Until recently it’d been quite a while since I sent out a dispatch on this channel. But we’re not here to talk about doubt and stagnation right now. We’re here to talk about New Order’s “Regret.”

Then again, you don’t need me to tell you how great “Regret” is. Lusciousness simply seeps from its pores, drips off of it. From its self-consciously overdramatic canned-strings-and-ascending-guitar opening, through the nuke-u-ler bass burst from which its nigh unvarying tambourine-funk dance beat mushrooms, to the sap-sweet coda incinerated in another such burst, it pulses and pushes your body to move, while a particularly affecting vocal performance form Barney Sumner, desolate and hopeful at the same time, dares your heart not to move.

The guitar is slippery and silver. The synths are a comforting, pillowy grey. The drums are mixed low but in the red. And the bass is deep blue-wounded and seeking, one of the best amongst Peter Hook’s classic lessons in how-you’re-not-supposed-to-play-bass-fiddle.

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