YMMV / New Order

• Audience-Alienating Era: The band's "guitar" era, encompassing 2001 to 2013. While Get Ready is well regarded (to the point of being considered the only album to have escaped the gargantuan shadow of Technique), its two follow-ups, Waiting for the Sirens' Call and Lost Sirens, are seen as below the band's usual standards thanks to its stark deviation from their typical Alternative Dance sound, with Get Ready being credited with instigating the change. Music Complete, which moved back to a synth-heavy dance style, is generally regarded as what ended the slump.
• Awesome Music: Substance, from start to finish — "Blue Monday," "True Faith," "Bizarre Love Triangle," and "The Perfect Kiss" are especially noteworthy. It's no accident that AllMusic lists the compilation as an "album pick," meaning the site's editors consider it the most representaive of the band's output as a whole.
  • The original version of Ceremony (on the collector's edition of Movement and the singles discs) on max volume.
  • "Fine Time", "Round and Round", "Run" and other tracks on the Technique album.
  • "Elegia" has gained a fair bit of notoriety for its use in Stranger Things, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and More, an Oscar-nominated animated short.
  • Pretty much all of their output from 1982-1989, starting with Power, Corruption and Lies and ending with Technique counts as this trope.
• The Band Minus the Face: The band without Peter Hook, to an extent. The band deliberately set out not to have a "face", but Hook's distinctive bass sound is conspicuous in its absence; New Order attempted to rectify this by including a few Hook-esque basslines on Music Complete, though the difference is still apparent.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In the middle of the "Bizarre Love Triangle" video the music stops and there's a black-and-white scene (it looks like a movie clip, but was actually made specifically for the video) of a man and a woman having a conversation about reincarnation. And then the music video proper just picks up right where it left off.
• Broken Base: There's one over which version of "Sub-Culture" is the best. Most prefer the original album version, however there is a significant minority that prefers the single mix that appears on Substance. There's also a smaller third camp that prefer the Razormaid/Sarm West mix that came packaged with an issue of the magazine Record Mirror.
• Contested Sequel: Waiting for the Sirens' Call and Lost Sirens compared to Get Ready.
• Eclipsed by the Remix: The 1995 Pump Panel Remix of "Confusion" is far better-known than either the original version or the Substance re-recording, thanks to its inclusion in Blade. There's also how "Bizarre Love Triangle" is probably more heard through either the Shep Pettibone remix done for the 12", or the Stephen Hague one from The Best of New Order.
• Epic Riff:
  • One writer called the intro to "Blue Monday" "the most recognizable sonic signature of the decade."
  • The opening bass riff to "Bizarre Love Triangle". Okay, it is technically from a synthesizer, but it is still immediately recognizable nonetheless.
• Fan Nickname: Peter Hook is known as "Hooky". Bernard Sumner is "Barney", after a bootlegged live performance that got his name wrong in the credits.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Goes both ways. Some New Order fans ignore Joy Division, and vice versa.
  • The single mix of "Sub-Culture", which is generally seen as overproduced compared to the minimalist album version.
  • "World in Motion", due to it being significantly Lighter and Softer than New Order's typical material and due to it having a very cheesy rap break in it (which wasn't even written by any of the band members, mind you).
  • Various '90s remixes, because they either change too little (e.g. "True Faith-94", "1963-94") or change too much (e.g. the Sly & Robbie mixes of "Ruined in a Day", "Blue Monday-95"). The one '90s remix that seems to get the most favorable response from fans is "1963-95", which is generally thought to do a good job distinguishing itself from the originals while remaining a good arrangements on its own merits. Tellingly, the 2016 reissue of Singles replaces the extended version of "1963-94" with "1963-95", with the latter being the only one of the band's '90s remixes to be included on this version of the compilation (the mixes of the Republic singles are simply radio edits of the album versions).
  • Waiting for the Sirens' Call and Lost Sirens, which are too guitar-heavy for many fans' tastes. Get Ready is sometimes thrown in as well due to it also being pretty guitar-driven, though it's a considerably less common target than the two albums that came after it.
  • Phil Cunningham, due to his nature as a replacement for Gillian Gilbert during her brief retirement and because his appearance coincided with a more guitar-driven direction for New Order up until 2013. This seems to have dissipated somewhat with Music Complete and its return to a more electronic direction as well as Gilbert's return to the band.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Pet Shop Boys, due to their similar style as well as both bands working with producer Stephen Hague. Frontman Neil Tennant has professed a love of Joy Division and New Order in interviews, as well as contributing vocals to several Electronic songs. The bands were even set to tour together before being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Gateway Series: The band is the entry point into various forms of electronic and dance music for a lot of indie rock fans. Conversely, New Order's also a good entry point into Post-Punk, Goth Rock, and Alternative Rock for fans of dance music and synthpop.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • "Confusion" was really popular among breakdancers, who likely hadn't heard of Joy Division or Factory Records, to the point where it made the Billboard R&B charts and led to the band's U.S. deal with Quincy Jones' Qwest label, which mainly dealt in R&B.
  • Similarly, "Bizarre Love Triangle" has a cult following among the Asian American community as a dance song. This article posits that it's because of the Narm Charm and New Wave Music being The Moral Substitute for the more openly rebellious Punk Rock and Heavy Metal among the community, where being a fan of the latter genres could bring shame upon the family.
  • New Order established a cult following in the U.S. almost immediately due to club and College Radio play and the notoriety of their previous incarnation, Joy Division, which they would successfully ride to mainstream success through the 1980s, culminating in their stateside breakthrough with "True Faith" and Substance. The band is also one of the original wave of '80s alternative bands like The Cure and Depeche Mode to have maintained their popularity in the U.S. post-Nevermind, albeit mostly in urban areas where dance and indie music have prominent followings. The band's post-reunion tour stops have been mainly concentrated on the East and West Coasts.
• Growing the Beard: "Everything's Gone Green" and "Temptation", where the band began to take more influence from electronica rather than copying the old Joy Division sound.
• LGBT Fanbase: New Order has one, largely due to being heavily influenced by a genre that was widely popular among gay people, as well as being part of a scene that has largely been gay-friendly throughout its history. They even cited gay disco star Sylvester as a key influence on their sound. Though both men are straight, photos of Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook at SF Pride '83 resurfaced on Reddit during Pride Month 2021, with the two of them playfully posing with each other and Sumner appearing shirtless at one point.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • John Barnes' rap in "World In Motion", to the point where it used to have its own Wikipedia article (it's since been merged into a section of the "World In Motion" page). For those not aware, keep in mind that Barnes was not a professional musician, but rather a football player; his addition being due to the song being produced for the England national football team's 1990 FIFA World Cup campaign.
  • "Blue Monday" has become the go-to song to '80s-set period pieces ^note As opposed to works made in The '80s and set contemporarily, remix videos of Real Life Nazis, bullies, and jerks in general getting their comeuppance. Here's an example.
• More Popular Spin Off: While Joy Division was very well-regarded and influential, New Order was much more commercially successful, at least partially due to their poppier sound but mostly because Joy Division was already on the verge of success prior to Ian Curtis' suicide.
• Narm Charm: Generally regarded as the main source of appeal for "World in Motion". The lyrics are incredibly cheesy and the music is bubbly enough to make Milli Vanilli seem dark by comparison, but it's also fun as hell. It helps that it was written strictly as a single for the 1990 World Cup instead of being a more typical non-album single by the band.
• Never Live It Down:
  • The cover for the 12-inch of "Blue Monday" is notorious for being so expensive to produce that it lost Factory Records money each time it was sold, but people tend to forget that later pressings swapped out the die-cut sleeve for a cheaper printed one, instead exaggerating the initial loss to portray it as a contributing factor to Factory's bankruptcy (as illustrated in 24-Hour Party People).
  • New Order is notorious as the other band that bankrupted Factory Records by taking too long to record a follow-up to Technique.
  • The band's infamous live appearance on Top of the Pops of "Blue Monday", which was so inept (due to them attempting to perform the song live—on a show that usually required the performers to mime— with naturally temperamental analog synthesizers of the era) that there were rumours that they were one of the few acts to have their single go down on the charts afterward.^note  Those rumours were actually false, as it went up three places from #17 to #14.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • "In a Lonely Place," one of the last songs Joy Division wrote and demoed before Ian Curtis' death; while the New Order re-recording isn't as haunting as the Joy Division demo, it still carries a primeval sound and eerily suicidal lyrics that make it seem like something straight out of the Closer sessions.
  • Being a continuation of their work as Joy Division with very conspicuous Creator Breakdown at play, much of the songs on Movement delve into this.
  • "Murder", a chaotic Post-Punk instrumental with heavy influence from the Closer and Movement sessions, featuring some rather unnerving samples of dialogue from Caligula and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The shouts of "CROWS, CROWS, CROWS, I HATE THEM!" will certainly send chills down your spine.
• Older Than They Think: A common complaint about the video for "60 Miles an Hour" is that it's too comedic to fit with any of New Order's other videos, often framing it as if it's the only time New Order tried to be "funny" and accusing it of being a telltale sign of the band declining in quality post-Factory; in actuality, the band was no stranger to including comedic elements in their work during the Factory years, particularly during the tail end of the era.
• Posthumous Popularity Potential: Tend to be overshadowed by Ian Curtis and their former life as Joy Division, despite producing many more hit singles and making many more albums.
• Refrain from Assuming: The song is not "How Does It Feel?" or "I Thought I Was Mistaken" but "Blue Monday." Thanks to their fondness for Non Appearing Titles, other potential examples are too numerous to list here.
• Replacement Scrappy: What many fans think of Gillian's temporary replacement, Phil Cunningham. The sentiment lessened considerably after Gilbert returned in 2011, with Cunningham staying in the lineup alongside her, and in place of that fans now argue over whether or not new inductee Tom Chapman is a suitable replacement for Peter Hook.
• Sampled Up: The choir sample in "Blue Monday" is taken from the Kraftwerk song "Uranium", but is much better known nowadays for its use in New Order's track.
• Seasonal Rot: Their 2001-2013 albums have had a mixed reception from fans at best. Critics, however, are more kind to that era, save for the polarizing Waiting for the Sirens' Call.
• So Bad, It's Good:
  • John Barnes' rap in "World In Motion". It was written by a comedian and performed by a professional athlete with no musical experience, but at the same time its cornball energy makes it an essential part of an already entertainingly cheesy song.
  • A lot of YouTube commenters on the band's TOTP live version of "Blue Monday" say they find watching it compelling despite being widely considered one of the worst live renditions ever.
• Song Association: After being featured in the infamous Shock Site video "1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick" (which depicts the graphic real-life murder of a Chinese exchange student in Canada), many are unable to shake off the thoughts of rather squicky imagery in connection to "True Faith". Ironic, seeing as how the song was previously featured in American Psycho, itself guilty of causing the public to associate various '80s pop hits with scenes of murder and debauchery.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel:
  • Power, Corruption & Lies is considered to be much better than their debut.
  • While Republic is generally seen as a good album (if more divisive than its predecessors), it suffered heavily from being caught in the shadow of Technique, and the stylistic similarities to Bernard Sumner's work with Electronic caused some to accuse it of being a solo album of his in all but name. Get Ready, meanwhile, was almost just as rapturously received as Technique and is often considered not only the band's best 21st Century album, but also one of their best overall.
  • Music Complete is considered a substantial improvement over Waiting for the Sirens' Call and Lost Sirens, which are generally seen as the band's weakest albums (though they still have a considerable share of fans, with Waiting being slightly Vindicated by History in the years since its release).
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "All the Way" sounds a lot like The Cure's "Just Like Heaven", which in turn sounds a lot like "Weirdo".
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Fan response to any major alterations to a previously released song tends to be middling at best, with the Phil Spector-esque single mix of "Sub-culture" and the Republic-era remixes of past hits being particular points of contention. The cuts made to "The Perfect Kiss"^note on CD copies only, "Sub-culture", "Shellshock" and "Hurt" on Substance are also seen as a prominent drawback of the otherwise well-received compilation.
  • Bernard Sumner famously described "World in Motion" as "the last straw for Joy Division fans", as its upbeat sound had inverted their former band's famously gloomy image.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "All Day Long", from Brotherhood, which matches melancholy-yet-epic music and lyrics about child abuse to sad (but very powerful) results. "Ceremony" also counts too, due to it quite vividly reflecting Ian Curtis' state of mind in the days leading up to the suicide that would change Joy Division forever; one can even hear a visibly mournful tone in Bernard's vocals on the March 1981 recording.
  • One Word: "Elegia", especially when you learn it was New Order's tribute to Ian Curtis. It's been suggested that one of the reasons "Elegia" is an instrumental is because in Joy Division, Ian was the one who wrote all the lyrics, and sang most of them too, and now he's no longer there to do either. Jesus.
• Tough Act to Follow:
  • Technique was a gargantuan critical and commercial success for New Order when it came out in 1989, and is often considered by both fans and critics to be the band's greatest album. Consequently, it's ended up being the measuring stick against which all later albums have been compared. Only one post-1989 album ended up escaping the shadow cast over New Order by Technique: Get Ready, which itself ended up becoming another example of this trope for the band, commonly being used by fans and critics as a point of reference for what was expected out of New Order in the 21st Century.
  • There's also the fact that the band perpetually exists in the shadow of Joy Division, often considered a pioneering force in the Post-Punk movement and one of Manchester's great cultural legends (in part due to the sudden sense of mystique procured by frontman Ian Curtis's 1980 suicide, which re-contextualized Joy Division's famously dreary lyrics). Despite New Order continuously making more money and establishing a greater foothold in the music scene, it's Joy Division that sees the greater amount of acclaim.
• Vindicated by History: Movement has gained recognition over the years for having some good songs and serving as a link between Joy Division and the band's later work. It's also got an iconic Peter Saville cover. Peter Hook has also since warmed up to it.
• Win Back the Crowd: Music Complete and its shift back towards synth-heavy Alternative Dance managed to gain back a good chunk of fans and critics who felt alienated by the more guitar-driven direction of New Order's previous 21st-Century output.

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