10 replies · 459 views
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/watw/03-06/afterglow/index.shtml
Quite an interesting article, though I certainly disagree (to a certain extent) with the number one choice. I won't defend Revenge whatsoever, but I'll stand by Electronic's s/t forever.
I've talked with Chris Ott online occasionally, and given his huge admiration of JD/NO, this does come as a bit of a surprise, but then...he does have high standards.
Thoughts? (On the article in particular, or the side projects in general)
admirer, high standards ??? He starts off with a lot of rubbish, calling Get Ready a quick one-off to line their pockets. He hasn't noticed then that the Get Ready reunion was a happy one, that there have been projects like Hope and the Peter Saville exhibition, and that there's more to come ... As for the fans being forgiving, that's neither here nor there. If you don't like a side project you don't buy it, it doesn't have an impact on the main business. I've never really liked Revenge or The Other Two and therefore there's very little of them in my collection. I do like Electronic and Monaco and I see nothing wrong with any of the band members taking a break from the usual. Doesn't everybody like a change of scenery now and then? Because he got my back up with the first paragraph, I really didn't rate his reviews of the side projects at all. His closing lines aren't any better, in fact I get the feeling he thinks us fans are stupid? Each to their own, but I for one dislike Chris Ott very much.
I wish I could think of a good "Pitchfork/Haystack" pun here, but God it's early.
P.S. Hi Poptone...you've inspired me to dig out "Second Edition." Love that record.
i dunno, most of this rings true, but they are opinions. worst? these side projects are mostly harmelss, but the writer does say that they don't tarnish New order's legacy. i think he ranks these as number one because he feels that New Order's 80s output was of such undeniable quality.
what is really wrong with what he says? everything is SUBJECTIVE opinions! you can always look at everything from different angles.
Electronic's output really is rather mediocre. The first album pales next to the previous New Order and Joy Division albums, and is filled with filler and the sound has dated worse than all of the New order records. Electronic seemed to try to make some singles... the point was to chart... the instramental on the first record is the most demo-sounding thing that Barney hass ever released! Raise the Pressure and Twisted Tenderness take a LOT of patience. Took me years to start liking some of the Raise the Pressure tracks. Everybody seems to say Twisted is better because it is more "serious" cause it is more guitar based. Still, it did not really make even a ripple, it is rather forgettable.
Revenge had weak songwriting and has dated very poorly. Monaco has some really nice moments, but Potts songwriting is lame, painfully unoriginal and pathetic (I know that is not nice, but it is very glaring at times), and Potts does seem to try to clone Barney's vocals which is just so obvious it is odd... like he is in a cover band (and his unoriginal bland songwriting hammers the point home very well).
The Other Two too is a disappointment, c'mon, do you think that their first record inpired anybody? Its nice, and they are few "nice" songs, so we all say lets be nice to them because they are nice people. The Other Two would have never been released except as a favor to them and the hope that some New Order fans would buy it. The songs are very weak, especially after the first few, a shame to compare them to NO/JD, but sorry, you have to. Both the first Other Two record and the first Monaco seem very strained on trying to get an albums worth of songwriting.
at least somebody cares enough to take notice! i think that it kind of an honor, a statement to New Order and Joy divisions lasting quality, thou maybe unfair because most of the other stuff on the list is offensively bad
01: Revenge / Electronic / The Other Two / Monaco (New Order / Smiths) New Order haven't really existed since 1989. Both Republic and Get Ready were reunion records, quick one-offs before the band's inevitable breakup following strained supporting tours. Though they were both decent records and nicely lined the pockets of all concerned, the members of New Order have been trying in vain to commit career suicide since 1990. Unlike their peers in The Cure, no matter what they do, their fans always seem to forgive them.
Swaggering teddy bear Peter Hook took the first shot in 1990 with Revenge, releasing the grotesquely objectifying One True Passion (aside from the softcore cover, it features macho lines like, "The only time I'm happy is when I'm telling you lies"). A catastrophically dated techno-pop record, it weaved from Technique-tinged Balearic blips to Depeche Mode and Cure rip-offs: the chorus of "Bleachman" even begins, "I'm alive/ I'm dead." The four-song 1992 EP Gun World Porn featured the decent club track "State of Shock", but it was rendered unbearable over the course of three different, never-ending mixes.
While not as topically offensive, The Other Two-- drummer Steve Morris and keyboard/guitar player Gillian Gilbert-- were even less engaging. The tepid house pop of 1992's The Other Two & You played as watered-down outtakes from Technique, draped in horrific lyrics like, "Love is the greatest thing/ And there's nothing else to live for." The husband and wife duo's inexplicable 1999 return Superhighways was more sonically energetic than the straight sequencing of their debut, but the grade school lyrics still flowed unabated, never rising above edgy breakup music for the lollipop set.
Just after Technique, singer Bernard Sumner joined up with The Smiths' Johnny Marr, lately of Matt Johnson's The The, to record a one-off dance single with the Pet Shop Boys. This potentially chart-topping supergroup went their separate ways immediately thereafter, though "Getting Away With It" was a huge UK hit (#11), with strings by Anne Dudley of The Art of Noise. After a year off, Marr and Sumner tried again, releasing the excellent "Get the Message" in 1991, soon after compiling their sporadic efforts for a commendable, self-titled Warner Brothers LP (which does include some embarrassing flubs, like the last track "Feel Every Beat", over which Sumner raps). After a keep-it-going single in '92 (the decent "Disappointed", which never appeared on album), the group parted ways.
Not content to leave well enough alone, Sumner and Marr reunited after New Order's breakup following the heated Republic tour. This, in short, was a huge mistake. With unrecognizable contributions from Kraftwerk's Karl Bartos, Electronic's 1996 LP Raise the Pressure was a glittering slab of dance-pop wallpaper, bereft of even a single memorable hook-- and without them, Bernard Sumner's infamously sophomoric lyrics drop like bricks. Three years later, they tried again with the guitar-heavy breakbeats of Twisted Tenderness, but the record played like self-indulgent experiments in songwriting, pulling moods from other bands, like The The ("Vivid") and Curve ("Hive").
But without question, Peter Hook's most recent band Monaco is the black obsidian jewel in the wretched crown of New Order's myriad extracurricular failures. Hearing Hook's tape-op collaborator David Potts strain to sound like Sumner while missing the high notes on "Shine" ("Just as I thought/ I've found someone that needs me") is a sickly sweet moment of car-crash viewing recommended for anyone in need of a good laugh at pop music's ultimate absurdity. You can hear Potts' Oasis fantasies taking over midway through 1997's Music for Pleasure, on outrageous Gallagher knocks "Buzz Gum" and "Blue" ("When I'm down and can't get up/ And I've just run out of luck/ And there's nothing else to say"). I haven't cried so hard since That Petrol Emotion's "Cellophane"!
By 2000, Potts had all but perfected his Sumner impression, making Monaco a frightening doppelganger of New Order's Get Ready (2001). The songs are still duds-- including a laughably unaware trip-pop rehash of Bowie's "Quicksand" ("A Life Apart")-- but standouts like "I've Got a Feeling" and "Kashmere" are even more menacing. Indistinguishable from New Order, they make this duplicitous band a terrifyingly cynical proposition from a star player in a group that's had no qualms about milking its trademark sound over the last ten years. That their other projects haven't affected New Order's standing is a testament to the powers of selective promotion, sleek packaging, and most of all, calculated anonymity. Here's to New Order, whatever they are.
IMHO, Electronic has been the strongest of the spin offs. Twisted T has been in my machine for a few weeks lately, usually played when I read before bed time. This album grows and grows on me. I believe it is Electronic's best and is better than Republic. The only thing it lacks is Hooky, just like most of Republic.
While I thought Revenge/Monaco and the Other Two, from what I've heard, were pretty medicore, Electronic was more of an extention of New Order, with some strengths and obvious weaknesses. Strengths: -Barney's Song writing was far better on Electronic and TT than most New Order albums. -Johnny Marr. Need I say more? -Neil Tennant - improved Barney's singing even more.
Weaknesses: -No bass from Hooky. -Songs, like "Soviet", that suffered from excessive programming. -RTP was almost as bipolar as the Cure's Kiss me, Kiss me, Kiss me. -All albums had terrible cover art.
Originally posted by Chris Guevara IMHO, Electronic has been the strongest of the spin offs. Twisted T has been in my machine for a few weeks lately, usually played when I read before bed time. This album grows and grows on me. I believe it is Electronic's best and is better than Republic. The only thing it lacks is Hooky, just like most of Republic.
Agreed. Twisted Tenderness has been the same for me, a definite grower. I must admit to being really impressed by "Electronic" after one listen & even thought "Raise The Pressure" was good, though maybe mainly 'cos of the very negative reviews I'd read beforehand & expected a total disaster, but that aside, it's by no means the worst I've ever heard. And I have always loved "Disappointed", which by coincidence started on my Barney compilation MD as I was typing this. Brings back some good memories, that one!
New Order themselves have released some crap in their time, so it's inevitable that when considering 4 different offshoots the 'crap' factor is going to be raised exponentially. But the bottom line is: if there were no Monaco there'd be no 'Shine', 'What do you want from me', 'I've got a feeling'; if there were no Electronic there'd be no 'Twisted Tenderness', 'Forbidden City', 'Idiot Country'; if there were no Other Two there'd be no 'Superhighways', or 'Selfish'; if there were no Revenge...eh??? I for one am grateful to them for what they've done; warts and all.
