Electronic ELECTRONIC CD

Tracks

1. Idiot Country
2. Reality
3. Tighten Up
4. Patience of a Saint
5. Getting Away with It
6. Gangster
7. Soviet
8. Get the Message
9. Try All You Want
10. Some Distant Memory
11. Feel Every Beat

Editorials

• Electronic are New Order frontman Bernard Sumner and ex- Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, and this--their debut--was described by Melody Maker on its release as "one of the greatest albums ever made". This re-packaged version contains the singles "Get The Message", "Feel Every Beat" and "Getting Away With It"--the bands first release and one of two collaborations with the Pet Shop Boys. With Marr turning his back on the Smiths' trademark jangling guitars, the sound is more that of New Order crossed with the Madchester scene of the time (808 State, Happy Mondays, etc.). Sumner and Marr were never going to match the overall impact or quality of the Smiths and of New Order--for many, the two great English bands of the 1980s--but this is the best of their three albums. In the two big hits, as well as album tracks like "Idiot Country" and "Some Distant Memory", they succeed in recapturing some--if never quite all--of their former glories. --Ronita Dutta
• This two-man Manchester supergroup--New Order's Bernard Sumner and the Smith's Johnny Marr--made one of the best debuts of the '90s with Electronic. More New Order than Smiths, the album was a blend of plangent fretwork and frenetic sequencing, with bleak lyrics intoned in Sumner's clean, boyish tenor. "Get the Message" was orthodox '80s pop, but the heartbreaking "Gangster" was an electro-rock masterpiece. The album featured engaging cameos from the Pet Shop Boys on "Getting Away with It" and "The Patience of a Saint". --Barney Hoskyns