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Top Dance Hits
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Formed in the wake of the destruction of the legendary Punk band Joy Division, New Order arose to both create its own aesthetic and
advance that of New Wave and Dance music. Uniting electronics, romantic, slightly melancholic melody, and peerless musicianship, New Order has been one of the most consistent bands in musical quality but consistently maddening to fans and peers with ever-present rumors of breakups, tales of personal malevolence, and a bewildering maze of reissues and remixes of past tracks.
On May 18, 1980, just before embarking on an American tour and international breakthrough, Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide. The recording of the band’s second album Closer had just been released and the single Love Will Tear Us Apart was climbing the charts. Although stunned by the loss of Curtis, the remaining three group members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Steven Morris, soon recruited Morris' girlfriend Gillian Gilbert and re-emerged as New Order with Sumner taking on the vocal duties. In the spring of 1981 the band released their first single Ceremony, a song originally written for Joy Division, and their first album Movement. Although still sounding more like Joy Division than the New Order of the future, Ceremony made a brief appearance in the lower ranges of the American Dance charts. The next two singles Everything's Gone Green and Temptation, both released in 1982, began incorporating synthesizers and computer sequencers which generated the interest of American club audiences. In particular, the combination of Gillian Gilbert's synthesizer patterns and Steven Morris' drums echoed patterns in classic Dance tracks produced by Giorgio Moroder.
New Order’s breakthrough in American Dance clubs occurred in 1983. The release of Blue Monday, with its layered electronics and deadpan vocals from Bernard Sumner, brought New Order to the top 5 of the Dance chart and ultimately it became the top selling 12-inch single to that time. Their album Power, Corruption, and Lies expanded on their previous sound and distinctively marked New Order as a band independent of their Joy Division past. Attracted by his production of Afrika Bambaataa's seminal hit Planet Rock, New Order hired producer Arthur Baker to work on their next single Confusion. The result was a landmark in the development of Techno Dance music and once again the group landed in the top 5 while also making a brief appearance on the R&B charts, a rare feat for a white British band. 1984 was a quiet year for the group but the release of 1985's Low-Life album cemented their position as one of the world's most respected electronic bands. The single Perfect Kiss was a top 5 Dance hit..
Shell Shock, New Order's contribution to the soundtrack of the film Pretty In Pink, broke into the
dance top 20 in 1986.
Bizarre Love Triangle, a single from the album Brotherhood, peaked in the top 5. 1987's
double album Substance
finally pulled together non-album singles and a number of 12-inch extended mixes. Critics and audiences alike praised the release. The album also included a new single, True Faith, produced by the Pet Shop Boys' producer Stephen Hague which became their biggest Dance hit yet, peaking at number 3, and making their first appearance in the American Pop top 40. Amid rumors of a possible breakup of the group,
Blue Monday returned in 1988 with new
remixes supervised by Quincy Jones and finally landed
New Order their first chart-topping Dance hit. The 12-inch single also included new mixes of the UK single Touched By the Hand Of God.
1989's brilliant Technique album quieted the rumors of a breakup at least temporarily. The smash singles
Round and Round and Fine Time incorporated elements of Acid House as New Order's sound continued to develop. Confounding some long-time fans, the group released the football anthem
World In Motion in 1990. Recorded with the
England World Cup football (soccer) squad, it was another top 10 Dance hit and earned accolades from British
fans as best
football song
of all time. Following the recording of the single, New Order announced they were going on hiatus and the group
members
began work on outside projects. The most notable was an electronic supergroup formed by Bernard Sumner and ex-Smiths
guitarist Johnny Marr featuring vocals by the Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant. The duo of Sumner and Marr has proved to be an on-again off-again venture and has thus far released three albums. By the summer of 1991, New Order had announced they were working on a new album as a group.
The new album was finally released in 1993 and Republic became their best-selling album yet. The singles
Regret and World both topped the Dance charts and the group appeared to be back on track. However,
stories of
creative conflicts within the group soon surfaced, and new recordings failed to materialize. Additional
compilations of past singles and past remix tracks emerged but no new studio work. Bernard Sumner continued to work with Electronic.
Finally, at the end of the decade, promising rumors of new recordings appeared. Electronic's third album Twisted Tenderness was released in 1999 along with Bernard Sumner's vocals with the Chemical Brothers on the top 40 Dance hit single Out Of Control. At last, a single New Order track, Brutal, appeared in 2000 on the soundtrack to the film The Beach. A new album, Get Ready, followed in 2001 and the group promptly re-established
themselves atop the Dance chart with Crystal. The most extensive retrospective yet, a box set titled
Retro was released in 2003. More than 20 years after tragedy struck Joy Division, New Order remain a key artistic anchor for electronic Dance music.
