Electronic (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Electronic
Type = Album
Artist = Electronic


Border = yes
Released = Start date|1991|5|28
Recorded = 1990–1991
Genre = House, Alternative
Length = 47:17 (UK)
52:29 (international)
Label = flagicon|UK Factory
flagicon|Europe Virgin
flagicon|USAflagicon|Canadaflagicon|Australiaflagicon|Japan Warner Bros.
Producer = Bernard Sumner,
Johnny Marr
Reviews = *allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:w2jw7i7jg71r~T1 link]
*"Melody Maker" (favourable) [http://ca.geocities.com/[e-mail]/NewOrder/MM_Electronic_review.jpglink]
*"NME" rating-10|8
*"Q" Rating|5|5
*"Vox" rating-10|10
*"Entertainment Weekly" (A)
*"Spin" (favourable)
Last album =
This album = "Electronic" (1991)

Next album = "Raise the Pressure"
(1996)
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = 1994 remaster
Type = Album


Border = yes
Lower caption = The current British CD.

"Electronic" is the self-titled debut album by British supergroup Electronic, formed by Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr. It was first released in May 1991 (see 1991 in music) on the Factory label, and reissued in remastered form in 1994 by Parlophone after Factory collapsed.

The album was a commercial success, reaching number 2 in the United Kingdom and selling over a million copies worldwide. By the year 2000 "Electronic" had sold 240,000 copies in the USA. [ [http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4601705-1.html "Billboard", 24 July 2000] ]

Recording

The bulk of "Electronic" was written in 1990, with sessions beginning that January at Johnny Marr's home studio in Manchester. ["Q", July 1991] "Gangster" dated from an aborted solo album Bernard Sumner began work on in the mid-eighties,"Melody Maker", 13 April 1991] while "Reality" was written around 1988 when he and Marr first began working together. ["Uncut", April 1999] "The Patience of a Saint" also predated the album, having been written with Pet Shop Boys soon after their collaboration with their singer Neil Tennant on "Getting Away with It" in 1989. ["Vox", June 1991]

Several other songs were also completed by August 1990 (namely "Idiot Country", "Tighten Up", "Soviet", "Get the Message" and "Try All You Want") as they were performed live at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles when Electronic supported Depeche Mode ["Vox", October 1990] (although "Try All You Want" was played as an instrumental ["NME", 18 August 1990] and several songs had working titles [ [http://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/archive/showartefact.php?aid=537 Manchester District Music Archive] ] ).

The LP subtly fused Marr's guitar playing with Sumner's synthesiser expertise, most prominently on "Idiot Country", "Feel Every Beat", "Tighten Up" and "Get the Message". Lyrically the subject matter was varied, from the aggressive targeting of rave culture by police in Britain ("Idiot Country" and "Feel Every Beat") to monogamy and emotional ambivalence ("Reality", "Try All You Want"). "The Patience of a Saint" featured a witty, sardonic duet between Sumner and Neil Tennant.

Artwork

The album cover was designed by Johnson/Panas (Trevor Johnson) with two separate photographs superimposed with a computer screen effect. The hand-rendered lettering was based on typographer Wim Crouwel's Stedelijk Museum alphabet; ["FAC461 Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album" (2006)] the 1994 remaster used the design from a 1991 promotional poster with the typeface (Avenir) from the sleevenotes.

Critical reception

Upon its release the album was unanimously praised in the mainstream music press. Writing in "Melody Maker", Paul Lester stated: "Each song is crammed with elaborate details and merits a treatise. Very basically, we're talking Europop, my all-time favourite genre. The overall effect is one of swirling magnificence". He concluded that "Electronic" was "one of the greatest albums ever made". [ [http://ca.geocities.com/[e-mail]/NewOrder/MM_Electronic_review.jpg"Melody Maker", 25 May 1991] ]

In the "NME" David Quantick wrote: "This is a pretty 1990s sort of a record, fresh as a daisy and wearing huge new oxblood Doc Martens", while Keith Cameron in "Vox" said: "Electronic" is simply a 100 per cent pure distillation of Marr and Sumner's respective talents. The hit single 'Get the Message' has it in a nutshell: it breaks no new ground; it simply achieves perfection". ["NME", 25 May 1991]

The album received the maximum five stars in "Q" from Phil Sutcliffe, who wrote: "its strength is in conflict... The inexorable pounding of the beatbox versus the fragile sadness of Sumner's voice and the he's/she's leaving stories; the symmetry of the synthesized or sampled sounds versus the sheer blood and bone physicality of Marr's guitar". ["Q", July 1991]

"Electronic" was also remarked upon in the United States. In "Spin" magazine, Ted Friedman regarded the album as "impressive", ["Spin", June 1991] while "Entertainment Weekly" called it "irresistibly tuneful". ["Entertainment Weekly", 21 June 1991]

At the end of 1991, "NME" and "Melody Maker" ranked it 13 ["NME", 21 December 1991] and 15 respectively in their top albums of the year.

ingles and promotion

"Get the Message" was released in April 1991 as the lead single and performed well in both Britain (number 8 on the Top 40 [ [http://www.chartstats.com/songinfo.php?id=18820 Chart Stats] ] ) and America (number 1 on Modern Rock Tracks [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=377&cfgn=Singles&cfn=Hot+Modern+Rock+Tracks&ci=3010640&cdi=6540241&cid=06%2F22%2F1991 billboard.com] ] ). In July "Tighten Up" was released as a promo in the US and reached number 6 on the same chart. [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=377&cfgn=Singles&cfn=Hot+Modern+Rock+Tracks&ci=3010889&cdi=6552903&cid=08%2F24%2F1991 billboard.com] ] "Feel Every Beat" was the next international single in September and was a modest hit.

Three songs from this era were released as B-sides: "Free Will" (on "Get the Message"), and "Lean to the Inside" and "Second to None" (on "Feel Every Beat"). A number of remixes were also released, by DNA, Winston Jones/Dave Shaw and Danny Rampling/Pete Lorimer.

Sumner and Marr gave a slew of interviews in the mainstream British music press, and appeared on "Friday at the Dome" and MTV's "120 Minutes" to support the album. "Get the Message" was also promoted by two mimed performances on "Top of the Pops". [ [http://www.feeleverybeat.co.uk/television.htm feel every beat] ]

Electronic performed at the Cities in the Park festival in August, where Pet Shop Boys guested on "Getting Away with It", and played three dates in Paris, Glasgow and London in December 1991. (A tour of North America in October/November with dance acts as support was canceled. ["Reflex", November 1991] ) Pet Shop Boys joined Sumner and Marr for three numbers in the last concert, namely "Getting Away with It", "The Patience of a Saint" and the then-unreleased song "Disappointed".

Charts

Reissues

In 1992 the album was re-released in Europe with the "Disappointed" single as a bonus CD, while a remastered version by engineer Owen Morris replaced the previous British edition in February 1994. In 2007 a download-only special edition of "Electronic" was released in the iTunes Store, containing the 1994 remastered album with a selection of B-sides and remixes.

Track listings

tandard edition

# "Idiot Country" (5:02)
# "Reality" (5:39)
# "Tighten Up" (4:38)
# "The Patience of a Saint" (4:11)
# "Getting Away with It" (5:14)
# "Gangster" (5:24)
# "Soviet" (2:00)
# "Get the Message" (5:20)
# "Try All You Want" (5:37)
# "Some Distant Memory" (4:09)
# "Feel Every Beat" (5:08)
* "Getting Away with It" did not appear on the first UK edition.
* "Gangster" was replaced by "Getting Away with It" in some territories. [ [http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=321165 Example here] ]

iTunes bonus tracks

# "Lucky Bag" (5:46)
# "Free Will (7" Edit)" (2:45)
# "Feel Every Beat (7" Remix)" (3:52)
# "Lean to the Inside" (4:08)
# "Second to None" (4:03)
# "Disappointed (Original Mix)" (5:44)
# "Disappointed (7" Mix)" (4:23)
# "Feel Every Beat (DNA Remix)" (5:40)
# "Disappointed (12" Remix)" (4:34)
# "Lucky Bag (Miami Edit)" (4:31)
# "Idiot Country Two (AKA Ultimatum Mix)" (6:22)
# "Gangster (FBI Mix)" (8:01)

Credits

"Electronic" was written by Sumner and Marr, except "The Patience of a Saint", which was composed by Electronic with Pet Shop Boys and credited to Sumner, Marr, Tennant and Lowe. The bonus track "Getting Away with It" was written by Sumner, Marr and Tennant. The album was produced by Sumner and Marr, and engineered by Owen Morris. [ [http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,81162,00.html ARTISTdirect] ]

Equipment

In an interview with "Sound on Sound" in October 1991, Bernard Sumner revealed the following technology was used during the making of the album. ["Sound on Sound", October 1991 (page 24)] He stated that the album "took 200 days from beginning to end" in the same interview.

*Akai S1000
*Korg T3
*Roland Juno-106
*Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
*Voyetra-8
*Yamaha DX5
*Moog Source
*Roland SH-101
*Roland TR-909
*Roland MT-32
*Roland D-110
*Macintosh SE
*Macintosh IIcx
*Sound Tools

Personnel

*Bernard Sumner — vocals, keyboards and programming
*Johnny Marr — guitars, keyboards and programming
*Neil Tennant — vocals on "The Patience of a Saint" and "Getting Away with It"
*Chris Lowe — keyboards on "The Patience of a Saint"
*Donald Johnson — drums and percussion on "Tighten Up" and "Feel Every Beat"
*David Palmer — drums on "Feel Every Beat" and "Getting Away with It"
*Denise Johnson — vocals on "Get the Message"
*Helen Powell — oboe on "Some Distant Memory"
*Andrew Robinson — additional programming

References

External links

* [http://www.feeleverybeat.co.uk/ feel every beat (unofficial website)]
* [http://www.worldinmotion.net/electronic.htm worldinmotion.net (unofficial website)]