Ok this thread about POTHL seems to have gone into a debate about Republic so while i wait for my 12", 7" and CD of POTHL to arrive (been a month and a half now) i'll give my tuppance on Republic.
Well, it never really grabbed you (or at least me) by the neck and took your breath away like Power, Corruption & Lies or Low Life did.It never dazzled and left you speechless by its genius like much of Technique did back in January 1989.I don't know, i didn't hate Republic but i didn't love it much either.Well actually i did hate a lot of it, at first.Those first listens to World, Ruined In A Day and Spooky on Radio 1 a week before the album came out gave me a fricking headache.They were just an irritating, scrambled mess of beats and tuneless noise at first.I warmed to them a bit in time but not much.The Perfecto remix of World and the K-Klass remix of Ruined let those two songs off the hook eventually.
I interpreted the album as a little bit of a bitter dig at Factory yeah but to me it was more a melancholic sigh with resignation that a great era (80s NewOrder) was coming or had come to an end.Typified by the vibe in such tracks as Everyone Everywhere "You were once the main attraction but that's all in the past", Liar, Times Change, Special and Avalanche ( Avalanche is possibly the greatest song on the album)
Always thought one track that kind of summed up the problem with the album was Young Offender.All the elements of a great New Order track were in there, everything that normally would have made a classic NO song was there- but the track just didn't have any energy or vitality.It was less than the sum of its parts.
Special has , well, one or two special moments but ,again, never fully hits the mark like an Age Of Consent or a Leave Me Alone or an All The Way ( a criminally often overlooked New Order classic) or a Dream Attack.
Regret was good though.First time i heard it was the Fire Island mix on Radio 1 in March 93 and the DJ Jo Wiley said that's the new single from New Order and for a few weeks i thought it was the main single mix, the radio edit.Then a month or so later i heard the actual main version and i definitely recall thinking on first listen how much it reminded me of Ceremony.Strange but the song never reminded me of Ceremony ever again after that first listen.Still, it was a phenomenal comeback single (at that time) for New Order and their best bet at cracking the market of the average music fan, the average man or woman on the street,the mum taking her kids to school in the morning.No other New Order single before Regret would have garnered the interest of that sort of person.
But all in all Republic though it has its moments just didn't leave me blown away and speechless like P,C & L or Low Life or Technique.I think by that time though i wasn't as bothered as i had been in the 80s.I was much, much more distraught upon listening to Brotherhood for the first time in October 1986.Took me fuckin ages to like Brotherhood.That mid 80s era i had an unhealthy NO obsession so for them to release an album i didn't at first take to was a major fucking downer at that time.By the time Republic was released i'd moved on a bit.NO had done some incredible music (apart from Brotherhood IMHO) in the 80s , culminating with the effortless of Technique in 1989 but i think i accepted with Technique, this is it, this is as good as it gets.They will never top this.
Other little things i remember from the Republic era- i went to Reading 93 and set the video to record NewOrderStory on ITV.Except when we got home and sat down to watch the recording the video had fucked up the recording and there was was just a fuzzy screen with a ghsotly faint image of what should have been the doc.In the end i didn't see the thing til the release of the VHS later in 1993.
Also, memory tells me i bought the maxi CD single of Spooky off Amazon or something in 1994.But that's impossible.Amazon wasn't even around then was it? And i didn't even have internet access til about 1999/2000.But i distinctly remember the maxi single dropping through my letterbox in a brown jiffy bag.I must have ordered it from one of those old adverts in the back of NME or something.Sister Ray Records always used to advertise in NME back in those days.I must have sent a cheque off in the post.Whatever.
But yeah as Mr Monkhouse has said, there was all the music papers and media stuff having orgasms about New Order being a still ultra cool and relevant band around 1993 but i remember at the time i felt their coolness and relevance had peaked when they headlined Reading 89.
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