New Order – ‘(The Best & Rest Of)’ album review: Nothing to get excited about with this greatest hits re-hash
For New Order’s latest greatest hits package, Manchester’s most famous indie synthesists rustle up a half-baked, superfluous compilation of interest only to the most dedicated crate digger.
The Skinny: Whether to drum up attention for their upcoming South American dates or simply going through the motions after 11 years since their last studio offering Music Complete, either the band or Warner Music has struck upon the capital idea of dusting off 1994’s The Best of New Order and the following year’s The Rest of New Order remix collection for a conjoined twofer that just cannot shake off the exhaustion.
No one’s doubting the tunes. Originally dropped after their Republic era and sparking a soft hiatus of sorts for the remainder of the decade, (The Best & Test Of)’s first disc offers a respectable smörgåsbord of their material up to 1994, collating singles featured on the Pretty in Pink and Salvation! movies as well as alternative mixes of the likes of ‘True Faith’ and ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’.
Since then, there have been a total of six different best-ofs and remix compilations of sorts, if counting international-only releases and 2011’s Total, spanning material from the Joy Division predecessor. That’s a lot of milking, a cash grab that colours the entirety of (The Best & Test Of’s tired recycling.
Firstly, why not a new package altogether? It feels odd to pluck The Best of New Order for resale when it stops before a lot of great songs, ‘Crystal’ and ‘Krafty’ highlights of their 21st century, but covered by 2005’s Singles collection.
Then there’s the waning essentiality of the whole exercise. One of the best entries of the New Order canon is the Substance 1987 compilation, the closest approximation to an album you’ll get that includes the original ‘Blue Monday’ before it’s ‘’88’ rejig, the first ‘True Faith’ as its gleaming exclusive promo, and the litany of early cuts like ‘Ceremony’ and ‘Everything’s Gone Green’ doing the Factory collection justice.
It could have been a great marker of New Order’s unfolding story, every six years or so dropping a new Substance package that scoops up all the singles and B-sides of that era, and thus carrying on for as long as the band had the mileage in them. Instead, we get a confused and tired (The Best & Test Of) that offers no real retrospective new angle on New Order’s thrilling pop tapestry.
Aside from its new audio remaster (The Best & Test Of) is really only notable for its hefty extra two lots of discs gathering up their litany of acclaimed remixes for the dance DJ world. Record riflers will be happy, now easily spinning ‘Confusion’s thumping ‘Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix’ and ‘Temptation’s ‘CJ Bolland Mix’ for a suitably clubland donk, but therein lies the problem. Go the whole hog, release a bumper remix trove rather than compromise with an already issued best-of tacked on from over 30 years ago.
Standout Track: ‘True Faith-94’
The Verdict: While offering plenty for the dance crowd, unfortunately, the recent (The Best & Test Of) just reeks of an utter moribund lack of essentiality; New Order’s electronic pop heights are already better served by more dispensable greatest hits of years before.
Release Date: July 17th, 2026 | Label: Warner Music
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