Andy Ffrench, who has been 'getting away with it all his life' - enjoys an Electronic reissue...

  • Electronic
  • Electronic
  • EMI

FANS of 1980s bands New Order and The Smiths should enjoy this 2CD special edition remaster of Electronic’s debut album.

After The Smiths split in 1987 guitarist Johnny Marr teamed up with New Order singer Bernard Sumner to form the ‘supergroup’.

They recorded sessions with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys which included the band’s first single, Getting Away With It, released in 1989.

The track, featuring an irresistible chorus, is on the eponymous first album which came out in 1991 and is arguably the best thing on it.

I might have liked Idiot Country, the first track, 20 years ago, but now it gives me a headache and I was happy to skip forward to more melodic numbers including The Patience of A Saint, again featuring the PSBs, Get The Message and moody instrumental Soviet.

Bernard Sumner was at the top of his game when he took time to work with Marr, and Electronic could be a New Order album.

The lush electro pop still sounds fresh. Electronic is a collaboration that worked well but there is nothing here that hits the heights of what New Order or The Smiths achieved.

The 1992 single Disappointed is the highlight of the second CD, which features different edits and instrumentals of the hits.

This is a lavish reissue for fans, but it might have been a better idea to squeeze all the tracks on to one CD.