Substance (New Order album)

Substance
Greatest hits by New Order
Released	17 August 1987
Recorded	1981-1987
Genre	Techno, Alternative, House
Length	146:48
Label	Factory
Producer	New Order
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (A) link
New Order chronology
Brotherhood (1986) Substance (1987) Technique (1989)

Substance is a 1987 double album by New Order, grouping their best-known singles in their 12-inch versions, together with some songs that were previously unavailable. Some of the band's most well-known tracks ("Bizarre Love Triangle", "Blue Monday", "Confusion", "The Perfect Kiss", "Temptation", and the then newly-released "True Faith") appear, and the double-CD and double-cassette versions also include various B-sides and two A-sides, "Procession" and "Murder". The collection was also released on Digital Audio Tape. Substance is a convenient yet notoriously incomplete collection. It presents re-recordings of two songs, "Temptation" and "Confusion," and the original versions do not appear. The opening track, "Ceremony," is the version recorded after Gillian Gilbert joined the band. The original trio version — the first New Order recording following the dissolution of Joy Division — would not see a CD release until the Singles collection. "Sub-culture" appears in remix form (courtesy of John Robie), differing from the album version. Also, "The Perfect Kiss" was edited on the CD version, but not on the LP or cassette versions; this was simply due to the 74 minute time restraint of the CD format. "Cries and Whispers" was incorrectly labelled as "Mesh" on all versions, and only on the cassette versions did the original "Mesh" actually appear, confusingly enough mistitled as "Cries and Whispers" (to add to the confusion, the iTunes Store release, based from the CD version, labels the song "Mesh (Cries and Whispers)".) The standard tape versions (due to the extra space befitting that format) also contained extra tracks in the form of "Dub-vulture", "Shellcock", and "Bizarre Dub Triangle". Only on the limited edition cassette version did "True Dub" appear (as the last track on the second tape). These were all extended dub versions of the more popular hits found on the first disc/tape. The instrumental version of "Confusion" from the 1983 12-inch single was also featured and retitled as "Confused Instrumental". On all cassette versions, "Murder" is after "Thieves Like Us" on the first cassette, whereas on the CD/DAT versions it is a track on the second CD. A video release of Substance appeared in 1989 on VHS; it was released on LaserDisc in Japan in 1991. The cover was generally the same as the audio release, except "1987" was replaced by "1989", and the Factory/Qwest release had a grey background, the Japanese VHS release, blue and the LaserDisc, turquoise. The video includes linking sequences which are animated to the accompaniment of instrumental sections from "The Happy One", an otherwise unreleased track from the Technique sessions. It is rumoured that the compilation was brought about because Tony Wilson of New Order's record label, Factory Records wanted to listen to the singles in his car, which had just been fitted with a CD player.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 361 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track listing (LP version)

Track listing (CD/DAT version)

"Cries and Whispers" is falsely titled as "Mesh" on the album, likely due to the confusion from the "Everything's Gone Green" single. "The Perfect Kiss" is about 40 seconds shorter than on the LP version of Substance, due to time restraints. Despite the advent of 80 minute CDs, this has never been corrected.

Track listing (cassette version)

* Factory FACT 200C (2 cassettes) (UK, 1987) ** PolyGram 832 617-4 "Substance Sides" (cassette 2 only) (Canada, 1987) Some releases only contain one of the cassettes - usually cassette 1. Note: "Murder" (an instrumental single released in Benelux only) is before "The Perfect Kiss" on some versions. "Mesh" is also incorrectly labelled "Cries and Whispers" on some variations of the album.

Video track listing

1. "Confusion"
2. "The Perfect Kiss"
3. "Shellshock"
4. "Bizarre Love Triangle"
5. "True Faith"
6. "Touched by the Hand of God"
7. "Blue Monday 1988"