Lost SirensRhino/ Warners ****

Now that original bass player Peter Hook is out of the frame, the recalibrated New Order will be soldiering on this year with a new album and live dates. Before these, however, comes this – in effect a lost album from the mid-2000s, with previously unreleased tracks culled from the studio sessions for the band’s 2005 album, Waiting for the Sirens’ Call. Featuring an as-near-as-dammit classic line-up (Gillian Gilbert was temporarily replaced by Phil Cunningham), the eight tracks here are further proof of New Order’s almost unique ability to seamlessly segue electronic music into pop and vice versa. We’ll hear what we’ll hear later this year, but for now check out super-fine tracks I’ve Got a Feeling (the best pop song you’ve heard in months) and the peerless Velvet Underground-influenced I Told You So.

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Download:Sugarcane, I've Got a Feeling, I Told You So