Additional personnel: Andrew Robinson, Mac Quayle (programming).

Producers: Arthur Baker, New Order, Martin Hannett, Stephen Hague.

Engineers: Chris Nagle, Michael Johnson, Mike "Spike" Drake.

Includes liner notes by Paul Morley.

Personnel: Andrew Robinson, Mac Quayle (programming).

Audio Mixers: Alan Meyerson; Arthur Baker; Spike Drake; Stephen Hague.

Audio Remixers: Johnny Potoker; Mark Plati; Arthur Baker; Shep Pettibone.

Liner Note Author: Paul Morley.

Photographer: Trevor Key.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Gillian Gilbert; Peter Hook; Stephen Morris; Bernard Sumner.

This compilation, originally released in 1994, collects the best of the legendary English band's singles and choice album cuts recorded since New Order formed out of the wreckage of Joy Division in 1980. Classic album tracks like "Love Vigilantes" and "Age of Consent" sit alongside smash singles like "True Faith" and a song from the soundtrack to the 1987 film SALVATION!, "Let's Go (Nothing For Me)." As an alternative to the thematically sequenced box set, RETRO, THE BEST OF NEW ORDER is an ideal starting point for initiates.

New Order's first compilation album, Substance (1987), finally broke the group through to commercial success in the U.S. Its second one, The Best of New Order, isn't exactly Substance II. The previous set was a singles collection, and Best Of does pick up that story, including a series of songs -- "True Faith" (in a new remix), "Touched by the Hand of God," "Blue Monday 88," "Fine Time," "Round & Round" (in a new remix), "Run," and "World in Motion" -- that were bigger hits in the U.K. than in the U.S. (Also included is the group's biggest U.S. hit, "Regret" as well as its charting follow-up, "World [The Price of Love].") But in addition, the compilers have included one song each from the group's albums, with the exception of Brotherhood -- "Dreams Never End" from Movement, "Age of Consent" from Power, Corruption & Lies, "Love Vigilantes" from Low-Life, "Vanishing Point" from Technique, and "Ruined in a Day" from Republic. Add in some rarities, plus "Bizarre Love Triangle," repeated from Substance, and you have 17 tracks taking up 70 and a half minutes and providing a good survey of New Order, 1981-1993. Substance, with its concentration on the group's run of classic singles from the early '80s, is a more consistent effort, but The Best of New Order, even if it is misnamed, is an excellent sampler of one of the major British bands of the 1980s. ~ William Ruhlmann