New Order Album: “Retro [Box]”

Retro sports a nifty concept, but suffers from a combination of lousy timing and mediocre execution. New Order has a history of more than 20 years as a group (closer to 15 if one subtracts service time for the lengthy hiatus they took between 1993's Republic and 2001's Get Ready, during which time each member released albums as part of a side project), but it's one that is still growing, with the band currently in the studio recording new material. (A cynic might suggest that this material, too, shall one day appear on another box set.) One could make the claim that the box is meant as an introduction to the band for new fans, but wouldn't a one- or two-disc set serve equally well for this purpose? For that matter, wouldn't one of the other New Order compilations, such as 1987's Substance or 1994's Best of, cover most of the needed territory? (Perhaps in recognition of this, the band has also recently issued International, a career-spanning single-disc best-of that has been released in some countries.)

More disappointing to this lifelong fan is the song selection. A glance at the back cover of Retro suggests that the band has been pretty generous, with 57 tracks totaling nearly five hours of music. But then I began to scrutinize the titles, and saw that "Crystal," "Regret," and "Fine Time" appear in studio, remix, and live forms (especially bizarre in the case of the heavily-synthesized last track, which features live vocals, bass, a moment or two of guitar, and machines a-plenty - even knowing that I was at the 1989 show that it was recorded at fails to make me want to hear this "live" track again). A number of other songs, including "Ceremony," "Procession," "Blue Monday," "Confusion," "Temptation," "Everything's Gone Green," and "Bizarre Love Triangle" appear in two versions, leaving the actual song count somewhere around 40 - less than half the songs the band has released throughout their career.

The repetition is one thing, but the truly vexing aspect of this box is the dubiousness of the actual track selection. (If you're a big fan this is obvious at a glance; newbies, just be warned.)

There are some things this package gets right, especially the packaging - the booklet, though fairly short on text (oddly, the band comments on only 20 or so of Retro's songs), does showcase great photos of the band members and a few associates throughout the years, something you won't find on any of their albums save for Low-Life. And lest we forget this still is the music of New Order, nicely remastered, and in copious quantities.

New Order have a tremendous legacy, for their pioneering mixture of traditional rock instruments with electronics, for their alternating thematic continuation of and complete disavowal of their previous work as Joy Division, and the sheer volume of fabulous rock and dance songs that they've crafted. Unfortunately, Retro fails to adequately convey the band's greatness even as it lifts fifty bucks or more from the wallet.

New Order is one of the all time great bands - intellegent, original, and just downright cool. However this box set seems to have no real purpose. Only real fans will shell out the $50 bucks, but the diehards will have almost all the material already. I've been following NO/JD for over 20 years and anticipated rare unreleased tracks and new mixes. Instead most of the set is already in my (and probably everyone elses) collection. OK, the live CD is new and a couple of the mixes aren't elsewhere available, but the rest is Substance with a few of their more recent releases added on. I expected more from them.

Four discs (five, if you were lucky enough to get the bonus CD which was packed in the initial release; thankfully, I have one) spanning a career steepled in synth, slashing guitar rhythms, and haunting vocals. I came to New Order with "Substance" and this renders the previous hits collections--"Substance," "The Best of," "The Rest of," and "International" (though this last has an excellent, hard-to-find version of "The Perfect Kiss")--inferior.

The discs are separated into Miranda Sawyer's "Pop" (what the band describes as "songs your grandmother can dance to"), John McCready's "Fan" (worth a listen solely on the strength of "Lonesome Tonight" and "Sunrise," though I am not too disappointed in the severely edited "Elegia," thanks to the bonus disc), Mike Pickering's "Club" (Shep Pettibone's extended mix of "Bizarre Love Triangle" is the standout, as is "1963"), and, finally, Bobby Gillespie's "Live" which features an out of place introduction by Alan Wise (I mean, it would have been nice to get a live track from the Finsbury Park concert) and a great cut of "Everything's Gone Green" as well as a live cut of "Temptation," which is great for a repeated listen as well as a chuckle at Bernard's "oooohing" during the track.

While this leaves out some items (sorry, but I'm tossing a nod to "Get Ready's" "Rock the Shack") and has a few repeats ("Temptation," "Bizarre Love Triangle") and a couple of tracks that no one really needs again ("Blue Monday" and "World in Motion," anyone?) it is well worth buying for both casual listener and hardcore fan alike.

The live tracks and mixes aren't all that rare, and if you look hard enough you can find them elsewhere, but to have everything in one neat little package is much, much easier, and this collection is both affordable and enjoyable. It's four different mix tapes spanning a career that has only improved with age. For that evidence, just pop in the Live disc and listen to the transformation from fledgling, uncertain rockers reeling over Ian Curtis's death to a seasoned, well-established, mature, focused band that has withstood the test of time and defined a generation of pop art.

I cannot express how happy I was when I put in Disc One and went to track 2 and listened to the original version of "Temptation" on CD here for the first time! I was bummed way back when Substance came out that they had re-recorded one of my favorite songs of all time and it just wasn't as good. I waited year after year in vain for them to release the original version on CD. Here it is at last! Also, we have the original version of "Confusion" as well as the song "Cries and Whispers" both enjoying their first time on CD. I'm such a fan that these alone would compel me to fork over my [$$] but you also get a couple of songs from soundtracks ("Brutal" and "Let's Go") as well as a live disc. Sure the sound of a lot of the live disc is but a step above bootleg quality but this is only because New Order never shelled out a lot of money for a live album so we have to take what we can get. The performances are quite good and the sound is pretty much the best quality live recordings of the band I've heard. I haven't even mentioned the Club disc and the bonus disc which are both great to have as well. Non-completists may turn up their noses at this but true New Order fanatics will love this treasure trove!

Kudos to New Order for bringing this box out. It pretty much kept me occupied for the entire duration of a long road trip. Overall the third remix CD was my favorite. The 4 CD set did contain some cool mixes (e.g. the great mix of Confusion...which I only heard in the video version of the song), but some of them, such as Touched By The Hand of God was pretty much what I already heard in other New Order releases. I agree with the other review...the live CD was pretty [dull]. It sounded like it was recorded off of a tape recorder in someone's pocket. I got better quality sound from a video camcorder recording of my own band's live gig (in a dive bar...and not in a real venue!!). Overall it's a good get, but it's really for die-hard New Order fans only or for those of you who don't have Substance or the later New Order greatest hits CDs.