New Order – Movement (Collector's Edition)

Note: these reviews are not about the sound quality of the re-mastered albums - they are solely concerned with the quality of the music. If you want information on the re-mastering, www.neworderonline.com have a number of threads on their forum.

"Each way I turn, I know I'll always try, to break this circle that's been placed around me."

You have to admire the original three members of New Order. Leaving the cashing in duties to their record label, the decision (based on a long standing pact made before Curtis's death) to re-name and reform shows great boldness and tenacity. Another bold decision was to carry on with all new material, taking just two songs (written with Curtis but not yet recorded) into their new incarnation. The shutters came down, the band retreating into near media silence, angered by the same old questions. But to be honest, what else were they going to do? The day-jobs were long since behind them, and let's remember one thing - this was always Hook and Sumner's band. They were there at the beginning. Curtis was recruited as a vocalist. Morris also came later. This was their group, and with that comes their right to do whatever the hell they pleased.It's a shame then that in their debut album Movement, they found themselves shackled so tightly to the old order. The decision to allow Martin Hannett to produce the album was, in hindsight, the wrong one, the result a faded version of Joy Division. The album artwork speaks volumes - a cold and drab blue, cut with clinical, regimented lines, matching the frosty sound and the unfeeling rhythms. As a whole, there is a detached feel, of a band struggling to remove themselves from the shackles of their past. Matters were not helped by Hannett's legal disputes with Factory, nor his drug and drink dependencies, causing friction in the studio. The band, missing the guidance they normally found in Curtis, found Hannett hostile and uncooperative, something that comes over in the recordings.However, there are still some good songs here. "Dreams Never End" is a delight, Hook taking on vocal duties, bellowing the lyrics over sparkly, inventive guitar lines and a trademark pummel from Morris, stabbing the drums like a melody line. Morris in a way is key to their re-invention - the magical single "Procession", also available on this re-issue, is mostly his composition, and contains all the elements New Order would later use to great effect. It starts with a gentle build of keyboards before cascading into erratic drums lines, rolling bass and snappy, Andy Gill-esque jagged guitar hooks. "Everything's Gone Green", their second single, is equally inventive, proto acid-house with pumping drums like pistons as the track chugs and thrusts. It is a shame they did not rely on their instincts to change when recording the album."Truth" and "Senses" are a good example, the shimmering scarcity of Joy Division found on the former with the clatter of industrial toms on the latter. Senses does benefit from a nifty guitar riff, but it is buried so far in the flat and lifeless mix, all traces of reverb aside from the percussion line removed. "Chosen Time" is better, but only marginally, "ICB" dreary and monotonous. And so on and so on, Hannett removing any pace from the songs with his lifeless and mostly tedious production. The fault lies with him, not with the band - one only wishes a more sympathetic and kinder mentor could have steered them through this difficult period in the studio.Sales of Movement at the time were dismal, but thankfully New Order had better up their sleeve, releasing a brace of wonderful singles that form the second CD on this release. Most notably "Temptation", found here for the first time on CD in its original full length version. The compilation Substance featured a re-recorded version, all jingly guitars and "True Faith" drum patterns, which has become the preferred adaptation. Thankfully, here we finally have the original, complete in both its short and long renderings, replete with the yelp as Sumner receives a snowball down his shirt in the studio. It is one of their finest moments, a song that in the right conditions can have me in tears, its infectious joyous nature and Sumner's raw, unpolished vocal indicative of all that is great about pop music.Both recordings of "Ceremony" are also featured (though they are not that different from each other, one just slightly fuzzier), plus the b-sides. Most everything here has already been issued on Substance, with the exception of ‘Mesh'. The collector's edition is for completists only - casual listeners would do better to go to Itunes and download the original of "Temptation" on its own. However, together these two CD's show the choices New Order faced as to what direction to go, and I for one am glad they built on the sound of the singles rather than the album. Original Release: 54% This edition: 58%