New Order Does Joy Division on iTunes Exclusive Album

New Order, doubtlessly as part of the promotional campaign for the upcoming movie Control, have released an exclusive album on iTunes. Regardless of the fact that it is the ultimate in frustration to convert iTune's stupid MP4 coded to MP3, I decided to go ahead and splurge. Although the bulk of the album is an interview with Peter Hook (the world's greatest bassist), Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, the real carrot dangling from an iTunes exclusive featuring New Order is the relatively unknown pleasures and strictly wayward distractions of hearing New Order perform songs they originally wrote and recorded as Joy Division.

I won't go into the backstory yet again of the connection between New Order and Joy Division, but suffice to say that I have had the joy of attending two concerts by New Order and never once heard them play Joy Division. For the first decade or so of their existence-long before iTunes was ever even thought possible and when Apple was known mainly for a Super Bowl commercial-New Order never played Joy Division songs in concert. (Or, if they did, they were so rare that you'd have difficulty tracking down even find bootlegs copies.) When listening to the non-exclusive New Order songs that come with the iTunes album-including my favorite song of all time for over twenty-five years now, "Blue Monday"-it is very difficult to reconcile the upbeat, synth-heavy tempos of that band with their bleak, industrial sound as Joy Division. That is just one reason why any New Order fan will be forced to face the difficult decision of whether to give in to Apple iTunes proprietary MP4 system. It is worth it.