Expanded Singles - Part II - New Order & Vince Clarke

I should have known when this single came out that the New Order I knew and loved was gone.  I got this as a cassette single the summer that it came out.  A friend and I had driven back to Chicago after graduation and spent a week running around the city.  We went to Wax Trax Records on the north side of town, and this was the only item I could find that piqued my interest.  (Hell, you'd think Wax Trax would be a goldmine.  Trust me, it wasn't.)  At first listen, I was taken aback.  What was this?  Mind you, this was also pre-Electronic, but maybe not pre-Revenge.  I listened to it a couple times and got used to it, and even thought that I liked it for a long time.  But, as time went by I realized more and more that New Order's final good album/single had been released with Technique.  It's more evident now than ever.  Sad but true.

"Such A Good Thing" was added in 1999 to the re-release of the single.  Whether or not it was from the same time period or not, it became part of this single in 1999.  If you don't like it in this set, then move it where you want it....

Do you like what I did, there, with the cover?  I was wondering what I was going to do for it, and thought it was ingenious when I flipped the cover over to the Assembly single.  Perfect.  I wonder if Vince had it designed like that on purpose?

I know that Vince did not do these on his own, but you have to know that both singles on this one single had to be his idea for the most part if not in whole.  I might be wrong.  But, if you have Vince's DM stuff, his Yaz stuff and his Erasure stuff, what do you do with his two random singles?  You do what I did here.

I like all of the songs here, as long as they are the short single versions.  Sharkey's vocals get very annoying on the long version, and the other long versions are simply repetitive more than anything.  But, Vince Clarke is Vince Clarke and you can't deny it's good.  I even threw in the extra unreleased instrumental from the same time period, just to flesh it out into a stronger EP.

New Order - World In Motion - 1990 & 1999

Vince Clarke - Never Never & One Day - 1983 & 1985

New Order - Live in California - 1989

Tonight's first show comes from California in 1989.  Shortly after the release of Technique (NO's best album), this would have been the tour to see.  At the time, the closest city that they came to from me would have been more than 600 miles.  Being a teen, I had no way to make that trek.

The recording is a soundboard recording, but is spotty in a couple of places.  Barney's voice misses it a couple times, but he holds it together rather well.  You can tell during the show that there are obvious strains on the relationships within the band, as both Barney and Hooky try to be frontman.  There's a constant one-up-manship going on, it seems, and sometimes repeating of what the other has said.  To be honest, I really think that Hooky needed to step back.  He's a good musician, but Barney will always be the "voice" of New Order in my book.

This was NO's last great tour, before they split into their sub-groups.  Every other tour after this one pales in comparison.  They were never the same again, in my eyes...

New Order - Live in California - 1989

 

Untitled - A Compilation

This is the track listing from the very first time I sat down to make a real mixtape.  I was probably 18 or 19, and had dabbled with taping my favorite songs off of the radio or other tapes.  But those other tapes were cobbled together with no rhyme or reason, just a hodge podge of miscellaneous tracks that I had put onto tape so I could listen to them in my Walkman when I was out.  I mean, you can't very well take a record player out with you.

At the time I made this tape, you can look at the track listing and see that a lot of fantastic material had been released pretty much all at once.  I had my favorite tracks from every album release by these artists, and I wanted to listen to them all, without having to haul 10-12 tapes/CDs around with me, trading them out as each track ended.  So, I pulled my favorites, and sat listening to them, then arranging them in a way that sounded good.  Back then, you didn't have any music on your computer (if you even had a computer), so it wasn't like you could load the tracks in your WinAmp and hit shuffle.  No, this was a very careful and deliberate process that took a while for me to come up with the right arrangement.

I made the tape, though, and used it in my car, listened to it while I mowed the yard, and played it when I went to friends' houses.  It was pretty good.

I've rearranged some of the tracks as years have gone by - only added the Ian McCulloch about 1998 and traded the Cocteau Twins track from Heaven Or Las Vegas to Dials (and then plugged it on the end of the mix).  But, as for the rest, this is the same setup I made back in 1990-91.  And, I still listen to it about every other month or so, to this day.  To me, this comp represents the best these groups had to offer, at the peak of their popularity.  Every song is quintessential to what these groups/artists are.  They are all lush, romantic, and full of emotion.  They are perfectly written, and perfectly performed.

To this day, I still don't have a name for this collection.  It's still, to this very moment, Untitled.  But, to me, that might be the best way of describing it, too.

Untitled

Electronic - Raise the Pressure - Disc II - 1996

When Electronic first released Raise the Pressure, I will admit I was a little disappointed.  After their stellar "debut" in 1991, this one lacked the creativity, diversity and spontaneity the first one had.  It came out at the same time as PSB's Bilingual release, and after Very, I felt the same about that one as well.  I don't know if it was the time period that they came out, or if they had grown tired, or if I was even expecting too much. These two released lacked the fire of their predecessors had.

As with Bilingual, I listened to this one repeatedly.  They both were still in constant rotation at home and in the car.  And, over time, I learned to love them and hear the creative nuances and finesse that only these two groups could bring.  Electronic's album really hit home with me, not in the singles, but in the album tracks and b-sides.  That was where you could really hear the expertise that both Sumner and Marr had.  The magic that the two of them shared was like no other.  Honestly, though, I would have preferred a little more on Johnny's guitar, but that's beside the point.  And, as for Bernard, his singing was exceptional, as always.

There were too many b-sides and non-album tracks to make one disc with them and the album, and a second disc with just the remixes.  So, here you have DISC 2.  Load this puppy right behind the album, and you'll be set.  I also wanted to try and use the For You single sleeve as the cover of this one, but none of the pics I had of them were clear enough, and if I tried to fix it, you could totally tell and it looked stupid.  Still, eventually, I would like to make a font of that typeface on the cover (unless someone out there already has it and would like to share with me) because it's fabulous, and I can think of a dozen projects I'd like to use it on.

Tomorrow is the first day of Compilation Week, we'll see you then...

Electronic - Raise the Pressure - Disc II - 1996

New Order - Power Corruption & Lies - 1983

I know I just posted New Order a couple days ago, but I felt compelled to post this one, now.  Don't know why, I just had to.  Obsessive Compulsive.

To me, this was New Order as professional, mature artists.  I thought this, having only started listening to NO with Substance, and reflecting back on the material they had already released.  I thought it was very well written, tame and un-risky.  Little did I know.  Now, looking back, I still see this album as an artistic example of professionalism and maturity, but I also see this album setting a gold standard for bands before and after to be measured by.  Every track is a classic Post Punk song.

Surprisingly, this is not my favorite NO album, though.  I still see Technique as their BEST album.  But, this one comes in...  I think third?  Not bad, considering.

I did what was right and had to be done by squeezing Confusion, Thieves Like Us and Lonesome Tonight on here, as it's almost a requirement.  This is where those songs belong.  Maybe, one day, I'll make a remix disc for this one.

One reason why I am not a huge fan of this album centers on Blue Monday.  YES, I respect the fact that most Techno, House and Electronica are influenced by it.  Yes, it was the #1 selling 12-single for many years.  Yes, it is a great song.  BUT, it is by far the most overplayed and worn out New Order song in existance (followed closely by Bizarre Love Triangle.)  I have heard Blue Monday played SO MANY times, I would choke someone if I hear it again.

New Order - Power Corruption & Lies - 1983

New Order - Movement - Live in Milan - 1982

I found this cover on Deviantart and I knew I had to use it.  It's a beautiful design and seems to match the time period of the album it was made for, despite the fact that the design is all wrong for the work they were using on the covers at the time.  It's wrong, but it fits...

This is probably my favorite NO concert from that year/tour/album, whatever.  It's raw, and unaltered and flawed.  But, it's a great soundboard recording, with only a hint of audience in the back.  I'm pretty sure that Hooky is singing, but it's hard to tell.  Best track on it is Procession.  What I wouldn't give to slip back in time and see a show like this...

That's it, though.  Just a simple live recording, that you can turn on at 2am and surf the web to.  It will drill into your head and mesmerize and focus you at the same time.  Before you know it, you'll have listened to it twice.  Make sure to take your anti-depressants before you do, though.  You're gonna need em.

New Order - Movement - Live in Milan - 1982

New Order - Technique - the Definitive Edition - 1989

And now, the first of four posts leading into this weekend when I will be out of town.  Over the next four days, I will give you some primo albums for your permanent library.  No true Post Punk fan would be without them!!!

I consider this album, along with Cure's Disintegration, to be the last two great Post Punk albums of the 80s.  Probably the last two great Post Punk albums, PERIOD.

For some reason, I was fully aware of when Technique was going to come out.  I remember getting the cassette at the record store after school the day it came out.  I had a friend named Ed, and he and I drove around in sub-zero January temperatures in my car listening to this one.  From the very first note, I knew it was a classic.  This album represented the final half of my junior year in High School, and it also was the first major album release for me after my move from Chicago to the Midwest.

I've heard a lot of discussion of how the first half of the album is traditional Post Punk, and then how the second half drifts into proto-House music, and I can get that.  I do prefer the first half, as it's sound was more of a soul-caress for me, while the second half was more dancey and not really the mood I preferred at the time.  Saying that, I still consider the entire album to be a masterpiece beyond compare.  With the single remixes added, it even makes the second half more cohesive with the overall picture.

I liked the b-sides with the exception of Best In Marsh, which I just don't get.  That one track stands out like a greasy turd amongst the rest of the songs.  It was a pure throwaway phone-it-in track, but I still included it.  I'm pretty sure I got all of the mixes on here, might have missed one or two, but I don't think so.  I even got the wonderful Chronovisor mix of Run 2 on there as well.  What a great mix!

Most of you probably have all of these already, and that's fine.  But, now you have some nifty new covers and a awesome arrangement to boot.  For those who don't have this, what the hell are you thinking?!

New Order - Technique - 1989 - Disc 1

New Order - Technique - 1989 - Disc 2 

Monaco - Music For Pleasure - 1997

It was a cold and blistery winter night when I first heard WDYWFM? play on my radio in the car.  I had just gotten off work and it was 11 or 12 at night, and the temperature was about 4 degrees.  I huddled in my driver's seat waiting for the car to warm, and looking out at 12 inches of plowed snow and ice in the parking lot in front of me.  The sky was jet black, and 3 or 4 light poles were lighting the empty lot full of lines and tracks created by the snow plows.  I had the radio on, and they announced Monaco, and the title, and it started playing.  At the time, the internet was still in it's infancy, and I had no idea who Monaco was.  But, they sounded just like NO, and this guy singing, sounded a hell of a lot like Barney.

I consider Monaco a classic for Hook.  Revenge was good, but it was rough and hard, and raw.  Monaco had a more classic refined sound that seemed to me to be a mature NO.  It blended the sound of Britrock of that time with the best of what NO was.  It abandoned the crap that was Republic and returned them to Technique, while pulling it forward to the modern sound of 1997.  This was no rehash, it was new and it was fantastic.  THIS album should have been Republic.  Republic was just a tired Electronic album that needed Neil Tennant singing instead of Sumner.

The follow up to this album didn't come out for another three years or so, and it wasn't anything spectacular, but it was good.  If Monaco had continued, I feel I would have a greater respect for Hook now.  I don't care for what he's doing with the Light, Monaco was the route he should have followed.

I was tempted to use the naked guy for the cover, but settled on this, it looks pretty good.  I've got all the b-sides and non-album tracks, and I think I have all of the mixes, but I'm not sure.  It is a great companion to Music For Pleasure, and a sound of Hooky I will never forget.

Monaco - Music For Pleasure - 1997

Bad Lieutenant - Never Cry Another Tear - 2014

I always get a funny feeling in my heart whenever I see my heroes age.  I know that the glories that they once had are a thing of the past, and they are slowly sliding down that hill to eventual retirement.  As I watch DM, Erasure, Cure, PSB and New Order get older, and I feel myself creak and groan and hold my hip and rub the back of my neck, I know that I'm getting older too.

I watch Youtube and the TV and I see these young punks up there jumping around and holding their microphones upside down acting like they're the shit, and I laugh mockingly to myself.  Look at them, they don't know what it means to be cool.  But, I catch myself and I realize that I'm probably thinking the same way my Dad did when I was jamming out to New Order and the like.  HE grew up with the Beatles and the Stones and the Doors.  Now THOSE guys were cool, he probably thought.  And they were, for their time, just as New Order and DM were cool for their time.

Not that they aren't cool.  I still think they're cool.  They really are.  And the music they write is still great, too.  They are Elder Statesmen of the Post Punk genre and era.  But, the youth of today will never understand.  They won't understand what it was like to live in the 80s, see Reagan and Thatcher on TV, watch the astronaut plant the MTV flag on the moon, wear fluorescent laces in their Chuck Taylor high tops and be considered cool, shave lines in their sideburns, and fall in love with an 80s girl with the sprayed wall of hair that stood up 6 inches off her forehead. 

I still watch the Young Ones on DVD and get a kick out of Vivian and Rik.  I still pull out my Dark Knight Returns and V For Vendetta issues and reread them.  I still wear my Chuck Taylors and my checkerboard Vans. And I still, and always will listen to New Order.

Bad Lieutenant has already put this album out, but I didn't like the cover.  I changed that up, and added Barney's AOL acoustic session, to capture all the music he was releasing at that time.  Although he is aging on the outside, his voice and his lyric are timeless and crystal.  He has a way with constructing his music that is uniquely his own, and no one will ever be able to duplicate it.  They may get close to sounding like him, but they will never be the same.

This album isn't a great album, but it is well worth the listen and a must for completists, for those longing to hear something new from Barney and crew.  And, it's way better than PH and the Light.

But, it harkens back to Jack Black's (and Neil Young's) infamous line from High Fidelity...  Is it better to burn out than fade away?  When it comes to NO, I say let them fade away, as long as they're giving me something new to listen to that will make me feel like a kid again.

Thanks, Barney!  I love your work!!!!

Bad Lieutenant - Never Cry Another Tear - 2014

Joy Division - Warsaw - 1977-78-80

Short post tonight, as I don't have anything special to say about this fantastic album.  All I can say, is that I didn't add any extra tracks and I simply updated the cover.  Why?  Because the original cover is a DUMB.ASS.COVER.  It wasn't befitting of the release.  Mine is.

So, if you want the album, great!  I have it right down below, here.  But, this post is all about the cover.

So have at ya....

Joy Division - Warsaw - 1977-78-80

New Order - Movement - 1981

I didn't purchase this album until my senior year in High School.  Reason being, for the most part, at that time in my musical tastes, I had problems with a lot of bands "first albums"  I don't care for the first albums of Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Skinny Puppy, Smiths, Beatles, Rolling Stones, U2, Sugarcubes, Peter Gabriel, Cocteau Twins, Shamen and INXS.  This list goes on eternally.  So, getting me to purchase a debut album of any group is sometimes a challenge.

But, I got this album and had a good listen.  It seems to be a cross between Joy Division and New Order, rather than NO proper.  Every track is dark, and the vocals are deep and low.  It took a while, but their songwriting skills really took hold and I knew they had a winner with this one.

They also released a herd of singles and EPs around that time, which I have included in this set.  In some places the tracks work.  In other places they don't.  For the most part, I think this is probably as complete a set as you can get for the time period.  I also popped Turn the Heater On into the set, which I feel is something of a rarity.

The original US release to this album was white and burgundy, so I opted to try that one out instead of the traditional blue standard.  I think I like it better this way.  I've also seen a navy blue version, with white letters and yellow lines and dots that looks good too.  I also found this version below on deviant Art that I really liked, too.  But, I think it might be too much of a departure, so I will probably use it for one of the bootlegs later on.

New Order - Movement - 1981 

Electronic - Twisted Tenderness - 1999

Although I really liked Electronic, I still preferred Revenge and Monaco, simply due to their darker edge.  But, as always, it is Bernard's voice that always sucks me in.  And when you couple that with Mr Marr's excellent skills of writing and musicianship, Electronic's work was always top shelf.

After Raise the Pressure, I was a little nervous about how this album was going to turn out.  I never cared much for RtP, as it seemed tired and worn out.  It was as if they had phoned the performance in.  I guess they were also competing with Grunge and Britrock at the same time.  The fact that Twisted Tenderness was also only going to be released in the UK even furthered my concern.  If you can't even get a US label to pick your album up, there's got to be trouble.

Needless to say, the album was almost as good as their first one, and far better than their second.  Some of the tracks you had to warm up to, but there were other anthems that really stood out as exceptional.  The title track, Twisted Tenderness, and Late At Night are the best ones on the disc, by far.  But, nearly every track is worthy and I will always treasure the work that these guys put forth.

I hate the old man cover, so I switched it with the interior art and staggered the boxes like the LAN single sleeves.  The construction of their covers, too, make it a little odd, as the track listing is on the front.  That being said, When you look at the sleeves above, remember, the two squares go on the front, and the group shot (?) goes on the inside.

For those of you who remember when this album came out...  Can you believe it's twenty years old this year?  And, it's stood the test of time.  Great work!

Electronic - Twisted Tenderness - 1999 - Disc One

Electronic - Twisted Tenderness - 1999 - Disc Two

The Other Two - & You - 1992

I loved this album when it came out.  Amidst the wreckage that was grunge, this one popped up and brightened my day.

What's interesting about this one, is that their song structure was very "Brotherhood" New Order.  It shows you that not ONE person carried New Order.  They all did.  They all contributed.  They all had something to offer that fleshed New Order into the powerhouse it was at the time.  Conversely, where Electronic and Revenge felt lacking, as there was only one member of NO in each, this one felt more NO even though there were only "the other two."  Am I making any sense?

I've included the two unavailable tracks, and a couple of the best remixes, and plugged them all at the end.  I opted to stick with the original cover as I felt it was a classic look that exemplified what the Other Two were, in comparison to NO.  Looking at the alternate covers with the different colors, I felt that anything other than the green and gray colors cheapened a rich album.  I'm still unhappy with the "back cover", as I was dealing with the different cover sizes, but so is life.

SO, listen to Electronic's second album, then Revenge's Gun World Porn, and then listen to this one, and you'll drift to sleep happy and content....

The Other Two - & You - 1992

New Order - Low-life - 1985

 When I try to think of the "New Order sound", this is the album I think of.  It had outgrown the darkness and drone of Movement and PC&L, but hadn't fallen into the Alt Pop trap of Brotherhood.  The only other album close to capturing the "New Order sound" would be Technique, but that is, again, for another time and another post.

The Perfect Kiss captures most of that sound I was talking about.  A wonderful song with an equally incredible video of the band in the studio playing it.  I have to point that out, because NO have always had some really stupid videos.  Not this one.

The first time I heard Elegia was whilst I was watching Pretty In Pink, and I was enamored by it, even before I knew who it was.  I've included the 16 minute version here, as it kicks major ass.  I remember buying the Retro box set so I could get the bonus disc just so I could get this one song.  65.00 song.  Ridiculous, but I'm a sucker for NO and a obsessive completist.

I also prefer this version of Sub-Culture over the single version released on Substance.  This one sounded much more creative, and less polished.  The Substance version had all the joy "studioed" out of it.

I stuck with the same standard track listing, jammed Murder in there and the few mixes that were authentic.  Cover is pretty basic, and used the single picture sleeves for the back.

Turn it up.

New Order - Low-life - 1985

New Order - Brotherhood - 1986

Not really one of my favorite albums of NO, better than PC&L, but not as good as the rest of the 80s albums.  But, lightyears better than any of the 90s or 00s material.  I was never a fan of BLT until I heard the Stephen Hague mix, and State of the Nation was a little different...  Listen to me bitch about it, but still I post it!

Positive sides - It's become apparent by this album that NO has defined and polished the sound that they would be known for in the 80s.  Very commercial, almost radio, the album had some very crafty tracks that impressed enough to now consider this group elder statesmen for the long term.  NO wasn't going anywhere but up.  I think it was this album, as well, that made the USA sit up and take notice...

I love the covers of the album and the singles, I truly do.  I've always been a fan of texture, and these guys hit it out of the park on this one.  Especially on the Shellshock single.  Very clever, very colorful, and when you thumbed through your 12" discs, you always had to pause at these to take a look.

I've generally posted albums or mix discs individually and separately so far, but I had to do both together on this one.  Some people are only familiar with the 12" mixes of some of the tracks, so I wanted to get it all in on this one. 

I hope you enjoy.

New Order - Brotherhood - 1986

Revenge - One True Passion - 1990

SO, this here is the original front exterior cover.  My wife never did like this cover, I wonder why?  I stuck with the cover because despite my feelings and her feelings over it, it best expresses the music that lay within.

People may not have the best reviews for this album, but I really really liked it.  I see things like "tedious" and "inconsequential" and "mediocre".  I find it far from that.  I understand that it IS the darker side of New Order, and leaned heavier on the gothic/industrial edge, but I think that was of more relevance at the time than Electronic or the Other Two.

The synth is heavy.  Yes, Hooky's bass gets lost.  The song titles are weird and the melodies are thin.  But, I feel a lot of the energy and depth that you find in those early New Order albums.  He focuses it like a freeking laser and pulls out what I think could be considered the last great New Order album.

Therefore, the cover truly reflects the feel of the music within.  It is sensual, dark, powerful, and NOT gentle.  Don't expect it to be.

Revenge released the one album, and two EPs, along with 2 singles in a variety of formats.  The material to pull from was voluminous as it is, but then they released One True Passion 2.0 with more material.  What sucks, is 2.0 didn't even include the tracks from the original album as it was.  So, you still have to have 1.0 to get it all.  They also claimed that the material from the second EP, which was released 2 years later, was supposed to be from the same batch of sessions.  No way.  They don't even sound the same.  So, I've pulled those out all together.

So, in my version of OTP, I included track one from the very first EP, and then the entire original CD release of the album as "Disc One"  Disc Two has all of the B-sides and unreleased tracks from the same sessions.  I could've plugged some remixes in there, but I have enough that I want to plan a later disc of just mixes.  Sorry!

Anyway, turn it up loud, loud as you can handle it, and ENJOY.

Revenge - One True Passion - 1990

New Order - Substance 1987

In late 1986, and into 1987, I truly started to discover music.  Yes, yes, I had always loved my Duran Duran, and kept buying my random 45rpms, and taping songs off the radio as the DJs played them.  But, I never really heard it.  Yes, I listened, but it wasn't until 1987, that I HEARD.

One of the first bands that essentially introduced me to Post Punk music was New Order.  I started with their "Substance 1987" album, which was a hodge podge of singles that were never released on albums during their career.  Although they were all tracked in chronological order, some of the tracks were re-recorded in 1987, some of them actually were on albums, some were extended versions while some were not.  Some tracks were edited for length, simply to fit on the CD.  So, yes, a nightmare "record label" greatest hits.

While releasing this double CD album, they had also released 3 other singles simultaneously that were not on the album.  They recorded a soundtrack for a movie called Salvation.  They had several filler bits of instrumental music for their Substance video tape of music videos.  They had a megamix of songs from the album, and also a song recorded during this time, that was never released.

For MY VERSION of New Order - "Substance 1987", I only included materiel recorded and released during 1987 and 1988.  I included all the bits and pieces that I mentioned earlier, and all of the singles that were released at the same time as this.  All of the old materiel was relegated to the albums of the same time periods (of which I will post eventually).  This is a VERY DIFFERENT idea of what Substance was, but I feel that it actually is more of a collective for that time period.

And, it eliminates that stupid "greatest hits" tag that I hate so much.
New Order - Substance 1987