New Order: Low-Life (2015 remaster) [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This LP uses the 2015 remaster and keeps Peter Saville's original Factory sleeve (Fact 100). Low-Life reached No. 7 in the UK, sits in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and Q ranked it among the 100 greatest British albums.

This edition

• 2015 remaster
• Stereo mix
• Original Factory artwork

About the album

Low-Life is the album where New Order stopped being the band that came out of Joy Division and became the band that filled dance floors. Recorded and mixed in London at Jam and Britannia Row, it blends their post-punk guitars and Peter Hook's high, melodic bass with a growing arsenal of synthesisers and samplers.

"Love Vigilantes" opens with a jangly, almost country lilt, "The Perfect Kiss" (its video directed by Jonathan Demme) is a pulsing epic, "Sub-culture" later got a club remix by John Robie, and "Elegia" is a slow, haunting instrumental. "Sunrise" and "Face Up" show how hard the band could still rock, while "This Time of Night" pairs the two sides of their sound beautifully.

Peter Saville photographed the four members on instant film for the cover, the one time New Order put their own faces on a sleeve. Pitchfork gave it a 9.0, and Neil Tennant, reviewing it for Smash Hits, called it their best work, which is a bit like getting a reference from the competition.

Also at Kops: more New Order on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Factory / Warner Music UK (cat# Fact 100), a reissue of the 1985 album.