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On their third album, New Order effortlessly added elements of dance to the new wave synthesisers and samplers found on their previous album, completing their transition from post-punk to dance music. Nestled beneath the impressive use of musical technology, you’ll find the Manchester band’s increasingly divine songwriting. ‘Love Vigilantes’, ‘The Perfect Kiss’ and ‘Sunrise’ are all stunning pop tracks enhanced by Gillian Gilbert's hypnotic synths, Peter Hook's elastic bass and Bernard Sumner's sparkling guitar. With Low-Life, the 100th release from legendary Mancunian label Factory, austere post-punk is completely replaced by the sunniest new wave dance. This influential album, despite its 80’s synths, still sounds like a pioneering record. © Marc Zisman

Born out of the ashes of Joy Division in the early 1980s, New Order symbolises one of the first truly successful unions between rock’n’roll and dance music. The darkest Mancunian band of the punk era who had transformed into masters of the dancefloor signed the perfect soundtrack to the gloomy England under Thatcher. Released in the summer of 1987 on the label Factory, Substance brings together all their various styles and singles like the hits Blue Monday, Ceremony, Confusion, The Perfect Kiss or Bizarre Love Triangle. This was obviously the golden age for the quartet made up of Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris. Despite a few highlights (such as the album Technique in 1989), New Order never really reached this level of composition again... © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

New Order's third LP, Low-Life, is, in every way, the artistic equal of their breakout, 1983's Power, Corruption & Lies. Building on the genre-hopping brilliance of the two singles they released in between -- the Arthur Baker-produced electro track "Confusion" and the dramatic synth rocker "Thieves Like Us" -- Low-Life marks the point where the band's fusion of rock and electronics becomes seamless. It's heavily sequenced and synthesized, but with bravura work from Bernard Sumner on guitar and Peter Hook's plaintive, melodic bass taking a lead role. The record is filled with hooky, hummable pop songs, but just as important are the experimental techniques that the band and engineer Michael Johnson employ. The melodica-led pop song "Love Vigilantes" is a perfect opener, a surprising bit of songcraft -- for the first time Sumner's lyrics tell a story -- with the kind of melody that's built to be a timeless earworm. "The Perfect Kiss" is almost the equal to that track melodically; however, the skittering beats, gleaming sequencers, and electronic handclaps point more forcefully toward the dancefloor. After this one-two punch, New Order filter in tracks like "This Time of Night" and "Elegia" that evoke the dark, nocturnal mood of the album's title and artwork; they make a white-hot racket on the hardest-rocking song in their catalog so far, "Sunrise," which is an amazing showcase for Hook and Sumner at their electric best; they add popping dance tracks ("Face Up" and "Sub-Culture," which was later improved by a slick remix); and, on "Sooner Than You Think," they show off an almost bouncy, light side of the group. Sumner's openhearted vocals and intimate lyrics here and throughout show the band coming out of their shell and connecting on a broader emotional level. By the end of Low-Life, there's no mistaking that New Order have reached a peak, experimenting with their sound and their style, yet keeping every moment wrapped in an unmistakable humanness.© John Bush & Tim Sendra /TiVo

Now that Waiting for the Sirens' Call has been officially declared part of New Order's history, only eight months after release, it's time once again to reassess the group in the form of a mostly redundant compilation. Rhino calls Singles the group's "first ever career-spanning two-disc retrospective," but it's more like the group's first compilation to contain tracks from Sirens' Call. Besides, 1987's Substance spanned the group's career upon release and remains the basis for most New Order compilations (this one included), so it's no big deal. Just as importantly, over a third of the contents date from 1993 onward; that's too high a percentage to make the set an ideal introduction. Considering its title, Singles has a clear-cut purpose, unlike 2002's International. Then again, each of the 14 tracks contained on International are also here -- what amounts to an inferior version of Substance with some crucial tracks squeezed out in favor of lesser, later singles. A proper sequel to Substance, covering Technique through Sirens' Call, would've made more sense, but the lure in dressing up a combination of oft-recycled classics with slightly varying surroundings has yet to lose its appeal. Substance remains, and will likely always remain, the release to get you started.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

In the two years since her debut was released, beabadoobee has gone from her teen years to her twenties and grown tremendously—effortlessly transferring her lo-fi bedroom pop to a much bigger sound that's still tingling with life. "Talk" is full of '90s jubilance, pumped up with booming bass and a fuzzed-out chorus. She has said she wrote the song about going out on Tuesday nights: "not too much chaos but just enough to have a good time." But it's also about exploring boundaries as you get older—and, in her case, more famous. "Generally, it’s about doing things that aren’t necessarily healthy or great for you, but you can’t help indulging." See also: "See you Soon," which beabadoobee has said "is meant to make you feel like you’re tripping on shrooms." The guitars on "10:36" explode at the bridge in a fit of sunshine, and it's thrilling after hearing the potential on her first record. beabadoobee also gets more experimental with genres, playing around with café pop and bossa nova on "the perfect pair," which expands during the last minute to become one of her most fully rounded songs yet. Free-floating "Beatopia Cultsong" has jug-band lazy-river vibes, the vocals gaining layers with each line before fading out. "Ripples" employs gentle strings and a McCartney-esque melody, the ambience so intimate you can hear fingers sliding on acoustic guitar strings. There are, as expected, moments of shoegaze goodness, on "Don't get the deal" and pretty "Pictures of Us"—which flips the script by keeping the music clear-headed and washing her vocals in a big blur. With its moments of thumping drums, naif melody and spacey background vocals, "fairy song" could easily be recast as a Flaming Lips track. "Lovesong" flutters with butterfly lightness, "tinkerbell is overrated" is especially energetic and catchy folk pop, and "You're here that's the thing" is a cute little retro ditty, à la Lily Allen, that will no doubt be a live fan favorite (singalong-ready lyrics: "When the lights go down/ don't say I didn't warn you/ I don't think that's legal/ in the state of California"). And while she still fits perfectly alongside peers including Clairo, Jay Som and Snail Mail, like them beabadoobee has expanded her worldview, even adding a neo-soul sheen to the folky pop of "Sunny day." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

For fifteen years now New Order has had to make do without a bassist, and without their co-founder Peter Hook, who stormed out in 2006. The new line-up, led by Bernard Sumner with Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert, Phil Cunningham and Tom Chapman, is clearly doing no worse, as we can tell from this new live record (their fifth in ten years) made in November 2018 in London's Alexandra Palace. The concert opens with Wagner, before raining down blow after blow on Singularity, which is one of four tracks on the setlist to be taken from the 2015 album Music Complete (the first album they made without Peter Hook). And while the record didn't win around the critics, this track makes masterful use of the old Joy Division DNA. The ghost of Ian Curtis looms over this 140-minute performance, with searing mementoes in the form of Atmosphere, Decades and Love Will Tear Us Apart which closes the set. Along the way, we get all the hits: from Blue Monday to Bizarre Love Triangle and The Perfect Kiss, all in a venue brought to the boil by an ecstatic, nostalgic audience. It's enough to cheer up even the bluest Monday. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

New Order's third LP, Low-Life, is, in every way, the artistic equal of their breakout, 1983's Power, Corruption & Lies. Building on the genre-hopping brilliance of the two singles they released in between -- the Arthur Baker-produced electro track "Confusion" and the dramatic synth rocker "Thieves Like Us" -- Low-Life marks the point where the band's fusion of rock and electronics becomes seamless. It's heavily sequenced and synthesized, but with bravura work from Bernard Sumner on guitar and Peter Hook's plaintive, melodic bass taking a lead role. The record is filled with hooky, hummable pop songs, but just as important are the experimental techniques that the band and engineer Michael Johnson employ. The melodica-led pop song "Love Vigilantes" is a perfect opener, a surprising bit of songcraft -- for the first time Sumner's lyrics tell a story -- with the kind of melody that's built to be a timeless earworm. "The Perfect Kiss" is almost the equal to that track melodically; however, the skittering beats, gleaming sequencers, and electronic handclaps point more forcefully toward the dancefloor. After this one-two punch, New Order filter in tracks like "This Time of Night" and "Elegia" that evoke the dark, nocturnal mood of the album's title and artwork; they make a white-hot racket on the hardest-rocking song in their catalog so far, "Sunrise," which is an amazing showcase for Hook and Sumner at their electric best; they add popping dance tracks ("Face Up" and "Sub-Culture," which was later improved by a slick remix); and, on "Sooner Than You Think," they show off an almost bouncy, light side of the group. Sumner's openhearted vocals and intimate lyrics here and throughout show the band coming out of their shell and connecting on a broader emotional level. By the end of Low-Life, there's no mistaking that New Order have reached a peak, experimenting with their sound and their style, yet keeping every moment wrapped in an unmistakable humanness.© John Bush & Tim Sendra /TiVo