I usually can't be bothered with Amazon reviewers who go through albums track by track, but seeing as this one's a pretty incoherent compilation, I've got no choice, so here goes:World- This track differs very little from the cut on Republic- the main hook for this mix is taken from the little interlude near the end of the original cut, and the backing vocals are bit more processed-sounding. That's about it.
Blue Monday- This is the best track on the album- a sleek, shimmering techno mix which updates it just enough while still keeping the character of the original.
True Faith- Not much different from the original. A five-minute drum track is tacked on to the end of the song, and I also noticed on the radio today that the percussion track at the start is same as Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody (how uncool is that?)
Confusion- This is an absolutely storming piece of hardcore European-style techno. It's a great track, but bears no resemblance at all to the original cut.
Touched By the Hand of God- A bit lame, this one- kicks off with some ambient washes of synth, then a predictable house beat kicks in. Below par.
Bizarre Love Triangle- A pretty faceless house mix- decent enough, but doesn't do enough justice to the original.
Ruined In a Day- This is gorgeous track, but differs very little from the original cut.
Regret- This is like a stripped-down version of Regret, minus the guitars- a bit of jazzy house piano has been added- it's nice, but there's no comparing this with the original.
Age of Consent- This is the other stand-out track. Howie B has cooked up a brilliantly stoned slice of trip-hop (remember trip-hop, anyone?) A really refreshing slant on a classic NO cut.
Spooky- This one's a real throw-away mix. Pleasant, but not good enough.
So, all in all, this is for fans only. It's a bit of a mixed bag, and compared to other remix albums, like St Etienne's Casino Classics- this pales in comparison. The remixes are mostly underwhelming, and there's no real coherence to the set. A pity, because this one could have been a stormer.
Released as a companion to New Order's Best of album, released in 1995, The Rest of New Order at first appears to be....a lot of the tracks repeating themselves. Not so much a Rest Of you might think, but more of a Best of repackaged for the unwary punter. However, despite featuring 8 of the tracks that appear on the Best of, some of the tracks have been so radically reworked that it's almost like owning an entirely new collection altogether. Here you get versions of Age of Consent, Confusion and Everything's Gone Green (none of which appear on the Best Of), as well as bigger and better dancefloor fillers such as True Faith, Regret and Temptation.
Especially good is the hardfloor mix of Blue Monday, but it's pretty difficult to pick stand-out tracks when you've got the likes of Armand van Helden, Paul Oakenfold (in Perfecto mode) and Howie B calling the tune(s). Personal favourite here would have to be the reworking of True Faith by Shep Pettibone, simply because it sounds radically different (a very dark tribal affair), yet has still remained a brilliant track with great hooks.
All in all then, a pretty good remix collection of tunes you already know and love, but given some new life by some pretty nifty studio work. Certainly not an essential collection, but one you can definitely put on before you go out and hit the clubs, and a good taster for a new album that will hopefully appear some time in 2001.
