Comments (5)

• Brian D. Rubendall
  July 30th, 2010 at 22:15

  “Get the Message” is one of the all time great new wave hit singles. Too bad the rest of the album fails to follow suit. Like many supergroups, Electronic gets bogged down with mediocre songwriting and a failure of inspiration.
  Rating: 2 / 5
• Joel Kathrens
  July 30th, 2010 at 22:36

  I’m new to Bernard Sumner’s bands, New Order and Electronic, but after purchasing both this album and New Order’s “Substance”, I’d have to say that Electronic gets the nod.

  First of all, Sumner sounds great on this album while on the first half of Substance he …well …didn’t. Secondly, I feel that for the most part, Marr does a better job on the tunes than did Sumner’s previous band.

  While there’s no arguing that New Order had some great songs (Blue Monday, Thieves Like Us, Bizzare Love Triangle, etc.), the fact that a first album sounds at least as good as a singles compilation is rather telling.

  As for the best songs, Tighten Up is my current favorite with Getting Away With It, Reality, and all the others following close behind. Sumner does need to lay off the rapping though (as heard on Idiot Country). Also, listen for the sounds of the Pet Shop Boys as Tennant sings lead on Patience of a Saint, basically a Pet Shop Boys song, and co/lead on Getting Away With It.

  This album is arguably the best from the duo who have to date released only two albums. Raise the Pressure was pretty good, but a little too alternative-radio-friendly sounding in parts for me.

  This album gets my personal reccomendation, especially for fans of New Order (of course), as well as the Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, and Erasure.
  Rating: 5 / 5
• Russell Foster
  July 31st, 2010 at 00:06

  Hidden gem I love it. If you like new order buy it.
  Rating: 4 / 5
• Pieter
  July 31st, 2010 at 02:42

  Called “the first supergroup of the 90’s”, perhaps prematurely, the combination of Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner swings into action with a daunting marriage of enervated guitar and brilliant electronics on their unimaginatively titled debit album. Unsurprisingly, what you get is very much what you would expect – a collaboration between The Smiths and New Order, sans Morrisey’s voice. Raw Energy rules on Idiot Country, while Reality leans more to the electrodisco side and the Pet Shop Boys help out on the subdued but intense The Patience Of A Saint. The hit single Get The Message is very catchy; the video is superb. Sumner’s limited vocal range may ultimately spoil the broth a bit, but that’s a minor criticism.
  Rating: 4 / 5
• alexliamw
  July 31st, 2010 at 05:16

  Electronic was the coming together of New Order singer Bernard Sumner and Smiths guitarist Jonny Marr. Both are major geniuses in their own right, and by the time this album was put out had written seminal albums for their bands, and I am a real admirer of both, especially Jonny Marr.

  Certainly, it is a combination worthy of major excitement. And ‘Electronic’ is a passable album packed with decent, 80s-referencing dance-pop songs such as ‘Get The Message’ and ‘Reality’ which sound like…well, New Order. My quibble with the album is that Jonny Marr’s present isn’t so well felt. This sounds so much like New Order that if you played me these tracks telling me they were New Order I wouldn’t blink an eyelid. And I doubt many others would either.

  The Pet Shop Boys appear on ‘Patience Of A Saint’ and ‘Getting Away With It’, and add an extra dimension to proceedings, but still this seems to have all come before. Only on the fantastic ‘Gangster’ do we get a really fantastic track worthy of any of the members of Electronic. Its heartbreaking, insightful and beautiful, and undeniably the album’s standout.

  I will actually break with the majority of reviewers here and reccomend Electronic’s third album, Twisted Tenderness, ahead of this one, as it is the album’s where Marr makes his presence felt more, and where the tracks are still New Order-esque, they are of great quality. ‘Electronic’ is still worth owning, but not as good as most of the work put out by members of the project under their other guises.
  Rating: 3 / 5

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