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Just listening to the first Electronic album and decided i prefer it to Republic by quite a long way. So i wondered if Bernard hadn't used up all his decent songs on Electronic which songs do you think would have suited Republic?
I think Idiot Country could have been great with some Hooky bass. Reality, Gangster and Some Distant Memory would have worked pretty well on a NO album too. Any Thoughts?!
You can't compare them. Electronic is an album by a band in overdrive and Republic is an album by a band in collapse.
Production: apples and oranges.
Whereas Electronic is geniously simple, Republic has a strong not-New-Ordery feel (btw, Get Ready suffers from it, too).
Perhaps it was so good because it wasn't New Order. New people, another way of thinking, fresh things etc.
Electronic doesn't sound like New Order, whereas Republic does, albeit difficult and directionless. It's the politics of the latter than stand out - the album was made pretty much individually, with Hook contributing little it would seem. All in all a band not getting on in a three way split.
I was lead to believe that the album was largely done by Barney and Stephen Hague at night, which some stuff by Steve & Gillian. Pascal Gabriel was meant to produce it, but got kicked off the case. Electronic was a couple of mates getting on, albeit with a slightly poor mans A Secret Wish. By a couple if albums later, it became a retro guitar wank out, totally against its bands title.
Sometimes tension isn't a bad thing.
El Jarvo wrote: Electronic shits on Republic, IMhO.
Ditto. I think you could multiply the times I've listened to "Electronic" x10.
I actually like Republic. It is a vastly under rated album, and songs like Regret and Everyone Everywhere points towards what an absolute classic it could have been had NO actually been together collectively as band at that time.
Saying that, Electronic holds a special place in my heart. On several occasions on NOOL I have recalled the summer of 1991, sat beside a pool in Magaluff listening to the album with my Barney hairdo, feeling like the coolest fooker in the world.
Best days of my life, and it was Electronic that provided the company on that particular sojourn.
The Paradise Man wrote: You can't compare them. Electronic is an album by a band in overdrive and Republic is an album by a band in collapse.
Seconded. If you're talking about lovely pairs, it was Technique and Electronic that got me crazy about NO, Republic and Raise The Pressure that got me thinking I was crazy to do so in the first place.
Funny how Electronic shot their collective bolt with that glorious first album - and have failed to come up with anything a tenth as good as that debut ever since.
IT's odd that I have more albums by The Other Two (2) than I have by Electronic (1), Monaco (1) and Revenge (0).......
I think Republic is a great album. It has some classics on it, some good stuff and a couple of shite songs. Like most NO albums...
Electronic is a brilliant album with very little filler.
Can't compare the two though.
I have to agree with some of the sentiments on here, Electronic was a vastly superior album to Republic in almost every way. I mean, if you look at the tracks on Republic:
EXCELLENT- Regret GOOD- Ruined in a Day, World ALRIGHT- Everyone Everywhere, Special, Avalanche SHITE- The Rest
That's 5/11 tracks that are absolutely shite, and while there may have been the odd duff track on the earlier albums, none were nearly 50% filler! I bet if you went through the earlier albums 80-90% of the tracks would be in the excellent or good brackets.
So yes, Republic was a definite downstep in quality for the band. Up to then they had been excellent, now they were just mediocre.
On their own, many of the Repub tracks were OK. There were 6 or so grand ones - inc. "Chemical", "Times Change", "Special", "Regret", "Ruined" and "World". The rest was a dip. I remember listening to it for the first time, in Leicester the morning it came out, and thinking clearly that it was the sound of a band that was struggling with a bad motivator like a wonky R2-D2.
Skullcrushed wrote:
EXCELLENT- Regret GOOD- Ruined in a Day, World ALRIGHT- Everyone Everywhere, Special, Avalanche SHITE- The Rest
The Paradise Man wrote: You can't compare them. Electronic is an album by a band in overdrive and Republic is an album by a band in collapse.
I agree. 
Apart from Some Distant Memory and Gangster which are class, I was never a big fan of the first album.
Republic was ok - I think I tried too hard making myself try and like it at the time.
But the singles from it were pretty good, and NO are more of a singles band, aren't they?
I've probably listened to Raise the Pressure more than Electronic. It isn't as bad a some would have you believe.
Blue 5 wrote:
I've probably listened to Raise the Pressure more than Electronic. It isn't as bad a some would have you believe.
Well, the cover art was so shite I actually didn't buy the album because of it.
By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote:
Blue 5 wrote:
I've probably listened to Raise the Pressure more than Electronic. It isn't as bad a some would have you believe.
Well, the cover art was so shite I actually didn't buy the album because of it.
Same here...but eventually got a 2nd hand cheap one!
Republic has grown on me over the years... I had it on tape originally and must have nearly worn out the first bit of side A, not only by playing Regret but also Avalanche on the other side... Never cared for much of the rest of the album, until I picked it up on CD a few years ago... Now I'd happily and regularly listen to it pretty much all the way through (except Liar and Times Change - Liar being my least favourite NO track by a country mile)... For a band who weren't really working like a group, it's not a bad achievement...
On a similar note, I am starting to 'get' Brotherhood... Maybe there's still hope for the other halves of GR and WFTSC! 
Snorri xxx
Electronic on the other hand always was, and still is, a classic... Some Distant Memory is one of the most beautiful things anyone involved with JD/NO has ever produced...
RTP is saved by Forbidden City, proper POP song...
Snorri xxx
By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote:
Blue 5 wrote:
I've probably listened to Raise the Pressure more than Electronic. It isn't as bad a some would have you believe.
Well, the cover art was so shite I actually didn't buy the album because of it.
Neil Tennant said he didn't like the album cover then he loved it. Ooh how fickle. I don't mind the cover art but I sure as hell hate those liner notes. It's like being trapped in a room with a student who's had too many Pernods and not enough shags.
