New Order ‘Substance’ Reissue Disappoints
Great music subjected to yet another pathetic remaster
The past few decades have brought an array of New Order compilation albums, yet 1987’s Substance, the original New Order singles compilation, still reigns supreme. In a time when “greatest hits” releases are mostly obsolete, there are several reasons for this. One is that New Order were (are?) primarily a singles band who released their best work as five- to eight-minute 12” singles. Older fans’ nostalgia for Substance is also a factor, but most importantly, Substance very conveniently cuts off right before New Order turned to shit. Later compilations include too much mid-career mediocrity; Substance itself was the band’s commercial height, just before their critical decline.
Formed after singer Ian Curtis’ death by the remaining members of Joy Division, New Order’s ‘80s discography documents a post-punk band becoming obsessed with synthesizers and expanding their musical worldview well beyond Manchester. They were a serious rock band and a dance group, whereas before, you had to be one or the other. This helped them become the first “indie” band to achieve worldwide stardom, with their label Factory Records proving that catastrophic bankruptcy was just another part of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle.
For most bands, compilations are sacrilege, a cheat code invented by record label money men for casual listeners too lazy and impatient to find the highlights themselves. However, New Order is an exception. Their 80s albums are decent, though their early singles discography is among the most unassailable in pop history… if you could find it all back then.
Before Substance, you had to track down New Order’s 7” or (ideally) 12” singles to hear everything. This was possible albeit expensive in the UK, but a lot harder in the US until Quincy Jones’ Warner subsidiary Qwest licensed New Order in the States. Even then, Qwest only picked them up in the mid-80s and didn’t really bother to reissue the first handful of 12”’s. Plus, consumers had moved on to cassettes and CDs, the latter still in its expensive, clunky infancy. CD singles didn’t exist yet, and CD albums were so expensive and only worth it when stuffed to the brim (then 74 minutes).
Substance conveniently solved these issues. According to bassist Peter Hook (whose 700-page memoir Substance: Inside New Order is an informative, fascinating, and hilarious read), Factory founder Tony Wilson wanted to have all of New Order’s single A-sides on a CD for his fancy new car. In the pre-CD-R era, it had to be made commercially. Factory also had other issues to solve: even as New Order’s profile skyrocketed, the label was behind on royalty payments for the band’s existing catalog. Both sides struck a deal to split Substance’s profits 75-25 in Factory’s favor. Great idea, until its sales eclipsed the rest of New Order’s discography.
On the double LP release, Substance presents New Order’s first twelve single A-sides in chronological order, with some caveats. Their debut single “Ceremony” is the later version with drummer Stephen Morris’ girlfriend (later wife) Gillian Gilbert added to the band on keyboards ad second guitar; 1982’s “Temptation” and 1983’s “Confusion” are 1987 re-recordings specifically for this compilation; and 1985’s “Sub-Culture” and 1986’s “Shellshock” are edited from the extended 12” mixes. The original 2CD configuration also edited the 12” mix of “The Perfect Kiss,” and used the second CD for many of the relevant B-sides.
While the re-recorded “Ceremony” (September 1981) doesn’t begin to touch the March 1981 original’s emotional power and sonic rawness, it works as a neat transition point between Joy Division and New Order, considering it’s among the last songs Ian Curtis wrote and the first that New Order recorded. Even when Bernard Sumner (Joy Division guitarist promoted to New Order frontman/chief egomaniac) sings it, Curtis’ resignation cuts through; the original is one of the post-punk era’s most devastating songs, while the later version included here comes across as a new beginning that acknowledges the past.
Martin Hannett, mastermind behind Joy Division’s otherworldly sound, produced both versions of “Ceremony” as well as New Order’s 1981 debut LP Movement (the original UK Factory pressing cut at Townhouse is the copy to have). As Hannett’s drug use and temperament escalated, however, the band dumped him and began self-producing, moving further towards the electronic sound hinted at on Joy Division’s Closer. Thus, “Everything’s Gone Green” (kind of but not really New Order’s second single) focuses on sequenced synth lines, distant drums, and flashes of funkier rhythm guitar as Sumner sings into the abyss, finally sounding a bit less like Ian Curtis.
Now for a time jump: by New Order’s mid-late ‘80s peak, Sumner—according to Hook, at least—became a total control freak who would constantly whine and make everyone miserable until he got his way. Case in point: when Factory compiled Substance, Sumner insisted on re-recording “Temptation” and “Confusion.” The former was perfect to begin with, the original 12” perfectly juxtaposing Sumner’s vocal strain and the melancholic lyrics and melody with the upbeat yet cavernous instrumental. The 1987 version is sonically cleaner and more buoyant, but the arrangement is the same; for better or worse, the re-recording became the canonical version that appears on most New Order compilations as well as the Trainspotting soundtrack. (You can’t go wrong with either version, but still seek out the 12”.) “Confusion,” produced by Arthur Baker on both the 1983 and 1987 versions, went from a plodding New York electro track to a shinier production very reminiscent of Kraftwerk’s overly-maligned Electric Cafe. Save for a key change, the arrangement is mostly identical.
Back to 1983 and “Blue Monday,” the club-ready sleeper hit released between “Temptation” and “Confusion.” It’s New Order’s breakthrough moment and the best-selling 12” single of all time, despite its Peter Saville-designed die-cut sleeve losing money on every copy sold. No need to write much about this song that everyone’s heard a million times (and will hear another million times), except to say that Hook’s memoir has an interesting anecdote about a drum programming disaster.
“Thieves Like Us” concludes the first LP of Substance, representing the end of New Order’s pos-punk sound; after this, real drums appeared less often, the gloomy atmospheres mostly disappeared in favor of danceable beats and sequenced synths, and Hook’s signature bass sound became less prominent. The next studio LP, 1985’s Low-Life, finalized the transition.
Like many British groups of and before their time, New Order didn’t want to rip off their fans by releasing album tracks as singles. That’s the reason why Substance features nothing from Movement or the band’s 1983 sophomore LP Power, Corruption & Lies, and why the early singles discography bears no direct connection to the albums. Low-Life changed that, perhaps due to increasing demand for extended 12” remixes of these tracks (or maybe they knew the creative well was already starting to dry up). The 12” mixes of album tracks “The Perfect Kiss” and “Sub-Culture” are the versions to have; not only do they better represent the time period, but the sprawl allows the songs more space to groove and build up. John Robie’s “Sub-Culture” remix is especially noteworthy, embellishing the song so much that the album version sounds unfinished. Robie still made some obvious, dated mistakes, such as the gimmicky drum breaks and his laughably excessive use of that screeching effect.
The less said about the obnoxious “Shellshock” (commissioned for the Pretty In Pink soundtrack) and the boring “State Of The Nation,” the better. These are two back-to-back clunkers in an otherwise near-perfect singles run. Thankfully, Substance ends strong with Shep Pettibone’s superior 12” mix of Brotherhood single “Bizarre Love Triangle” and the Substance-adjacent single release “True Faith.”
Those last two songs represent New Order at their absolute height, when their sound had fully developed whilst maintaining their commercial success. In a way, New Order was one of the first acts whose cult following—one with an air of exclusive cool—effectively translated into significant, sustained commercial success. This was a band who, for about six glorious years, overcame shortcomings both musical (mediocre lyrics, Sumner’s awkward singing) and nonmusical (financial woes, increasing intraband tension) to create some of the catchiest, most captivating synthpop classics of all time. Substance perfectly documents not just one band, but the culture and mentality of an era; a time of rapid technological development, when strict categorization began to disintegrate and when clubbing appeared as a free escape from everyday misery.
And like anything else that defines an era, it didn’t last. After 1989’s Technique, not even New Order could take enough ecstasy to keep up with the acid house kids, and creatively, Bernard Sumner got too stuck in his ways. Bassist Peter Hook acrimoniously departed in 2007, and the current Sumner dictatorship is little but a recognizable name performing the hits. In recent performance clips, the rest of the band seems miserable as Sumner projects obvious negative energy the entire time, in addition to sounding even more like a cartoon character doing bad karaoke. For this reason, I argue it’s fair to indulge in the revisionist history that New Order ended at least 30 years ago, because have they done anything meaningful since then? Not really.
…About The Reissue
From a technological perspective, New Order’s ‘80s progression is interesting to follow; you can hear everything get more digital as it goes on. Early cuts like “Ceremony” were almost certainly all-analog, though “Blue Monday”’s master was a U-matic 1630 tape and “True Faith” was tracked on PCM-3324 DASH. Though not explicitly stated, Hook’s memoir implies that the “Temptation” and “Confusion” re-recordings were also digitally tracked—at least, they sound as such. Even the mid-80s analog recordings for Low-Life are sort of a hybrid since New Order adopted digital synths and drum machines as soon as they could afford them.
Idiotically out of print on vinyl since its original 1987 release, Warner finally wisened up and orchestrated a big reissue campaign last November. There’s a 2LP set replicating the original UK packaging specs, a 2CD set with B-sides on the second disc (just like the original CD); a 4CD deluxe set with more B-sides and an Irving Meadows, California live show where they played through the entire Substance record, and a double cassette much like the 2CD. Like the other New Order and Joy Division reissues, Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road mastered all formats of the set.
Unfortunately, this Substance remaster is a mixed bag. Arkwright, possibly guided by New Order or their management, took a very aggressive mastering approach. The entire compilation now uniformly has an exaggerated smiley-face EQ and liberal amounts of compression, including digital peak limiting. I’ve not heard the original UK pressing, cut DMM at Townhouse through a digital delay line, but this reissue sounds nothing like the original US Qwest pressing cut DMM at Precision Mastering. The original emphasizes the high mids, while the reissue really jacks up the bass and top end. Some songs sound better, most sound worse. The additional bass helps “Thieves Like Us,” but the sub-bass bursts on “Blue Monday” almost sound like a defect here, and guitar-driven tracks like “Ceremony” are seriously grating. The digital peak limiting—mild for today’s standards, but aggressive for older music—solidifies left-to-right image width (“Bizarre Love Triangle”) but noticeably compromises image depth (“The Perfect Kiss”).
Generally, I find Arkwright’s vinyl remaster fatiguing and annoying, but not quite as bad as the digital/CD releases which probably used the same exact master. Still, I can hear that Arkwright cut lacquers from the peak-limited digital master, because every drum hit is audibly maxing out. I’m not a dynamic range snob, but this especially pisses me off with reissues. Older fans have fond memories of how the originals sounded, and “the kids” listening to the remaster know it’s an older record anyway, so no need to “modernize” it and pretend otherwise! Every time, it results in an inferior product.
I won’t go through each song, but “Ceremony” on the original Qwest Substance absolutely kills the reissue. The reissue’s kick drum is stronger but it has much more authority on the original, and Arkwright’s treble boost makes the guitars sound terribly harsh. Sumner’s vocals are often pulled forward to a fault, like on “True Faith” which sounds really stuffy compared to the original. The slightly darker EQ on “Temptation” is fine, except there’s too much compression and Stephen Morris’ kick drum is so present it’s borderline obnoxious.
Original UK and US vinyl pressings of Substance are rather expensive now, but you’d probably be better off with the original CD (less-than-stellar A/D conversion, but decent EQ and great dynamics) than the new vinyl reissue. Anyone saying that this reissue sounds "dynamic" or "expansive" or "better than ever" is going deaf. That said, Optimal’s 180g black vinyl pressing is pleasingly quiet, the inner sleeves are thicker and look better than the American original, and they at least spent the money to emboss and spot-varnish the type on the front cover.
I didn’t get the 4CD set nor stream the B-side remasters, but skimming through the Irvine Meadows live recording on Apple Music (CD resolution) conjured some second-hand embarrassment. It’s taken from the shittiest soundboard cassette imaginable, and anyone with common sense would say it’s unlistenable. The hi-hat and cymbals distort and cut in and out, while synth effects occasionally drown everything else. Hook’s memoir says that before the show, Sumner announced that he wanted to work with “other people,” thus casting his cloud of irritable grumpiness over yet another would-be-glorious New Order show. The performance itself is fine, but with sound quality that would embarrass most bootleggers, why even bother releasing it?
