New Order: Brotherhood Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

New Order: Brotherhood Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 21, 2026

Brotherhood has often been described, even by Stephen Morris himself, as a "schizophrenic" album, and as with the two other hi res audio Blu-rays Warner's UK branch is releasing of New Order's early works (weirdly skipping over their second album for some reason), liner notes of a sort in the insert booklet include an interview with Morris, where he once again gets into the "flip side" aspect of the original album. Morris kind of comically mentions how as a technology geek he always wanted to have the latest equipment, which often led to extended recording sessions where he was caught up in "button pushing" while everyone else sat around twiddling their veritable thumbs, and for that reason a "balance" was attempted between synth and/or sequencer driven material and actual good old fashioned instruments that required a different kind of facility. As with the two other audio Blu-rays of New Order's early albums, this features more fantastic work from Steven Wilson.

The album's tracklist can be seen in screenshot 9 of the disc's submenu showing the tunes. Screenshot 10 shows the main menu the disc boots to.

New Order: Brotherhood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This is the only audio Blu-ray of the first three released that does not feature any kind of animation on the menu or submenu. The track name changes, and that's about it.

New Order: Brotherhood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

New Order: Brotherhood features features Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and (several, including instrumental only) LPCM 2.0 options. I'd probably rate this as among the more subtle examples of surround activity in the three New Order offerings from Warner, which is not to imply there's any lack of immersion, simply that it can arguably be a bit less showy than on some tracks on the other two albums released in his res audio at the same time as this one. The surround tracks can once again often offer simultaneous emanations from all of the speakers of a lot of the same content, though as tunes progress there can be really interesting positioning of things like percussion in particular. There's some salient information from Steven Wilson about two of tracks contained in the insert booklet:

Despite an extended search multitracks for 'As It Was When It Was' and 'Broken Promise' could not be located, so 5.1 and Atmos mixes of these tracks were created using a combination of stem separation software and some expert re-triggering of the drum parts by Stephen. While it's not ideal to have to do this, it has enabled us to create some kind of pseudo spatial experience for these two tracks in order to maintain the playback flow and sequencing of the original album.

In my estimation As It Was When It Was probably fares better from this actually kind of shocking situation, but that said I also frankly don't think there's such a drastic difference in these two that casual listeners would notice much amiss. In terms of some more noticeable use of panning and wider imaging, again the examples can be on the subtle side. Where, for example, the ping ponging in The Perfect Kiss on the immediately prior New Order album got that track off to a really fun start, there's a somewhat more "hidden" example in the instrumental interludes in this album's signature single, Bizarre Love Triangle. The bookending effects opening and closing Angel Dust as well as some of the cacophony accompanying Every Little Counts also offer some really impressive impression.

New Order: Brotherhood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All three of the New Order audio Blu-ray come packaged in cardboard sleeves (no plastic trays, hence not Digipaks). An insert booklet is housed in the left pocket which includes an interesting interview with Stephen Morris. Morris also offers a separate piece on Atmos audio which audiophiles should find fun.

New Order: Brotherhood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Individual tastes of course vary, but for me personally this is the least consistent and effective of the three New Order albums released on audio Blu-ray. It's still very enjoyable on its own terms, and maybe would come off better after an extended break from the earlier albums, which my reviewing queue duties did not allow. Once again Steven Wilson has worked his considerable magic, even with two tracks that offered pretty significant hurdles. Recommended.