Dug out from the archives of 1990?
Surely Regret, Crystal, 60MPH, maybe Krafty or WFTSC would have fit in a top 10

Not featuring anything post-89 was a bit predictable; the old "they lost it after Technique" opinion sadly seems to be common amongst the UK music press. Not saying Simpson necessarily shares that view but it would have been nice to see a late-era curveball or two thrown in there.

Regret, Crystal, WFTSC, Turn etc. are equally as good as some of the Factory high points but I reckon some fans just don't have quite the same nostalgia for them yet.

I agree with a few of the comments that BLT and True Faith not making it is baffling. By the same token I thought Video 586 (Edit) was a waste of an entry but that's just me.

At the end of the day it's all subjective and he's clearly a fan so good on him for championing them in any capacity in a broadsheet.

Edited by user 06 August 2014 14:39:55(UTC)  | Reason: Tidy up

Yes, 60MPH. Although Primitive Notion might be the best song on that album -- the longer version that is on the promo release of Get Ready from way back when is even better.

I was expecting something subjective, unbelievable and totally fucking shit but there are certain things up with which even I shall not put.
'Ceremony is technically a Joy Division song, and an embryonic live version performed at that group’s last-ever gig (in Birmingham) appears on the posthumous double album Still.' Well fucking Hell, you learn a new thing every day. What an eye-opener.
One track from shitty old Movement and NOTHING from the 3-and-a-half post-Technique LPs? I'm a fucking whinger, but ever heard 'Regret', 'Crystal', 'Primitive Notion', 'Turn'? Maybe he stopped listening. Let's put our clocks back. 15 fucking years.
'Video 586' is without doubt the most boring, mind-numbing and fucking crap piece of manure ever released under the New Order banner. And that sentence also works without the last 5 words in it. Including it at all is mental - but including it at the expense of 'True Faith'. 'Round and Round', 'Bizarre Love Triangle'? Is this a joke?
'The sublime 1982 John Peel session' - This is clearly a strange usage of the word 'sublime' to mean 'inexperienced, shaky and thank fuck something came out of it on PC'n'L'. Oh sorry I forgot, that version of 586 is far better than the official take innit? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
'Technique was recorded in Ibiza'. Is that right? Anyway, if yer gonna choose ONE song off Technique, let's choose this and not 'Round and Round'. Good call.
I expect the next article will be, 'Favourite Spice Girl. Geri. Nice tits.'

Edited by user 08 August 2014 08:48:10(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Agreed, aye.All that "magic potion" crap lets the song down.

I dunno, at the end of the day the piece has been written by a Guardian journalist/freelancer and commented on by Guardian readers.Guardian journalists and readers are, despite their utmost protestations to be left wing/sticking up for the working class are, in the whole, a pretty nasty bunch.They always seem quick to laugh and stick the knife in at the millions struggling in the recession.Scum.Middle class scum.I tend not to take Guardian readers opinion as of any importance.They know fuck all about the man in the street.

Edited by user 09 August 2014 12:25:22(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Best or Favourite? To be fair, at least he gave his reasons. Just listing the tracks tells you "what" but the "why" is usually more interesting and illuminating.

When everyone lists their favourites, others can read them and go "oh, that's nice" or " oh, that's shit". After about 10 "favourite" posts, reading the thread becomes far less compelling. But when reasons are given, it may suggest an aspect of a track that we've not taken into account.

Oh, that's shit.

i was going to give a couple words on the top 5, at least, actually
but it all started getting a bit "heavy-handed" (not just for me, whoever'd be reading it) so i just kinda scrapped it and figured i may give it another shot in a hot minute

in any case, here's that other shot!

05. Weirdo

Comes in unapologetically, and rocks in much the same way. An argument against anyone who said Get Ready was the first time New Order was really a "rock band," this thing is just a burst of energy no matter how many times I put it on (and damn that is not a small number.) In all honesty, when I first got Brotherhood - which unlike the majority of their work was only a couple of years ago - it and a few other tracks seemed a bit anonymous to me at first. I'm not entirely sure why, perhaps the semi-consistency of the sides was different than say how Lowlife seemed to me, with each track being pretty drastically different, at least by my high school age observation. When getting back into the band and all their stages recently though, this one broke right into my top 5 and I don't know how'd I'd ever even graced over it at all before

04. True Faith

I guess this is one of my entries that won't be all that hard to understand, one of their biggest hits and also one of my immediate favorites upon getting The Best Of (my second New Order experience after Waiting for the Sirens' Call, which, believe it or not, was the first thing I'd ever heard by the band) along with Let's Go, Age of Consent, 1963, and a handful of others. Of course, I love practically every track on that compilation by this point, a collection of songs I feel no need to cherry pick from, but this one in all its glory just sticks with me no matter how much it may have been overplayed before my birth (maybe one of the reasons I don't take it for granted?)
Semi-interesting anecdote/argument: When watching American Psycho for the first time, I remarked after this track came on during a club scene featuring Patrick Bateman shouting at a bartender behind her back that you knew it was the 80s because a New Order song was playing. The friend I was watching it with laughed at the comment and said "yeah, that was the only time New Order were played, in the 80s" which, though on paper probably looks like it was meant as a sarcastic comment, it wasn't (this was a friend who had also, keep in mind, not too long before said that Depeche Mode and Soft Cell were the "same thing," haha.) In any case, I just remember thinking how off that comment of his was, since as I and anyone else who's really given New Order a passing listen would more than likely tell you that, apart from a couple of "production quirks" they are above the trappings of 80s music and more or less timeless. This song is a perfect example of that

03. World

I already know the "huhs?" and "seriously?" this one would probably inspire from N.O. fans going through the list, or even just hearing that someone put this in their top 5, but honestly, before I had ever even so much as talked to another real New Order fan (at least about the band themselves and their work) I would have guessed it was without a doubt a serious fan favorite. An alternating one, perhaps, but a serious contender for "one of their absolute best" amongst the fan base in any case. Looking at it now, I realize that was more or less a result of "projecting" on my part, since this song as well as many from Republic exhibit things that I was looking for in music then and still highly value now: uncomprosing drum beats/loops, particularly the kind of breaks used in World as well as several of the other Repub tracks, bouncing basslines, beautiful sustained synths, and that perfect chorus + the indescribably (at least by me at this point in time) catchy, for lack of better word, verse melodies sung by Bernard
I don't know this song just sticks out to me as a perfect moment in their career, better than the often over-praised Regret if you ask me, and not so distantly followed by some of its relatives on the underrated/overhated 1993 album (I should note here that Young Offender, among others, is a serious Runner-Up for this whole list and honestly looking at it all now I really should have included it somewhere in the top 20. Just wanted to keep it at least somewhat-career-spanning I guess)

02. Bizarre Love Triangle

Just an absolutely perfect song. Written by Bernard at a time when he was seemingly affected by the things around him and whatever was going on in his life (more evidenced by Brotherhood and various other off-album N.O. tracks) yet the song sounds free from that; a song that sounds free from any kind of real pessimism or cynicism - possible indication of Joy Division who hate their proceeding incarnation so much - this song just rushes gleefully forward like a burst of joy that can finally be expressed artistically to the world after so long a time of being repressed. I just love this song

01. Dream Attack

After my last description, you'd think BLT'd be my number 1, yet somehow I had reserved the spot for this one without even really thinking about it. It just seemed natural to call this both my favorite and the best New Order song the world has been graced with so far. It's got just about every element you could ask for from the band to both represent the band to someone else and enjoy them for yourself - not to mention, as a song it manages to come off as seemingly dramatic and/or casual as you would want it to at any given moment. You could listen to this at a time when you were completely in love, or taken by someone, whatever branding you want to call it, and feel as satisfied as you would if you were in a pessimistic state about it all. The chorus proclamation "I don't belong to know one, but I want to be with you" is such a casually tossed off and uncontrived statement that it pulls it off, sing it when you're resigned or willfully committed to a person and it still works. Musically the song propels forward in a way that's maybe not quite as rushing or gleeful as Weirdo but still urgent and unrestrained, at least from a listener's point of view. Hook's iconic style of bass-line delivery is showcased, but the band are working together in a way that seems to highlight each one's individual talents in more than one way through various points of the song. The guitar outro just brings it all around to an absolutely perfect New Order track

Edited by user 10 August 2014 17:17:47(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified