New Order - Brotherhood

Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of this 1986 album from the Manchester quartet, one of the most successful and consistent bands of the '80s and beyond. After the suicide of vocalist Ian Curtis, the three surviving members of Joy Division regrouped under the band name New Order, adding Gillian Gilbert on keyboards. The rest, as they say, is history. Disc One in this package contains the original album in its digitally remastered glory. Disc Two is filled with eight non-album singles, B-sides and remixes. This is as great as it gets! Rhino UK. 2008. Album Description

good music, flawed remaster job

Please note that almost all the reviews here are for the original cd - not the remastered 2 cd set. See "Paul slop"s review for the real scoop. At least the first disc seemed to escape the clicks and other unwanted defects.

One star deducted for the poor remaster job.

Amazon says: "Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of this 1986 album ... This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title." - No - this one is available. November 21, 2008

Loaded with errors

The MUSIC on these New Order reissues get a 5/5, easily. However, there were far too many egregious mistakes made in the creation of the discs themselves to give them a pass. Only the first discs were re-mastered though they still have some problems, it is the bonus discs that are an absolute mess.

Warner Music/Rhino know about these problems, but there is yet no word on any forthcoming fixes. So I'd hold off until these issues are addressed.

Noted below are the specific problems with the Brotherhood reissue:


1, Paradise
2, weirdo
3, As it is when it was
4, Broken promise
5, Way of life
6, Bizarre love triangle
7, All day long
8, Angel dust
9, Every little counts
10, State of the nation

Brotherhood - bonus disc
1, Bizarre love triangle (shep pettibone remix)
2, 1963 - Clicks at 0:04, 0:25, 0:28, 0:30, 0:39, 0:46, 0:55, 1:14, 1:37, 1:56, 2:03, 2:07, 2:14, 2:42, 3:07, 3:29, 3:40, 3:54, 4:25, 4:32, 4:34, 4:40, 4:55, 5:00, 5:16, and 5:25. "Stutter" at 3:36. In addition, "the track has a lot of clipping"
3, True Faith (shep pettibone remix)
4, Touched by the hand of god - Dubious sound quality, clicks, pops and digital glitches at: 0:08, 0:13, 0:15, 0:23, 0:29, 0:39, 6:53, 6:58, and 7:00.
5, Blue Monday `88
6, Evil dust - "sounds like it was recorded directly from vinyl", "crackles or some sort of skip at the start"
7, True Dub - Not what it says: plays a 1994 Tall Paul "eschreamer dubbier" remix
8, beach buggy - Not what it says: plays Blue Monday 1988 (dub version)
November 12, 2008

amazingly not outdated

I was never a rabid New Order fan. I liked New Order a lot back in the late 80's early 90's, mostly through Substance, for the dance stuff -- Blue Monday, Confusion, Temptation, Subculture, the Bizarre Love Triangle remix -- which is great dance music, much richer than most. Nonetheless that's mostly how I knew New Order, and never explored much past Substance til recently.

It was through hearing some material from Get Ready and Waiting for the Siren's Call recently that I realized there was more to this band, and got interested in hearing more of the older material as well. This album is the album that I've been happiest to discover.

This album is surprisingly similar in sound to Waiting for the Siren's Call -- with a lot of guitar-based music as well as dance tracks. The version of Bizarre Love Triangle I grew up with, the dancier version on Substance, now sounds slightly dated to me, as does much of that 80's dance material, but the version here much less so, and I'd say the same about the album in general. Amazingly current! if this album came out now it would get a lot of attention, and wouldn't sound out of date.

There's more emphasis on song and melody vs beat, though of course there's plenty of rhythm too. The guitar-bass-keyboard interplay works very well. And these guys are great with the melody. There's something indescribable to me that seems to run through all New Order's work, that is, something indescribably New Order-y, a particular sense of melody or beauty you can recognize as theirs, and it's very strong here.

A lovely listen. I'm happy to find it after thinking I'd run through my interest in the band -- they're much richer than I'd thought. February 4, 2008

This is Better than Power, Corruption and Lies !!! Peter Hook steals the show

I agree with most reviewers that the track "All day long" is the Best on this album but I Also feel this album has the best version of Bizarre Love Triangle cuz you can Finally Really hear Peter hooks infectious bass line wich Always carried this tune in my opinion !!! The other tracks hold up a lot better than the tracks on Power, Corruption and Lies and this album seems more alternative than that album and Not so Stuck in the 80's as the latter !!! This is my 3rd favorite new order full length album. Peter Hook on bass Really shines and carries this album to its Zenith musically~ Thanks Hooky :) April 10, 2007

(three and a half stars) the last of the pre-Substance albums

The name of New Order's "Brotherhood" perfectly matches the optimistic nature of this album, probably the band's most buoyant release, and quite a departure from their previous album "Low-Life" (a good name for that album as well). "Brotherhood" weighs in as one of the band's most consistent albums -- really, if I were rating each song separately, I would give each either three or four stars. The classic song on "Brotherhood," is, of course, "Bizarre Love Triangle," but I actually prefer the slightly different version on "Substance," the band's next release, which was sort of a greatest hits album with additional previously unreleased material.

Nothing on "Brotherhood" truly "wows" me, like, for instance, "Age of Consent," "True Faith," "Regret," or "Crystal;" but, then again, I'm not tempted to use my "skip" button on any song (perhaps Bernard Sumner didn't need to giggle quite so much on the closer "Every Little Counts"). The opener "Paradise," has a riff similar to The Cure's "Doing the Unstuck," which simply adds to the obvious connection between these two bands (e.g. "Just Like Heaven" and "All the Way;" "A Forest" and "Sunrise;" "In Between Days" and "Dreams Never End").

I've now reviewed all of New Order's studio albums. Here's my list of most to least favorite:

1. Get Ready
2. Republic
3. Waiting for the Sirens' Call
4. Power, Corruption and Lies
5. Movement
6. Substance
7. Brotherhood
8. Low-Life
9. Technique

Obviously, I'm one of those fans who prefers the lusher more complex sounds of New Order's later albums, as opposed to their earlier Techno/Brit/80s pop. However, even "Technique," though on the bottom of my list, is, in my opinion, quite good. I'm definitely looking forward to Bernard and Co.'s next album, as well as to seeing them in concert. June 20, 2006

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