New Order ‎– NOMC15 (Limited Edition) Clear Vinyl

Super Rare Limited Edition in Clear Vinyl

New Order’s fourth official live album documents the second of two sold-out concerts at Brixton Academy in November of 2015, shortly after Music Complete was released. While the title (NOMC15) implies that the album is going to center around the studio album, only a handful of its tracks appear: singles “Singularity,” “Restless,” “Tutti Frutti,” “People on the High Line,” and the standout album track “Plastic.” Besides those, as well as a curious intro excerpt of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, there’s an excellent selection of the group’s career highlights, as well as a few Joy Division tunes. Elly Jackson of La Roux pops up to provide backing vocals on a few numbers, exclaiming that she’s ecstatic to be invited to such a momentous event occurring so close to her house. Bassist Tom Chapman sounds a little bit untethered compared to the group’s departed co-founder Peter Hook, but he does a fine job nonetheless. Other than that, New Order run through many of their classics, delivering Moroder-esque disco beats and lightly sharp post-punk guitar riffs, sounding excellent and seeming to have a good time doing it. They get creative with the old favorites, updating them a little bit and making them a bit more dramatic, but not drowning out their essence. On some of the band’s biggest hits, especially “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “True Faith,” they alter the intros enough so that it takes about a minute for the audience to recognize what songs are coming. “Temptation” builds suspense by imitating the strings from Lou Reed’s “Street Hassle,” but this time the audience knows what’s coming, chanting the opening “ooooooh”s well before the beats kick in. Following a slightly more rocked-up rendition of “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Bernard Sumner jokingly responds to “Blue Monday”‘s stuttering kick-drum intro with “I recognize that beat!”