30. The Him (1981) You can see why Movement is viewed less as New Order’s debut album than a footnote to Joy Division’s career – that is really what it is – but that doesn’t mean it is not good. The surges of The Him would have made a great Joy Division track; the lyrics, which attempt to understand the death in 1980 of Ian Curtis, Joy Division’s frontman, are powerful and heartbreaking. 29. Confusion (1983) Considered a disappointing follow-up to Blue Monday at the time – and subsequently re-recorded for the 1987 compilation Substance – Confusion has improved with age: its wholehearted, charmingly gauche embrace of electro illustrates the impact of New York’s nightlife on the band. 28. Murder (1984) New Order have sporadically come up with superb instrumentals (see also: Elegia and the experimental Video 586). Murder is a particularly exciting, dramatic example: it features thundering drums and insistent, needling guitar that hark back to the sound of Joy Division, plus samples of dialogue from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Caligula. 27. Weirdo (1986) Is there a more exciting introduction to a song in New Order’s back catalogue than the sudden burst of guitar that kicks off Weirdo, a frantic highlight of Brotherhood’s “rock”-oriented side one? Elsewhere, the lyrics are total nonsense, but Peter Hook’s bass playing is spectacular. 26. Shellshock (1986) Shellshock is that rare thing: a New Order single that hasn’t dated terribly well – the overload of n-n-n-nineteen stuttering samples and the synth sounds on the 12in version mark it out as product of its time. But that is no reflection on the song itself, which is great, powered by a compellingly anthemic chorus. 25. Waiting For the Sirens’ Call (2005) The album of the same name was a disappointment and probably New Order’s creative nadir. The music isn’t awful, just workmanlike and uninspired; the lyrics, however, are frequently abysmal. But its title track – the only album title track New Order have recorded – shines, thanks to a beautiful melody and a yearning Bernard Sumner vocal. 24. Fine Time (1989) A baffling choice for a first single from Technique – largely instrumental, not much of a melody – Fine Time is still impossibly exciting: an urgent, clattering rhythm track, acid house squelches, sampled voices. Steve “Silk” Hurley’s remix turned it into streamlined, straightforward house music, but the idiosyncrasies of New Order’s approach to the genre are part of the appeal. 23. As It Is When It Was (1986) New Order’s back catalogue isn’t big on acoustic ballads, but As It Is When It Was – an understated highlight of Brotherhood – is a beautiful example. A slightly rockier live version on the Pumped Full of Drugs video is worth checking out, not least for the insouciant cool of the guitarist and keyboard player Gillian Gilbert, who performs the whole thing with her back to the audience. 22. Sub-Culture (1985) Without wishing to be overspecific, it is the edited version of the 12in mix of Sub-Culture found on Substance that you need to hear. The Low-Life original is a bit limp, the full 12in a bit much, but the edit is perfect: the vocals polished so the tune shines, the whole thing kicked off with a thrilling burst of sampled drums. 21. Elegia (1985) Years after this instrumental tribute to Curtis appeared on Low-Life, the band’s Stephen Morris told an interviewer that it had been edited down from a 17-minute original. When that finally appeared – on the 2002 box set Retro – it was revealed not as an indulgence, but a masterpiece: drifting, shifting and astonishingly beautiful, like nothing else in New Order’s oeuvre. 20. Restless (2015) It is fair to say that the last thing most people expected from the new, post-Hook iteration of New Order was their best album since Technique, but that is precisely what Music Complete was, as evinced by the guitar-heavy opener, Restless. It is more focused and potent than anything the band had done in decades.1 19. Everything’s Gone Green (1981) Funky, but dark and agitated, Everything’s Gone Green was a transitional song, New Order exploring the dancefloor before they had fully escaped the shadow of their former band. Those interested in “what ifs” might suggest it is what Joy Division could have sounded like had they continued and absorbed the same influences from club music. 18. Round & Round (1989) The second single from Technique opened with a blast of house-influenced sampled orchestral stabs, but it is the opposite of Fine Time’s hectic chaos – the chorus is almost Abba-esque in its poppiness. Sumner’s voice drifts languidly over the backing, while Hook’s performance is a masterclass in how he reinvented the bass as a lead instrument, colouring rather than propelling the song. 17. Lonesome Tonight (1984) In the 80s, New Order had a habit of relegating songs that anyone else might have considered as singles to B-sides. Tucked away on the flip of Thieves Like Us, Lonesome Tonight is the perfect example: a sublime slice of melancholy with an instrumental coda that takes up half the track and is no less compelling than the song itself. 16. Love Vigilantes (1985) “A redneck song”, according to Sumner; Iron and Wine’s acoustic 2009 cover teases out the country influence at its centre, easy to miss when you are distracted by how exquisitely Hook’s bass coils around Sumner’s voice. Low-Life’s fabulous opening track, it also bears the lyrical influence of Jimmy Cliff’s 60s reggae hit Vietnam. 15. Crystal (2001) The 00s was not a great decade for New Order: personal upheavals and tensions within the band led to their patchiest albums. But, occasionally, something clicked amid the turmoil, as on Crystal – a great song wrapped in a thrillingly noisy, echo-drenched reboot of New Order in guitar mode. 14. Age of Consent (1983) Like the 1982 single Temptation, the opening track of Power, Corruption & Lies sounds like a statement of intent: New Order truly becoming New Order after the hesitancy and mourning of their debut album. Age of Consent is a shimmering, if strange, pop song, driven by one of Hook’s greatest bass lines – hypnotic, relentless, insanely catchy. 13. Ceremony (1981) You wonder how New Order got through recording their debut single only months after Curtis’s death: both versions of the song predated his suicide, their lyrics pitch-black testimony to his mental state. But it is a triumph: between its first version, from March 1981, and the re-recording released in September, you can hear a new band beginning to coalesce. 12. Dream Attack (1989) Not everything on Technique was musically influenced by the sound of the clubs in Ibiza, where the initial recording sessions took place, but all of it seemed to be imbued with the island’s spirit. Its marvellous closer, Dream Attack, is guitar-based, but sounds warm and sunlit, while the opening lyrics seem to reflect on the morning after a night on the dancefloor. 11. Tutti Frutti (2015)