Doing a 180: New Order

If you did a dance of joy last month when New Order released Music Complete, their first proper studio album in a decade, then you're most likely exactly the sort of person who'll be excited to learn that - not entirely coincidentally - we've just released 180-gram vinyl reissues on the three most recent albums in the band's catalog prior to their latest effort.

Can't remember what those albums were? Well, that's understandable, given that it's been 10 years or more since any of them were originally released, so allow us to refresh your memory:

Republic: If you aren't familiar with this album's first single, then you must not have been listening to the radio in the summer of 1993, because "Regret" was virtually everywhere at the time, hitting #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock and Hot Dance Music / Club Play charts, #7 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart, and even provided the band with a top-30 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Other key tracks on the album included "Ruined in a Day," "World," and "Spooky," each of which made it into the top 30 of at least one Billboard chart. Given that it was New Order's first album in four years at the time of its release, it's probably fair to call it a comeback, and a successful one at that.

Get Ready: Eight years later, New Order finally got around to regrouping again, this time for an effort which - at least at present - remains the last time all four core members of the band (Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and Gillian Gilbert) played on a New Order album. The big single from the proceedings was "Crystal," which gave the group another #1 on the Hot Dance Music / Club Play chart, with "Someone Like You" cracking the top 40 of the same chart, but many people remember Get Ready for its two tracks with guest vocalists: "Turn My Way," with Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, and "Rock the Shack," with Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream.

Waiting for the Sirens' Call: Jumping back on the an-album-every-four-years track, New Order had to make do without the services of Gillian Gilbert, but with Phil Cunningham stepping in as her able replacement, the band once again found success in the upper reaches of the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, with "Krafty" hitting #2 and both "Jetstream" and "Guilt is a Useless Emotion" hitting #3. Although it was met with uncertainty by some fans upon its initial release, Sirens' Call received a four-star review from Rolling Stone straight out of the gate, and like pretty much every New Order album ever, it doesn't take long for it to grow on you.