Album review: New Order, The Lost Sirens (Rhino UK)

A mini-album of eight leftover tracks originally recorded for 2005's Waiting for the Sirens' Call, The Lost Sirens actually bests its parent album, which was not New Order's finest hour.

There's a more satisfying coherence to the songs, several of which – "Sugarcane", "Hellbent", "Shake It Up" – are critiques of stars living it too large, which, given the band's reputation, may well be self-addressed. The balance between twitching electro grooves and sparky guitar chording also seems more effective on "Californian Grass" and "I'll Stay with You", though the most surprising success is the closing "I Told You So", where they achieve the feat of re-inventing the wheel of the Velvets' "Venus in Furs" drone/tattoo format without sounding too slavish about it.

Download: I Told You So; Sugarcane; Hellbent