At just under 8 minutes long, Marching Orders was the longest album track on any Editors record and also their longest single. Very unlike the "hit 'em and quit" pace of their early catalogue, the song revels in the space it has been allocated. Marching Orders takes its time unfolding, and in the style of songs like Specialist by Interpol, its final destination only vaguely resembles it's point of origin. There are 3 parts; the quiet intro, the chorus-driven centre and then an extended percussive-heavy outro. If you step in at any point, what comes later or before sounds similar...but unique. Also, before they began fusing "Violence" into "No Harm" with some seamless stitching, they did it with Papillon and Marching Orders. Having already been reshaped by Elliott, Papillon would eventually reach its live conclusion in a slowing maelstrom of noise. Then Marching Orders would begin to emerge and separate from the melee signifying a new beginning and, ironically, the end of the show.