Both more and less than what a partnership of Sumner and Marr would promise, Electronic's debut has weathered time much better than might have been thought upon its release, but ultimately only half works. When it does, though, it's fantastic, sometimes shifting from okay to fantastic within the same song. Opening number "Idiot Country" is a bit like that -- the beginning sounds a little too rushed, Marr's heavy wah-wah riff OK enough but Sumner's semi-rap/semi-sung vocals a bit ham-handed   [ read more ]

CD $9.48

Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner have a unique musical companionship. Both artists bred the '80s British music scene into pop candy delight thanks to Marr's charming guitar hooks while fronting the Smiths, and Sumner, whose ingenuous lyrical poetry pushed New Order's dance-oriented sound into the new wave mainstream. But since their musical collaboration began back in 1991, the duo continues to make music for themselves, uninhibited by current norms and marketing success. {^Twisted Tendern   [ read more ]

CD $11.38

Electronic began as a side project for New Order's Bernard Sumner and the Smiths' Johnny Marr, dabbling in the sort of '80s synth-pop pioneered by the former's band. Raise the Pressure is not so firmly planted in that genre -- there's still a good deal of retro electronica, but Marr brings in more guitar work, making the album more of a straight-ahead pop affair. Some of the songs are Brit-pop at its finest ("Forbidden City," "For You,"), and others hint at New Order's oeuvr   [ read more ]

CD $9.48

When New Order's Bernard Sumner joined the Smiths' Johnny Marr to form Electronic in 1989, some called it a dream collaboration. Marr's gifted guitar work made him a star musician on top of making the Smiths one of the greatest bands to emerge from post-punk. Sumner and his coolly boyish vocals stepped up to fill the shoes of his old friend, the late Ian Curtis, upon the end of Joy Division in 1980. New Order and the Smiths were two bands that matched one another in ap   [ read more ]

CD $18.03