New Order has the distinction of never having contributed a truly bad record to its 10-album studio discography over nearly 45 on-and-off years as a band, but if you had to choose just one artifact as a monument to the U.K. dance-pop outfit's greatness the early singles compilation Substance 1987 is the way to go.

Substance gathers together the extended 12-inch versions of all of New Order's pre-1987 singles, covering a lot of ground from the Joy Division-shrouded "Ceremony" and "Everything's Gone Green" to the groundbreaking electro-smashes "Blue Monday" and "Confusion" to utterly ace latter-years pop hits such as "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "True Faith," the one "new" cut here and still one of the band's most ageless tunes.

These are all ageless tunes, though, which is why -- even though there have been half-a-dozen high-quality albums since Brotherhood was released in 1996, a year before Substance came to exist -- Substance 1987 remains the definitive New Order collection. If you wanna know what makes New Order tick, it's all right here. If you wanna know why New Order is considered a legendary bridge between post-punk and modern electronic dance music, it's all right here. If you want 12 of New Order's absolute best songs at your fingertips for ease of access, arranged in the order of their creation, they're all right here. Whether you start with New Order here and go deeper is up to you, but if you start and finish with New Order here you'll still be happy with your decision.

TRACKLISTING:

1. Ceremony
2. Everything’s Gone Green
3. Temptation 87
4. Blue Monday
5. Confusion 87
6. Thieves Like Us
7. The Perfect Kiss
8. Sub-culture
9. Shellshock
10. State Of The Nation
11. Bizarre Love Triangle
12. True Faith