“Temptation” by New Order

"Temptation" landed on Factory Records on May 10, 1982, New Order's fourth single with "Hurt" on the flip, and it's the sound of the band walking out of Joy Division's shadow and straight onto the dancefloor. It had been knocking around since 1981 as an instrumental, with Bernard Sumner making up the words on the spot at gigs, until he and bassist Peter Hook got it into a studio in 1982 and pinned down the parts they'd been improvising on stage.

The band produced it themselves, and all four, Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris included, share the writing credit. Where the old band brooded, this one pulses and glows: a club beat, a climbing melody, and a lyric about the wreckage after a breakup that somehow comes out sounding hopeful. It closed their early run of stand-alone singles, and critics who liked it then have only warmed to it since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.