New Order is back. After breaking its long silence with a track on last year’s soundtrack to “The Beach,” the dance-rock group has come back to the realm of LP-making with Get Ready. Since they’ve been away, all the band members have pursued various side projects, each with varying success.

On this return, cool, detached hedonism seems to be the main focal point. That should be no surprise to longtime fans of the band. This time around, though, a touch of defiance is also in the mix. These guys may be aging, but they still know how to party. They’ve also drafted in fellow thirty-something hedonists Billy Corgan and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie for the good of the team.

Full-length albums have never been New Order’s strong point. Dance anthems have been the group’s forte. Get Ready’s opening 1-2 punch of “Crystal” and “60 Miles An Hour” easily fall into that category. Corgan’s track “Turn My Way” is surprisingly the most unremarkable piece on the album, while Gillespie’s “Rock the Shack” sees the band kicking out some serious jams.

The new New Order is a group born more of decadent rock than studied techno with restraint. Still, they’re not quite wearing their baseball caps backwards just yet. Peter Hook’s trademark bass sound is still there.

Frontman Bernard Sumner says it best on the album’s parting shot: “I’m going to live till I die/I’m going to live to get high.” Party on.

[Ted Knowles].

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