So I haven’t done one of these “Iterations” posts since last Summer because, well, they can take a lot of time and my list of songs that have enough interesting versions to share has been shrinking. But New Order are one of those reliable acts with a slew of iconic songs that have been performed and reinterpreted enough to yield an interesting post.
Pretty much every track on their 1987 singles compilation Substance is a no-brainer for this treatment, but so far I’ve only done “Temptation” and “Blue Monday” albeit sans covers, so let’s chip away a little more with disc one closer, “True Faith”.
Originally released in July 1987, it stands out from the rest of the compilation as having been written specifically for inclusion on Substance – along with b-side “1963” – instead of as a standalone single, and was released as both a 4:10 7″ mix and a 5:55 12″ version. Dubbed as the band’s best song by The Guardian in 2021, and it’s surrealist video is certainly one of the band’s most memorable.
Accordingly, the song has been a fixture of the band’s live sets and there’s probably way too many live versions to itemize, so let’s start with their performance in 1987:
And their rendition from their 2005 Glastonbury appearance, almost 20 years later. I can’t find a standalone clip from their 2016 Glasto appearance, so this’ll do, and Hooky is still there.
And despite not being the biggest fan of the song (or at least its remixes), Hook duly includes it in his comprehensive New Order cover sets by Peter Hook & The Light, as in this clip from September 2024 in Brooklyn.
And the covers! At least the ones I care about, sorry George Michael. The Boo Radleys included a rendition cheekily retitled “Boo Faith” on their 1993 Learning To Walk compilation, recorded during an October 1991 Peel Session:
Lotte Kestner, aka Anna-Lynne Williams whom I will have eternal affection for thanks to Trespassers William, had their version – rendered acoustic and skeletal – included on the soundtrack of The Last Of Us 2 – the video game, not the show. Her version was used as the basis of the soundtrack for a commercial for the game, but uncredited – an omission that was eventually rectified. Her version originally appeared on her 2011 album, Stolen.
And at the other end of the energy spectrum, disco diva Sophie Ellis-Bextor included a version in her 2020 pandemic release Songs From The Kitchen Disco, though this song didn’t appear in her weekly kitchen broadcasts and is instead from an undated BBC session.
The late Denise Johnson, known for vocals on Primal Scream’s Screamadelica and her contributions to acts like A Certain Ratio, Pet Shop Boys, and Bernard Butler, included an acoustic version on her posthumously-released solo debut Where Does It Go in 2020, just a couple months after her death.
