Is 'Republic' crap?

Republic would have made a good four track ep.....

REGRET WORLD SPOOKY EVERYONE EVERYWHERE

:p

One more thing, I never really cared for that whole "A New Order Release" thing. From the very first time I saw it on the single "Regret" I thought it looked weird. It was just too much. Seventeen years later I still feel the same.

Chris Romero wrote: One more thing, I never really cared for that whole "A New Order Release" thing. From the very first time I saw it on the single "Regret" I thought it looked weird. It was just too much. Seventeen years later I still feel the same.

Probably blame Saville for that... a minor quibble to upset you for 17 years.

It's still the album I like the least. There's a defeated quality to most of the songs, the production is overdone but muddy, lacking the definition and spaciousness of Technique, there's way too much house piano and nowhere near enough Hooky. He once said that Hague was trying to turn them into the Pet Shop Boys, and in places you can hear that (both the PSB and the failing).

Regret is brilliant. The album is really a hit single with too many B-sides.

World, RIAD, and Spooky are rarities, New Order songs that are actually better as remixes.

Everyone Everywhere and Times Change aren't bad, for lost Electronic tracks.

Special is a good song weighed down by tired production.

Avalanche is, as others have said, basically an Other Two track, and one of the few bright spots.

Young Offender, Chemical and (especially) Liar are shit:

PhilBarnes wrote: The beginning and end are great, but the middle is pretty awful and I usually skip about 3 tracks. "Liar", in particular, sounds like something that Simply Red would have dumped for sounding too cheesy.

It's the worst thing they've ever done, in my opinion, worse than We All Can't Stand It or any of the filler on GR or WFTSC. Jetstream or Rock the Shack at least don't make me throw myself across the room to skip them.

Zachery Starkey wrote: Gillian and Hooky were not getting along at all (Hooky apparently was sexist towards her),

First I've heard of that.

Zachery Starkey wrote: As for the lack of Hooky, Bernard said Hooky was out sunbathing while they were recording and mixing, so take that for what you will.

I've heard that Hooky spent loads of time in the studio on previous albums, and Hague said of the True Faith session that "Hooky would try a lot of ideas, really fearless, and often it was just him and me in the studio." So either Hooky had checked out for this one (and who could blame him, given how he was being mixed), or Barney's telling stories.

Zachery Starkey wrote: Someone pointed out that replacing Gillian with a guitarist may not have been the best idea, and I agree. Phil clearly enjoys playing guitar more than synth, which lead to syntth parts that should have been played live put on backing tracks. If Gillian had been replaced with someone who was more into synths, who knows......

Agreed here.

Gene wrote: Maybe the band themselves werent sure which direction to take Republic? I remember in an interview Hooky referring to one point in the recording where Bernard felt the stuff was sounding 'too much like New Order' to which Hooky replied 'Of course it sounds like New Order, we are fucking are New Order'. Something like that anyway.

Well, he's got a pretty good point.

Oh, it's pretty weak sauce from Saville, too, the whole registered trademark / stock photo corporate look.

0_o wrote:

Chris Romero wrote: One more thing, I never really cared for that whole "A New Order Release" thing. From the very first time I saw it on the single "Regret" I thought it looked weird. It was just too much. Seventeen years later I still feel the same.

Probably blame Saville for that... a minor quibble to upset you for 17 years.

Yes, but I would lying if I said it didn't bother me.

Republic is not good or bad, it's art. Besides that, Republic for me sounds like a nightmare. Not my cup of tea at the moment.

yes it is apart from regret.

Chris Romero wrote: One more thing, I never really cared for that whole "A New Order Release" thing. From the very first time I saw it on the single "Regret" I thought it looked weird. It was just too much. Seventeen years later I still feel the same.

If you think THAT is dodgy then that's nothing compared to the second CD single of Spooky - which says "Z NEW ORDER RELEASE".

Obviously, the concept of the Republic-era sleeve designs is inspired by film posters (director, actor credits, etc) .... but it doesn't quite pull it off ....

Chris Romero wrote: One more thing, I never really cared for that whole "A New Order Release" thing. From the very first time I saw it on the single "Regret" I thought it looked weird. It was just too much. Seventeen years later I still feel the same.

I don't think it looked weird. I think it was designed to look 'normal'; in fact, hypernormal. As in, so much like how a cheesy marketing campaign for a major label release would appear that it satirises that kind of packaging. Ditto the 'Baywatch' video.

As the voiceover on NewOrderStory goes, this was the album where they "pretended to go glossy".

This just in: Republic 20% good, 30% meh, 50% crap.

More on this breaking news story when we get it.