Low-Life

Low-Life was recorded in 1984 in London at Jam and Britannia Row and released by Factory Records on 13 May 1985, with New Order credited as producers and Michael Johnson as engineer. Its songs became the basis of the concert video Pumped Full of Drugs, filmed in Tokyo shortly before release. The Perfect Kiss was issued as a single in full-length form in May 1985, and the John Robie remix of Sub-culture followed on 28 October. Both extended versions later appeared on Substance.

Peter Saville made it the one New Order sleeve to carry photographs of the band. He had grown tired of his earlier concept covers and shot the members on instant film. On the CD, Stephen Morris is on the front, and four photographs and a translucent sheet inside let the buyer choose which member shows through.

The opener, Love Vigilantes, is a story song. Sumner has said he decided to write a redneck song about a soldier coming home from Vietnam. Side two opens with Elegia, an instrumental edited down to 4:56 from a recording of 17:29, and also includes Sub-culture. A 2008 Collector's Edition added the full Elegia and the 12-inch mix of The Perfect Kiss, and a Definitive Edition appeared on 27 January 2023.

In Britain the album reached number seven and topped the independent chart. It peaked at 94 on the US Billboard 200. Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times described a varied menu with adventure in texture at every turn, and Uncut's David Quantick called it the first New Order album that sounds like an album. Q placed it at number 97 on its 2000 list of the 100 greatest British albums. Writing in 2008, Pitchfork's Tom Ewing said it was hailed at the time as their first really great album but now sounded the most time-bound for its brash mid-80s keyboards, and he gave the long mix of The Perfect Kiss a strong claim to the decade's greatest 12-inch edit. It is in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.