Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Fine Time (From Technique)
2. Temptation (From 12� Single Fac63)
3. True Faith (From Substance)
4. The Perfect Kiss (From Low-Life)
5. Ceremony (From 12� Single Fac63)
6. Regret (From Republic)
7. Crystal (From Get Ready)
8. Bizarre Love Triangle (From Brotherhood)
9. Confusion (From 12� Single Fac93)
10. Round And Round (4�29) (From Technique)
11. Blue Monday (From 12� Single Fac73)
12. Brutal (From The Beach Motion Picture Soundtrack)
13. Slow Jam (From Get Ready)
14. Everyone Everywhere (From Republic)
15. Elegia - New Order
16. In A Lonely Place (12-Inch Version) - New Order
17. All Day Long - New Order
18. Your Silent Face - New Order
19. Sunrise - New Order
20. Broken Promise - New Order
21. Dreams Never End - New Order
22. Cries & Whispers - New Order
23. Chosen Time - New Order
24. Ecstacy - New Order
25. Sooner Than You Think - New Order
26. Leave Me Alone - New Order
27. Lonesome Tonight - New Order
28. Every Little Counts - New Order
29. Run Wild - New Order
30. Confusion (Koma & Bones Mix With Bernard's New Vocal) - New Order
31. Paradise (Robert Racic Mix) - New Order
32. Regret (Sabres Slow N Low Mix) - New Order
33. Bizarre Love Triangle (Shep Pettibone Mix) - New Order
34. Shell Shock (John Robie Mix) - New Order
35. Fine Time (Steve "Silk" Hurley Mix) - New Order
36. 1963 (Arthur Baker Mix) - New Order
37. Touched By The Hand Of God (Original Version) - New Order
38. Everything's Gone Green (Original Version) - New Order
39. Blue Monday (Jam & Spoon Manuela Mix) - New Order
40. World In Motion (Pickering/Parke Mix) - New Order
41. Here To Stay (Chemical Brothers Remix) - New Order
42. Crystal (Lee Coombs Remix) - New Order
43. Ceremony (Live 1984) - New Order
44. Procession (Live 1984) - New Order
45. Everything's Gone Green (Live 1985) - New Order
46. In A Lonely Place (Live 1981) - New Order
47. Age Of Consent (Live 1986) - New Order
48. This Time Of Night (Live 1985) - New Order
49. Perfect Kiss (Live 1985) - New Order
50. Fine Time (Live 1989) - New Order
51. World (Live 1983) - New Order
52. Regret (Live 1993) - New Order
53. As It Is When It Was (Live 1993) - New Order
54. Alan Wise's Introduction (Live 2001) - New Order
55. Crystal (Live 2002) - New Order
56. Turn My Way (Live 2001) - New Order
57. Temptation (Live 2001) - New Order

Disc 2:

1. Elegia (From Low-Life)
2. In A Lonely Place (From 12� Single Fac33)
3. Procession
4. All Day Long (From Brotherhood)
5. Your Silent Face (From Power, Corruption & Lies)
6. Sunrise (From Low-Life)
7. Let's Go
8. Broken Promise (From Brotherhood)
9. Dreams Never End (From Movement)
10. Cries And Whispers
11. Sooner Than You Think (From Low-Life)
12. Leave Me Alone (From Power, Corruption & Lies)
13. Lonesome Tonight (From 12� Single Fac103)
14. Every Little Counts (From Brotherhood)
15. Run Wild (From Get Ready)

Disc 3:

1. Confusion (Koma & Bones Mix With Bernard�s New Vocal)
2. Paradise (Robert Racic Mix)
3. Regret (Sabres Slow �N� Low Mix)
4. Bizarre Love Triangle (Shep Pettibone Mix)
5. Shell Shock (John Robie Mix)
6. Fine Time (Steve �Silk� Hurley Mix)
7. 1963 (Arthur Baker Mix)
8. Touched By The Hand Of God (Original Version)
9. Everything�s Gone Green (Original)
10. Blue Monday (Jam & Spoon Manuela Mix)
11. World In Motion (Pickering/Parke Mix)
12. Here To Stay (Chemical Brothers Remix)
13. Crystal (Lee Coombs Remix)

Disc 4:

1. Ceremony (Studio 54, Barcelona, 7 July 1984)
2. Procession (Sunderland, 15 August 1984)
3. Everythings Gone Green (Tolworth Rec. Centre, Kingston, London 6 Dec 1985)
4. In A Lonely Place (Glastonbury Festival, 20/06/81)
5. Age Of Consent (Spectrum Arena, Warrington, 1 March 1986)
6. Elegia
7. The Perfect Kiss (Fulcrum Centre, Slough, 7 Dec 1985)
8. Fine Time (Hoffman Estates, Chicago, 30 June 1989)
9. World (Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, 21 July 1993)
10. Regret (Reading Festival, 31 August 1993)
11. As It Is When It Was (Reading Festival, 31 August 1993)
12. Alan Wise's Introduction (Olympia, Paris, 12 November 2001)
13. Crystal (Big Day Out, Gold Coast, 20 January 2002)
14. Turn My Way (Olympia, Liverpool, 18 July 2001)
15. Temptation (Academy, Brixton, 10 October 2001)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #137888 in Music
• Released on: 2003-01-07
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set

Album Description
A different kind of boxed set from a different kind of band. The career-spanning Retro fills four CDs with tracks selected by influential New Order fans who've followed the band for years. Disc One gathers the singles, selected by journalist Miranda Sawyer. Disc Two collects album tracks, selected by journalist John McCready. Disc Three is the remixes, selected by Hacienda DJ Mike Pickering. Disc Four is unreleased live tracks, selected by New Order & Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie. Includes an extensive booklet & digipak box featuring new artwork by renowned designer Peter Saville. Rhino. 200.

Amazon.com
If there was a certain irony to the surviving members of Joy Division recasting the angst-ridden muse of band founder/suicide victim Ian Curtis as New Order's often catchy melodic synth-pop, there's ample evidence on this compelling four-disc retrospective to suggest that Curtis's troubled spirit and dark sense of humor continued to haunt his influential musical progeny long after his passing. Crucially, the band has foresworn strict historical autobiography here for a more Rashomon-like approach, allowing four outsiders to compile the anthology's component discs. The resulting four chapters focus on distinct, well-defined facets of the band's music: journalists Miranda Sawyer and John McReady serve up the hits-oriented "Pop" and moody, album-cut and B-side centered "Fan" discs, respectively, while Manchester DJ and Factory Records A&R man Mike Pickering presents a baker's dozen of the band's pioneering club mixes (six previously unavailable in the U.S.) on the "Club" disc and Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie culls together the ultimate, career-spanning N.O. concert set from a trove of unreleased soundboard recordings on "Live." Band members weigh in throughout the set's artful, straightforward liner notes with often sardonic track-by-track commentary, but it's the outside-in viewpoint that makes this such a worthy companion to Joy Division's similarly scaled Heart and Soul anthology. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Frankly, This Could Have Been Better.
New Order's four-disc box set apparently ignited controversy before it was even released. When fans complained that the tracklisting didn't have enough rare tracks, the record label hastily assembled a fifth CD which is only available on limited-edition pressings. But even with the fifth disc, "Retro" still comes up short, and that's a shame because a band like New Order deserves a box set that does them justice. What's to like? The first disc, "Pop," compiles the band's hits, and it does the job admirably, featuring classics like "Blue Monday," the original version of "Temptation," "Bizarre Love Triangle," and "The Perfect Kiss." I was also pleasantly surprised to have also found "Brutal," which was previously available on the soundtrack to "The Beach." The CD titled "Club" is a fairly competent collection of remixes, the best of which is Jam and Spoon's hyperactive makeover of "Blue Monday," as well as the remixes of "Confusion" and "Shellshock." But "Retro" encounters problems on the disc "Fan," which is a randomly assembled set of album tracks. Most New Order fans already have these from the original albums, and to have them here again on this box set seems a bit pointless. The "Live" disc is also uneven. Some of the performances are really good ("Ceremony," "Everything's Gone Green," "Temptation,") while others are sloppily executed ("Fine Time," "World," "Regret"). The fifth disc (limited edition only) fares better, which has personal favorites such as the "Round and Round" b-side "Best and Marsh" and "Such a Good Thing." This CD also has a meandering, 17-minute version of "Elegia" for those who couldn't get enough of the edited album version. So is "Retro" worth a purchase? Well, that depends on who you are. Diehard fans may want to give it a whirl, but they should really try to get the version that has the fifth disc. But casual listeners are encouraged to get the band's individual albums instead. As a survey of New Order's history, "Retro" definitely has its moments, but it's also incomplete, inconsistent, and flawed. Proceed with caution.

An Abundance of Riches
With Substance, a two-disc collection of ace tracks and b-sides, and The Best of New Order still available for purchase, there's a sense that Retro is redundant. The band must have felt the same. So, to shake things up, they split the four discs thematically (Pop, Fan, Club, and Live), and gave each to a contemporary to sort out. Miranda Sawyer's Pop is the weakest set - not due to material (excellent, including the original version of "Temptation"), but because it's redolent of past collections. Still, her sequencing's inspired, emphasizing New Order's galvanic hooks. John McCready's Fan leans heavily on darker tunes, charting their progress from harrowing industrialism to an uncompromisingly grim but never hopeless dance rock. Mike Pickering's Club is a remixer's paradise. I'm not a fan of extended mixes, but these never lose the song amidst the sound effects. Laid back-to-back, they make a case for the art. The biggest surprise is Bobby Gillespie's Live disc because (a) I hate live records and (b) New Order have given the worst shows I've ever seen. On the evidence here, I must have caught them on very bad nights. Each track breathes life into their studio perfectionism, and the rough edges do them proud. As they should be: Retro is an abundance of riches.

A nifty concept, but lousy timing and spotty execution
Retro sports a nifty concept, but suffers from a combination of lousy timing and mediocre execution. New Order has a history of more than 20 years as a group (closer to 15 if one subtracts service time for the lengthy hiatus they took between 1993's Republic and 2001's Get Ready, during which time each member released albums as part of a side project), but it's one that is still growing, with the band currently in the studio recording new material. (A cynic might suggest that this material, too, shall one day appear on another box set.) One could make the claim that the box is meant as an introduction to the band for new fans, but wouldn't a one- or two-disc set serve equally well for this purpose? For that matter, wouldn't one of the other New Order compilations, such as 1987's Substance or 1994's Best of, cover most of the needed territory? (Perhaps in recognition of this, the band has also recently issued International, a career-spanning single-disc best-of that has been released in some countries.)

More disappointing to this lifelong fan is the song selection. A glance at the back cover of Retro suggests that the band has been pretty generous, with 57 tracks totaling nearly five hours of music. But then I began to scrutinize the titles, and saw that "Crystal," "Regret," and "Fine Time" appear in studio, remix, and live forms (especially bizarre in the case of the heavily-synthesized last track, which features live vocals, bass, a moment or two of guitar, and machines a-plenty - even knowing that I was at the 1989 show that it was recorded at fails to make me want to hear this "live" track again). A number of other songs, including "Ceremony," "Procession," "Blue Monday," "Confusion," "Temptation," "Everything's Gone Green," and "Bizarre Love Triangle" appear in two versions, leaving the actual song count somewhere around 40 - less than half the songs the band has released throughout their career.

The repetition is one thing, but the truly vexing aspect of this box is the dubiousness of the actual track selection. (If you're a big fan this is obvious at a glance; newbies, just be warned.)

There are some things this package gets right, especially the packaging - the booklet, though fairly short on text (oddly, the band comments on only 20 or so of Retro's songs), does showcase great photos of the band members and a few associates throughout the years, something you won't find on any of their albums save for Low-Life. And lest we forget this still is the music of New Order, nicely remastered, and in copious quantities.

New Order have a tremendous legacy, for their pioneering mixture of traditional rock instruments with electronics, for their alternating thematic continuation of and complete disavowal of their previous work as Joy Division, and the sheer volume of fabulous rock and dance songs that they've crafted. Unfortunately, Retro fails to adequately convey the band's greatness even as it lifts fifty bucks or more from the wallet.