35 years ago (17 August 1987), the New Order compilation “Substance” was released. It sold over one million copies and became New Order's most popular and critically acclaimed album.
In 2003, Substance was ranked number 363 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. According to the magazine, it had sold over one million copies by that time. Rolling Stone ranked the album at the same position in the list's 2012 edition. In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the album revealed the band's strength as songwriters with a few of the best pop songs from the 1980s represented by "Blue Monday", "Bizarre Love Triangle", "Temptation", and "True Faith".