New Order Shares Single, the Band’s First New Music since 2015

New Order in concert at the O2 Academy Brixton, London in 2015. Photo by Richard Isaac/Shutterstock (5371798c)

Iconic British rockers New Order have ended their five-year studio break by releasing a single “Be a Rebel.” The track is a taste of their upcoming new album and represents the band’s first new music since 2015’s full-length effort Music Complete.

“Be a Rebel” was originally supposed to be an introduction into the band’s tour across North America in the fall, but the COVID-19 pandemic spoiled their plans. New Order is now scheduled to tour in 2021 but they didn’t want their fans to wait for that long, so the group shared the song ahead of time.

As we learned to expect from New Order, “Be a Rebel” is filled with haunting synths and melancholic moments. However, the band decided to add some flavor to their classic sound here and injected the tune with effective dance elements. 

“In tough times, we wanted to reach out with a new song,” said frontman Bernard Sumner in a press release. “We can’t play live for a while, but music is still something we can all share together. We hope you enjoy it…until we meet again.”

New Order was previously scheduled to kick off their joint tour with Pet Shop Boys, titled the Unity Tour, earlier this month. The trip was rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic and moved to the fall of next year.

In the meantime, the group is preparing a reissue of their second studio album Power, Corruption and Lies. The release will contain a remastered original record alongside a handful of bonus content, including unreleased writing sessions and demos.