Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Frankly, This Could Have Been Better., January 19, 2003
New Order's four-disc box set apparently ignited controversy before it was even released. When fans complained that the tracklisting didn't have enough rare tracks, the record label hastily assembled a fifth CD which is only available on limited-edition pressings. But even with the fifth disc, "Retro" still comes up short, and that's a shame because a band like New Order deserves a box set that does them justice. What's to like? The first disc, "Pop," compiles the band's hits, and it does the job admirably, featuring classics like "Blue Monday," the original version of "Temptation," "Bizarre Love Triangle," and "The Perfect Kiss." I was also pleasantly surprised to have also found "Brutal," which was previously available on the soundtrack to "The Beach." The CD titled "Club" is a fairly competent collection of remixes, the best of which is Jam and Spoon's hyperactive makeover of "Blue Monday," as well as the remixes of "Confusion" and "Shellshock." But "Retro" encounters problems on the disc "Fan," which is a randomly assembled set of album tracks. Most New Order fans already have these from the original albums, and to have them here again on this box set seems a bit pointless. The "Live" disc is also uneven. Some of the performances are really good ("Ceremony," "Everything's Gone Green," "Temptation,") while others are sloppily executed ("Fine Time," "World," "Regret"). The fifth disc (limited edition only) fares better, which has personal favorites such as the "Round and Round" b-side "Best and Marsh" and "Such a Good Thing." This CD also has a meandering, 17-minute version of "Elegia" for those who couldn't get enough of the edited album version. So is "Retro" worth a purchase? Well, that depends on who you are. Diehard fans may want to give it a whirl, but they should really try to get the version that has the fifth disc. But casual listeners are encouraged to get the band's individual albums instead. As a survey of New Order's history, "Retro" definitely has its moments, but it's also incomplete, inconsistent, and flawed. Proceed with caution.
|
|
|
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Abundance of Riches, February 11, 2003
With Substance, a two-disc collection of ace tracks and b-sides, and The Best of New Order still available for purchase, there's a sense that Retro is redundant. The band must have felt the same. So, to shake things up, they split the four discs thematically (Pop, Fan, Club, and Live), and gave each to a contemporary to sort out. Miranda Sawyer's Pop is the weakest set - not due to material (excellent, including the original version of "Temptation"), but because it's redolent of past collections. Still, her sequencing's inspired, emphasizing New Order's galvanic hooks. John McCready's Fan leans heavily on darker tunes, charting their progress from harrowing industrialism to an uncompromisingly grim but never hopeless dance rock. Mike Pickering's Club is a remixer's paradise. I'm not a fan of extended mixes, but these never lose the song amidst the sound effects. Laid back-to-back, they make a case for the art. The biggest surprise is Bobby Gillespie's Live disc because (a) I hate live records and (b) New Order have given the worst shows I've ever seen. On the evidence here, I must have caught them on very bad nights. Each track breathes life into their studio perfectionism, and the rough edges do them proud. As they should be: Retro is an abundance of riches.
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A nifty concept, but lousy timing and spotty execution, January 11, 2003
Retro sports a nifty concept, but suffers from a combination of lousy timing and mediocre execution. New Order has a history of more than 20 years as a group (closer to 15 if one subtracts service time for the lengthy hiatus they took between 1993's Republic and 2001's Get Ready, during which time each member released albums as part of a side project), but it's one that is still growing, with the band currently in the studio recording new material. (A cynic might suggest that this material, too, shall one day appear on another box set.) One could make the claim that the box is meant as an introduction to the band for new fans, but wouldn't a one- or two-disc set serve equally well for this purpose? For that matter, wouldn't one of the other New Order compilations, such as 1987's Substance or 1994's Best of, cover most of the needed territory? (Perhaps in recognition of this, the band has also recently issued International, a career-spanning single-disc best-of that has been released in some countries.)More disappointing to this lifelong fan is the song selection. A glance at the back cover of Retro suggests that the band has been pretty generous, with 57 tracks totaling nearly five hours of music. But then I began to scrutinize the titles, and saw that "Crystal," "Regret," and "Fine Time" appear in studio, remix, and live forms (especially bizarre in the case of the heavily-synthesized last track, which features live vocals, bass, a moment or two of guitar, and machines a-plenty - even knowing that I was at the 1989 show that it was recorded at fails to make me want to hear this "live" track again). A number of other songs, including "Ceremony," "Procession," "Blue Monday," "Confusion," "Temptation," "Everything's Gone Green," and "Bizarre Love Triangle" appear in two versions, leaving the actual song count somewhere around 40 - less than half the songs the band has released throughout their career. The repetition is one thing, but the truly vexing aspect of this box is the dubiousness of the actual track selection. (If you're a big fan this is obvious at a glance; newbies, just be warned.) There are some things this package gets right, especially the packaging - the booklet, though fairly short on text (oddly, the band comments on only 20 or so of Retro's songs), does showcase great photos of the band members and a few associates throughout the years, something you won't find on any of their albums save for Low-Life. And lest we forget this still is the music of New Order, nicely remastered, and in copious quantities. New Order have a tremendous legacy, for their pioneering mixture of traditional rock instruments with electronics, for their alternating thematic continuation of and complete disavowal of their previous work as Joy Division, and the sheer volume of fabulous rock and dance songs that they've crafted. Unfortunately, Retro fails to adequately convey the band's greatness even as it lifts fifty bucks or more from the wallet.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
See all 57 tracks on this disc
by New Order 
