New Order – (The Rest Of) New Order (3xLP)

New Order’s The Rest Of New Order began life in 1995 as the remix companion to The Best Of New Order, arriving at a moment when the band’s meeting point between indie songwriting and club culture made perfect sense. Rather than a loose add-on, it works as a mid-90s snapshot of remix culture, recasting key songs through house, techno and alternative dance while keeping New Order’s melodic core intact. The original release followed a Top 5 UK run for The Best Of, and this set’s acid-charged Hardfloor version of “Blue Monday” became its calling card.

The strength here is the range of dance-music voices invited into New Order’s world. Perfecto, Shep Pettibone, Armand Van Helden, K-Klass, Howie B., Dave Clarke and CJ Bolland each push the material in different directions, from sleek club extension to tougher, more electronic rebuilds. Tracks such as “True Faith,” “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “Temptation” show how naturally Bernard Sumner’s melodies, Peter Hook’s bass sense and the band’s bittersweet atmosphere could survive translation to the dancefloor.

This expanded 3LP edition is useful because it finally gathers all 12 tracks from the original CD and vinyl versions in one place for the first time, with remastered audio cut at Abbey Road. For anyone curious about how New Order’s catalogue lived beyond the album format, The Rest Of New Order is less a footnote than a sharp document of how fully their songs belonged to 90s club culture as well as post-punk history.

Genre: Pop & Rock