley in his liner notes for the original collection. “This carefully selected commercial compilation of 16 such single minded grouped and seductive songs of love, longing, life and belongings surely sums up the heartpounding pop life of this devious, uncomplicated pop group, uncertainly the most seductive of English groups, certainly the most surprising.
The original 16-track collection is a perfect encapsulation of the group’s then-15 year career at the time, punctuated by the appearances of such enduring songs as “Regret,” “Fine Time,” “The Perfect Kiss,” “Shell Shock,” “Touched by the Hand of God” and more. Making the set all the more valuable to longtime fans was the “94” versions of hits like “True Faith,” “Bizarre Love Triangle,” “1963” and “Round & Round,” along with a 1988 version of “Blue Monday” that might be the best one out there to this day.
This deluxe edition of (the best of) New Order has been amended with a three-disc set dubbed (the rest of) New Order (originally released in truncated form in 1995) that includes a comprehensive stash of the wildly varied dance remixes the band has enjoyed during the their first decade-and-a-half run together in the wake of Joy Division’s dissolution following the passing of frontman Ian Curtis. And listening to their music through the lens of such guest producers as Armand Van Helden (“Bizarre Love Triangle”), Arthur Baker (“1963”), Shep Pettibone (“Bizarre”), Richie Hawtin (“Blue Monday”), Paul Oakenfold (“True Faith”) and Andrew Weatherall (“Regret”) showcases why New Order remains an evergreen club favorite all over the globe.
“(The best of) New Order songs sound like they might just about be influenced by Love, Kraftwerk, Moby Dick and Cluster, but truly they belong to no tradition but their own,” wrote Morley back in October 1994. “And how these songs make me feel, what they do to me, the result of their mythical attention to detail and their troubling human touch, is directly suggested in the first line of the first song on this magical collection … ‘I feel so extraordinary.’”
So while we may not get the reunion of the original fab four any time soon, (the best and the rest of) New Order is the quintessential vehicle for them to justify their case for cruising into Rock Hall immortality. Look for it in stores on July 17.
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