Substance 1987 - Album Details

Album Details

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 especially for Substance and none 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 — would not be re-released until the Singles collection in 2005 and the re-release of Movement in 2008.
• "The Perfect Kiss" (CD version only), "Sub-culture", "Shellshock" and "Hurt" are all edited down from their original 12" recordings.
• "Cries and Whispers" is incorrectly labelled as "Mesh" on all versions, and only on the cassette version does the original "Mesh" actually appear, itself mistitled as "Cries and Whispers" (to add to the confusion, the iTunes Store release, based from the CD version, labels the "Cries and Whispers" as "Mesh (Cries and Whispers)").
• "Sub-culture" is mistitled "Subculture", and "The Perfect Kiss" is mistitled "Perfect Kiss".

The standard tape version, due to the extra space befitting the format, also contains extra tracks in the form of "Dub-vulture", "Shellshock", and "Bizarre Dub Triangle", as well as the actual "Mesh". Only on the limited edition cassette version does "True Dub" appear, as the last track on the second 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.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 361 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.