Getting Away With It: The ELECTRONIC Poll

Distortion is in the eye of the beholder ...

Didn't we do this before? I don't remember for sure, but I thought I remembered voting for "Soviet". If I'd have seen this one I'd have voted for "Soviet" again, ahead of "Idiot Country" (which also placed low here b/c of the "rap" I assume?), b/c "Soviet" remains a mix tape staple of mine. This album was such a gateway album for me to bands I ended up loving a ton, and for that alone I still rate it very highly.

I rate this album highly because it's fucking awesome.

prob. top 20 for me all time

i like Disappointed more than anything on this

It is one of the great "lost" tracks.

'Idiot Country' is by no means the runt on here, it's got terrific guitar.

Yep: this is just a fantastic album all the way through. And yeh, it sounds of its time ... but that was a time I loved musically, so hey.

"I don't know if we could get lost in a city this size if we wanted to."

This song is so great. What a title! And for a four minute song it's concise, with several different sections that don't repeat (note esp. the guitar part at just over two minutes in, & the closing part).

For such a simple chordal structure it's got so many unexpected production touches: chimes, choral synths, the flamenco guitar, and – the icing – that oboe part.

Album is ultramegaclassic.

It's been weird and reassuring to realize that I wasn't the only person who thought "Some Distant Memory" was classic.

It's a total classic! People who don't like that song don't really like this album IMO.

um, I don't really like this album.

I got it on day one, and went : "mmmmmmmm....."

(The singles, particularly the "Feel every beat" remixes, oh yes!)

It's so easy –
why won't you leave this?
Just because I've grown afraid of you
I wish we were at the beginning
It would be so good to be with you

If we were redoing the poll I'd vote for "Some Distant Memory". I could stand to hear a 20 minute remix of it, elongating each of the gorgeous sections. The guitar section alone is like a lost beach classic.

Search "Free Will" on the "Message" 12".

ahhh - this is why I feel so at home on ILM.
Shame I missed this poll, 'Some Distant Memory' and partic that oboe section is one of my favorite pieces of music in the world.

Oh man, glad I'm not the only one who loves that oboe part. Just perfect, isn't it.

I can never remember "Try All You Want" by name

Oh man, glad I'm not the only one who loves that oboe part. Just perfect, isn't it.

In my Roxy interview with Scott Woods, I cited that oboe part as my favorite ever.

Can I mention the B-sides, all of which are wonderful in their own way? "Second To None" and its huge orchestral synth chords, and "Free Will" and its acid house nonsense -- a distant cousin to the Pet Shop Boys' "Don Juan"?

Can anyone work out what the vocal sample in Free Will says? "Bring the light - something?"

I thought it said "Real life is empty," which explains why it's buried.

This is one of those days when "Idiot Country" is the greatest song in the world. Things to note today: the pause, whoosh & restart at 3:19, and the slightly higher key for the main key riff immediately thereafter. This song is loaded with little details like that.

man "Tighten Up" was robbed. classic Marr guitar on that one.

This song is loaded with little details like that.

Also: the whistling and that orchestral synth part

An expanded 2 disc edition of Sumner and Marr's 1991 debut as Electronic.

'Electronic' sounds a little more like New Order than the Smiths. The three singles from the album remain the highlights: "Get the Message," "Feel Every Beat" and "Getting Away with It" featuring Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys.

The project has been described as a joyous venn diagram of Sumner and Marr’s influences. Although ostensibly coming from different disciplines, the experimental dance pop of New Order and the full-bodied jangle of The Smiths, their common interests were many: dance music, a good tune and pushing musical boundaries.

The release includes 8 previously unreleased tracks including alternate versions, edits & instrumentals.

Tracklisting

CD 1
1. Idiot Country (2012 - Remaster)
2. Reality (2012 - Remaster)
3. Tighten Up (2012 - Remaster)
4. The Patience Of A Saint (2012 - Remaster)
5. Getting Away With It (2012 - Remaster)
6. Gangster (2012 - Remaster)
7. Soviet (2012 - Remaster)
8. Get The Message (2012 - Remaster)
9. Try All You Want (2012 - Remaster)
10. Some Distant Memory (2012 - Remaster)
11. Feel Every Beat (2012 - Remaster)

CD 2
1. Disappointed (Stephen Hague 7” Inch Version) (2012 remaster)
2. Second To None (Edit) Previously unreleased
3. Lean To The Inside (Edit) Previously unreleased
4. Twisted Tenderness (Guitar / Vocal Mix) Previously unreleased
5. Idiot Country Two (12” Version)
6. Free Will (Edit) Previously unreleased
7. Until The End Of Time (Edit) Previously unreleased
8. Feel Every Beat (Edit) Previously unreleased
9. Getting Away With It (Instrumental) (2012 remaster)
10. Turning Point (Edit) (2012 remaster)
11. Visit Me (Edit) Previously unreleased
12. Twisted Tenderness (Instrumental) Previously unreleased

Release date: 11/03/13

Hmmm tempting - although I would have hoped to have a super extended version of Some Distant memory amongst the bonus tracks.

their B-sides are fantastic. "Second to None" is this quiet melancholic thing. "Lean to the Inside" is the ultimate TV theme.

I think this says it all:

http://www.feeleverybeat.co.uk/albums/melodymaker25may1991.jpg

i note there's already an expanded edition on Spotify
http://open.spotify.com/album/1BUrw4Xa1r4eQI6D6kz7zr

but it's a bit different

I love that review, Alfred, and quite interesting today to note his frame of references. I don't think I read it at the time (iirc my music press debut was a couple of weeks later) but I do remember Lester was still on the same riff when he reviewed Slowdive's debut later in the year. Something like: 'if anyone was going to make a better album this year than Electronic, it would be Electronic themselves ... but I secretly hoped Slowdive might somehow surprise us all'

Funny how attitudes to age in pop have changed. "By rights they should be washed up, trading on former glories, a miserably uninspired pair of codgers way past their prime." Sumner was 35, Marr 27.

haha what a review

We're aware of this, right?

http://pitchfork.com/news/50126-johnny-marr-and-new-orders-bernard-sumners-project-electronic-to-reissue-debut/

I love how they unwittingly made it difficult to google for downloads by naming themselves Electronic. Marr must have taken notes from fellow seer Matt Johnson.

Ha. Once I saw some dudes at the airport who were clearly in some kind of band. I asked what the name was and guy told me, in heavy French accent, "Rock and Roll"

Great news on the reissue. I have the original CD which I suspect was mastered from vinyl, and was looking into ordering the previous remastered version with the black cover from the uk. Glad I waited.

I have absolutely no words...

http://drownedinsound.com/releases/17564/reviews/4146274

the irony of accusing the re-issue of being "lazily tossed-off" is delicious.

Haha.

The second disc is pretty bad though. Alternate versions of songs that came out almost a decade later?

On the other hand I wanted remastered opy of Second to None.

I initially thought the Twisted Tenderness demos might have been recorded at the time of the 1st lp and then finished 10 years later

If you want to go
I just can't say no

Reviving because it's been, you know, a year since the last time.

Bought this on vinyl a couple months ago. It's still one of my favorite albums. Kind if wish they had release it in the US on vinyl so I could have Getting Away With It on there as well.

Phone posting leads to some shady errors.

I hope the new stuff from New Order incorporates the sweet synth basslines on display in Try All You Want and Some Distant Memory.

technique - getting away with it - this LP - a streak of imperious form so impressive that one is even able to forgive world in motion

World in Motion needs no forgiving.

That’s a truly baffling number of votes for ‘Gangster’!

it's an open act of defiance!

Gangster rules, as does the rest of this album

bloody hell, i hate this bands name.
makes ilm, google etc impossible to dig around for more info.
anyways, have had the orig cd for years, and never really got into it as it sounds so weak and limp.
then the other day i spotted a version in a local charity shop with a different cover.
got home and did the usual discogs check up.
had no idea re the 1993 remaster, and decided to spend the wallet busting 50p.
yeah, not to get all SHF, but this is a lot better than the original cd version.
it's not just louder, but better definition, seperation and cleaner/crisper.
enjoying it so so much more.
i guess someone realised quite soon after the original release that the cd edition just didn't sound that good, hence the very quick 'remaster'.

Look at me, I always get the blame
But I can't even learn to spell my name

I’d like to read
I’d like to write
But where I live
I learned to fight
So don’t you ever say that we’re the same

otm

https://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2023/08/13/electronic-get-the-message-best-of-reissue/

Neil: "Bernard and Johnny Marr were almost outraged by the way we work. The way we work is we have a programmer who does all the typewriter tapping and he does everything himself and we hardly do anything ourselves. We kind of sit there reading piles of magazines telling people what to do or, indeed, sleeping while they're doing it. And Bernard thinks this is terribly funny and shocking. He can't get over the fact that Chris goes to sleep in the studio. When we did 'Patience Of A Saint', it was quite embarrassing trying to write with them. Chris had this chord change and then Johnny Marr put a bass line on it and I wrote a tune. It took about 10 or 15 minutes. And then it was time to go to The Hacienda..."