Substance (also known as Substance 1987) is a compilation album by English alternative dance band New Order. It was released in August 1987 by Factory Records. The album compiles all of the band's singles at that point in their 12-inch versions, along with their respective B-side tracks. The then-newly released non-album single "True Faith" is also featured, along with its B-side "1963" and new versions of "Temptation" and "Confusion".
Substance was released as a double LP (12 tracks), a double CD (24 tracks), a double cassette (24 or 28 tracks), a single cassette (12 tracks) in the U.S. and a digital audio tape (24 tracks). It sold over one million copies and became New Order's most popular and critically acclaimed album.
It is the companion to a similar singles compilation by New Order's predecessor band Joy Division, also entitled Substance.
Songs
While Substance presents a sizeable collection of singles, there are many omissions and differences to be found from the original single releases: "Temptation" and "Confusion" were re-recorded in 1987 specifically for Substance and neither of the original versions appears. "Ceremony" is the version recorded after Gillian Gilbert joined the band. The original trio version – the first New Order recording following the dissolution of Joy Division – was only released as a 7" single and would not be re-released until the Singles collection in 2005 and the re-release of Movement in 2008. "The Perfect Kiss" (CD and DAT versions only), "Sub-culture", "Shellshock" and "Hurt" are all edited down from their original 12" recordings, the result of storage limitations of the CD, LP, and cassette formats. These edits are present on all copies of the album, despite the increased storage capacity provided by newer manufacturing methods (in particular, CDs in 1987 were only able to store up to 74 minutes of audio prior to unofficial revisions the following year). "Cries and Whispers" and "Mesh" are incorrectly labelled as one another, as was the case on the original sleeve for "Everything's Gone Green"; to add to the confusion, the iTunes Store release, based on the CD version, labels "Cries and Whispers" as "Mesh (Cries and Whispers)". This error was corrected for the digital release of the album on streaming services. "Sub-culture" is labelled as "Subculture", and "The Perfect Kiss" is labelled as "Perfect Kiss". The standard tape version, due to the extra space befitting the format, also contains extra tracks in the form of "Dub-vulture", "Shellcock", and "Bizarre Dub Triangle", as well as the actual "Mesh" (mislabeled "Cries and Whispers", again identically to the "Everything's Gone Green" sleeve). Only on the limited edition cassette version does "True Dub" appear, as the last track on the second tape. This second tape, with a total play time of over 100 minutes, was exceptionally long for a commercial audio tape release at the time, which were generally no more than 80 minutes due to the increasing fragility of very thin magnetic tape. On all cassette versions, "Murder" is after "Thieves Like Us" on the first cassette, whereas on the CD/DAT versions it appears on the second half of the album.
The digital release of the album present on streaming services uses the same tracklist as the CD and DAT version of the album; as such, the bonus tracks present on the cassette release are absent, and "The Perfect Kiss" is cut short.
Release and reception
Substance was released in August 1987 by Factory Records. According to Sputnikmusic, it showcased New Order's mix of post-punk and dance styles with 12-inch singles remixed for club play and became the band's "most popular, well known, highly rated [record] and arguably their most influential". In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau said that the album's vinyl edition showcases New Order's discipline and chemistry as a band whose musical style is improved upon by the 12-inch mixes: "Pure rhythm machine with an ironically mysterious overlay of schlocky melody to help it go down, this album is a case study in sensationalist art, and I say the world is better for it." Additionally, he called Substance "sublime" and "a revelation" in his column for Playboy. Christgau named it the seventh best album of 1987 in his list for the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.