Getting Away With It: The ELECTRONIC Poll

"Get The Message," for me.

Get the Message will rightly walk it but Tighten Up is orchestral-stab heaven.

Gangster, without even stopping to consider. With Some Distant Memory the tiniest, tiniest fraction behind.

Actually, fuck. Now I have stopped to consider, I wonder if that should be the other way round? Ach, no, fuck it.

One of the few albums that genuinely touches perfection, I think. Absolutely a product of its time and place -- and it sounds it -- but then that time and place was the north of England at the turn of the 1990s, so precisely the same could be said of me.

Oh god I've not listened to this record in years. I absolutely killed it with overplaying when it came out, now I can barely remember how it goes. Which was the one with the PSB all over it? Getting Away With It? I'll listen when I get to work and figure it out.

Getting Away With It was before the album. The Neil Tennant album track is Patience Of A Saint, which I've voted for.

Actually, yeh, good point: my copy (vinyl) doesn't have Getting Away With It on it. I thought something seemed odd there.

"Idiot Country" for me, because it sets the tone for all the electropop goodness to come.

Getting Away With It was definitely on my copy of the album. Granted, I lived in the States at the time, but it was certainly on it.

This poll has the US track listing, which included "Getting Away With It".

Going with "Gangster" here, for Barney's lyrics.

"Some Distant Memory" for the coda alone.

gotta go 'get the message' really.

Cannot..WILL not choose. Every song is a keeper on this one.

"Getting Away With It". Love "Idiot Country" too though.

SOME DISTANT MEMORY IS TEH AWESOMES

tighten up has the lovely creamy left-over-smiths guitar riff

Haven't heard this in about - god - sixteen years, but i'm pretty sure it was 'some distant memory' that did it for me - Barney's titles don't make these polls easy.

I read a Johnny Marr interview recently where he said 'Get The Message' was the best song he ever wrote. Can't say I share his view.

He admitted in a Select interview from '93 that "Get The Message" and "Feel Every Beat" were two of the best songs he'd ever written. Has he had a change of heart?

Here's what I wrote about "Some Distant Memory" on the other Electronic thread: its "production and arrangement (a live oboe solo doubling a synth!) evoke the wistfulness of the title and lyrics."

he has indeed

This album would have been perfect had it included "Disappointed."

wait, johnny marr lives in Portland now?

Curses, I voted for the wrong one - turns out it was 'Try All You Want' that rocked teenage me's world. I've got the album on just now and am pleased with it, though it's not really how I remembered it. I like the PSBesque eurodisco(?) beat everywhere and there's a slight demoish quality to it - if it was a bit lusher it would sound quite now, actually. Barney sounds good and there are just enough nice surprises, unexpected instruments and melody changes and so on, to keep it interesting (presumably a benefit of having Marr on board)

Really the only songs on here I wouldn't feel bad about not voting for are "Idiot Country" and "Soviet".

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

One of the few albums by anyone that I thoroughly enjoy all the way through.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Surprised by the third-place finish for "Gangster."

re-poll with the actual album tracklist

"Idiot Wind" is the opening track, isn't it?

Bucks the New Order trend...

"Idiot Country" even...

lol this album is pretty boring and the one thoroughly good track didn't win

re-poll with the actual album tracklist

Yes, that'd be nice. Mind, didn't fucking Blue Monday distort the PCL poll in a similar way, or something?

This was how it was released in the U.S., and we all know America rooles.

Hmph. I'd have no problem with that if it was an American album ... but really, I think Manchester rules should apply ;)

Mind, that's true of most things in life.

I'm Not the Kind That Needs to Tell You Just What I Want to Do: New Order, "Power, Corruption and Lies" Poll

Not greatly, no. (xpost)

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.

better to live than to know

surprised Sumner and Marr haven't signed up to perform the album live at some festival.

do you want to see Bernard dancing?

I have the sudden urge to listen to this again because it is so springlike, but I no longer seem to own this album! How did that happen?

Surprised Sumner hasn't signed up to perform the album with Cunningham and Chapman, minus Marr.

are these two estranged then? Anyway BB OTM - this album has such a fresh and sunny Spring feeling.

https://imtransfer.shapeservices.net/uploads/8227139480887496356/Image.jpg

I suddenly want to get a vinyl copy of this really badly. Sadly it's really hard to do a search for it on eBay. It does look like some copies with Getting Away With it on it came out. The album wouldn't seem right without it.

This and Technique are Sumner's peak.

Looks like the versions with Getting Away With It leave off Gangster for some reason.

Really? They need to reissue this on vinyl with both those songs on as soon as possible then.

Think if I included this with all the New Order albums I'd rate only Technique and Low-Life higher. All three of them would be 10/10.

It does look like some copies with Getting Away With it on it came out. The album wouldn't seem right without it.

The album wouldn't seem right with it.

The only version I've ever owned has it on there and as it's one of my favourite songs of all time I'd really miss it, even if it shouldn't be on there. It's the exact same situation as Virginia Plain on the first Roxy Music album.

yeah the original Uk vinyl and CD issue never had it on. same kinda deal as the re-issues of Meat Is Murder that have How Soon Is Now on them.

tighten up has the lovely creamy left-over-smiths guitar riff

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Sunday, July 5, 2009 1:35 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ this is what i feel

I absolutely love some distant memory. I guess because it could so easily fit on technique..

ILM's love of Some Distant Memory is what made me feel right at home when I stumbled here. That oboe solo outro still kills me after all these years

"getting way with it" is my least favourite track here. i don't like the strings on it, and in a way the song does not evolve after the good start. it just meanders around without a clear destination. it is still better than 95% of the music around but on this gorgeous album it is the stinker. my fave is definitely "feel every beat" which didn't fare too well in the poll. how it slowly builds up and gets better and better. and turns into a monster groove. that keyboard line soaked in reverb which reminds so much of matt johnson's "soul mining" cd. it is so incredibly light and airy. irresistible dance pop at its finest.

"getting away with it", of course.

getting away with it, yes. ok, i've not seen a pic of bernie since the mid 90s and was just confronted with the youtube spectacle of something from last year. i do hope he is well.

ILM's love of Some Distant Memory is what made me feel right at home when I stumbled here. That oboe solo outro still kills me after all these years

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx)

BETTER TO LIVE THAN TO KNOW

Hehehehe... funny that this got bumped given that I'm currently up to the part in Chapter and Verse where Sumner and Marr are trying to promote this record while nursing killer hangovers.

(Although I haven't yet stopped laughing at the part where Ian Curtis brings a French journalist to Joy Division's rehearsal room for an interview to be greeted with the sight of a room full of miners watching a porno)

Better to live than to know.

I put this NO play list together that includes Electronic tracks.

Whenever "Getting Away With It" pops into my head, I end up immediately singing the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way." Am I the only one who does this? I mean, the chorus is almost identical, even down to the slight variation (C instead of A on the Electronic song, not sure about the Furs) of the second note the second time they sing the hook (compare the second "all my life" to "I follow")

sorry, that was nerdy, but if ever there was a forum on which to express such a thing, it is here

Would have voted "Patience Of A Saint" but missed the poll

Can't believe I never noticed that similarity between the songs before. From now on, I'm sure my brain will make the substitution

more is less and you're repressed!

thread prompted me to play the associated singles from the first album. I like all the non-album tracks, but especially enjoy when Free Will gets about 2mins in and it sounds like the song starts again: https://youtu.be/VD6-bMRJJZY?t=132

I love the B-sides, especially this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH4u1kMCvmo

Yeah, agree with Second to None. It seems like it could have easily fit on the album.

Oh wow didn't know there was anything beyond the album from that era

They excelled at instrumentals. This one has had a long life as bumper music:

https://www.google.com/search?q=lean+to+the+inside+electronic&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WLpxZ_fGwY

Turning Point and Lucky Bag are my b-sides of choice right now.

"Getting Away With It" was one of the last songs to be released during the 80's and made for a perfect closure to the decade. Also because of that timing it came out around Christmas so I forever associate it with the holidays.

Is there another comparable song that closes out a particular era of time so well? Maybe "Good Times" by Chic?

the end of “gangster” >>>>>

You found this!!!

'Tighten Up' fucking rules.

this is the only album i listen to now

my drunk album

Happy 30th to "Getting Away With It" itself.

See that girl
She's over there
I don't need her
she don't care

Happy thirtieth anniversary.

stings cousin can not sing so i like the songs he does not sing on or is not alone on!

Disappointed and Getting Away With It on the original LP release would have made this a bonafide all-time classic. I vividly recall the sound and activity of holding down the rewind button and hearing Tighten Up quickly get back to the beginning so I could hear it again. I was afraid I would break the tape I rewound it so many times. Now the opening stabs are painful to my ears, but I still love the song. I still love this album and have very fond memories of hearing GAWI on the radio for the first time and the excruciatingly long wait to get the album.

They are fortunately on the rerelease.

It's so easy
why won't you leave this?

Thirty-one years young today.

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..."

A Marr interview from the '21 anniversary. I'd never read it. He breaks down each song.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/interview-johnny-marr-looks-back-on-electronics-debut-album-30-years-on