Wow- just now it dawned upon me that this maligned disk has more interesting songs total, than moovement, PCL, and MooLife combined. Even with the song about port royal sound with bernard "rapping" very confidently like madonna (maybe call it a recitation). References to cows in no way reflect on the content of lowlife or movement or similarity to the cow of Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd or echo and the bunnycows of " seven seas" video fame

Yeah I like republic to, I remember that was the first New Order CD I bought and listened to it non stop.

That's the acid test.
4 things I promise to stop discussing, partly cos I only have one lifetime, mainly cos no one gives a fuck what I think and minus no one is gonna reconsider their opinions on the basis thereof:
1. Why Republic is shit.
2. How it's possible to love NO and at the same time think they're massively overrated.
3. Why The Young Ones is the Beatles and Bottom is Wings.
4. Why Mel C is the ultimate dreamboat.

1. Strongly disagree.
2. I know what you mean.
3. I love both:quoting Alan Partridge, "Wings are only the group the Beatles could have been!"
4. I could be persuaded...

1.Influential is always a vague thing in my opinion. New Order influenced The Bravery, possibly.Who have they actually influenced musically? The bands they have influenced musically have all been shit (The Bravery etc.) The bands they have influenced in other ways are more interesting.I think they influenced Doves to name but one.Not musically but in an attitude and willing to take musical chances - There Goes The Fear in a roundabout way i always thought was influenced by mid 80s New Order and stuff like The Perfect Kiss.There Goes The Fear sounds nothing like The Perfect Kiss i hear you say and you'd be correct.But it's the courage to try something innovative and create something big and awe inspiring that's the influential connection between The Perfect Kiss and There Goes The Fear.Was it some Canadian or American band that did a song a few years back with a video that completely copied the Perfect Kiss video right down to the last facial expression? Jeez, take an influence from the attitude and music and create something new and inspired from it, not copy it.

2.Nope they've never really dominated charts.Unless you count the indie charts.True Faith never made the national charts no.1 and WIM only stayed at the top for 2 weeks.Technique was a number 1 album for 1 week.Not really chart conquerors .


3.Electronic was kind of the greatest album ever made as it soundtracked one of the greatest periods of time in my life in early summer 1991.So for that reason yes it was or is one of the greatest albums ever made.Though i still defend House Of Love's Butterfly/Fontana album as THE greatest album ever made.


4. In the 80s/early 90s New Order were indeed our finest band.But that doesn't mean they made the best singles or albums of all the artist and bands around at that era.They were our finest band because of their couldn't give a fuck and cool as fuck attitude ( back then i mean. That aura is long, long gone).They were our finest band because of their and Factory's outlook and attitude, not their records although a lot of their records were pretty fucking good.

5.I agree Sporty Spice is well fit.Even more so now.Oh, there wasn't a number 5?

Edited by user 08 October 2016 14:12:56(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

In the words of Alan Partridge, absobloodyexactly. The strange thing is that people continue to praise them for a stance they haven't actualy exhibited for around 3 quarters of their existence.

I loved Regret when it came out but was a little disappointed that the rest of Republic didn't really reach its standard.

At the time, I really lamented the lack of Hook's bass on the vast majority of the tracks, which seems quite ironic to me now.

I love True faith and had hoped that Stephen Hague would calm tensions and elevate the music but, with hindsight, he appears to have had his work cut out just glueing it all together.

The artwork always struck me as a lazy cop-out by Saville. (And I also bought The Limited Run!)

I liked Special & Avalanche and still do. The K-Class 'Re-united' mix of Ruined in a Day & the Perfecto version of World are both tip top.

I have just listened to most of it again for the first time in years. It's not actually as bad as my memory of it but I won't be going back to it any time soon either.

Edited by user 10 October 2016 05:01:09(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I think it's a great album, needs more Hooky. As someone pointed out on one of these pages if you think of the direction of the albums being mostly down to Bernard there's a sort of sense in going from Technique to Electronic and then from Republic to Raise The Pressure, followed by Twisted Tenderness to Get Ready.

I don't recall who first pointed that out but I like it.

There is a clear break in direction from "Raise the Pressure" to "Twisted Tenderness" - the first is the last "classic" New Order-sounding album (housey pop with a bit of Smiths jingle-jangly in between), the latter the first 2k-sounding, big beat with big ROCK guitars. Almost like a fresh start.

The most dated album of their career, too much in thrall to the tech fashions of its era. Still, Regret, Avalanche, Special make up for it.

It's just an opinion of course. Comparing the sound of Republic and its underwhelming production to say an act like Rival Consoles (who is ****ing great btw) shows its age pretty clearly. I take your point re: Movement, P,C&L et al, but to my ears those albums have a timeless quality.