I used to be a big fan of ConOmFusArsIOn but paradoxically it's dated worse than the original.
With Factory the mixes usually had a lot in common with the original and even if they didn't, the band might launch into them live (I'm thinking Feel Every Beat or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0V0f7rdHHI), implying they were at least part of them. The endless rehashes really started with TF 94 (or even Spooky), just cos London were desperate to recoup their investment. I was a superfan in the mid-90s but even I found it hard to get excited about stuff that was (a) so obviously about money first and quality second, and (b) so totally lacking in the original sound. I think it was Lionrock's three Nearly-totally-and-utterly-unlike 1963 mixes that finally convinced me to stop bothering... http://forums.neworderon...spx?g=posts&m=20275.
It's strange... MC is my favourite album from this camp since Electronic but I couldn't be arsed with tracking down all the remixes this time around. It's a combination of money, lack of interest / storage space, the digital free-for-all and also - I'm nearly 45. I'm far too old to get a boner every time a rarity hits the stores. It would be disrespectful to Melanie C.
PS Cerys Smith is a wanker.

Edited by user 22 August 2017 03:20:50(UTC)  | Reason: Spammers

I went through YO before.
In 1993 the O-Zone said NO had brought credibility to the footie record (a lot of competetion there) so would they ever consider doing a song for Eurovision? Bernard said No - but they did and it's Liar. Boy, it sucks like a toothless whore. There was a negative review of Rep in Select and it criticised 'the cloying POLITENESS of it all - Hague gives a little bit of room for the bass parts and then Bernard can sing etc.' Actually, reviews were quite positive, probably cos they were coming from an overall pop perspective rather than a we-want-Technique-2-with-Hooky fan perspective. Even Select said, 'It isn't a bad album, just an inert one.' In fact, the build-up was super-positive - Radio 1 saying 'Technique was good but that was for the 80s: this is the same for the 90s,' a 2-part NME article ('Republic is great') and - after release - that Paul Lester NME shite: 'Republic shows they are currently making the finest music of their lives.' Bollocks cos it wasn't current either.
After Dennis' Avalanche piece, I will banish Republic from my life forever. I've spent far too much time on a bland, mediocre puddle of pooh that makes One Direction sound like the Sex Pistols.

Edited by user 30 August 2017 23:37:41(UTC)  | Reason: I like Melanie C's shoulderblades

Yep, pretty much what Dennis said.Young Offender has all the great production tricks and some flashy keyboards and synths and beats and Liar has some club friendly sounds but they, much like a lot of Republic, fall short and don't astonish or leave you speechless like earlier NO stuff on P,C& L or Low Life.The Pet Shep Boys' Young Offender is the best song with that song title.What else can i say about Liar.... um..... i first heard it on Jakki Brambles Radio 1 show on that station's New Order day in April 93.Erm, or maybe it was on frickin Steve Wright's show.Whatever.


Dee Lewis is the backing singer on Liar? Hang on, didn't she do backing vocs for Style Council ? If not who am i getting mixed up with?

Not sure about Style Council...

I figured that a) she was the only credited backing singer, b) she is a backing singer, and c) Liar has female backing vox, so ergo she must be the backing singer on Liar.

Edited by user 31 August 2017 16:37:13(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Excellent thought provoking review from the DR.

Electronic music was at its strongest imo between 92-96. After the rave scene artists really started pushing the boundaries on albums as well as 12". Think Aphext twin, artifiacial intelligence series of albums, then you had 2nd wave Detroit such as the mighty Underground Resistance, Carl Craig and soon to be Drexciya . Added to that the Berlin sound of basic channel.

Then you get the b side to republic (the A side is strong) sounding tired to the background of other electronic music, more of the boring house sound of that day rather than the innovative sound from elsewhere. Liar is probably my least favourite New Order track t(yes worse than RTS) followed closely by Chemical. Young Offender is just an ok tune for me.

The album needed more dance / guitar crossover and for that it needed more Hooky bass. I prefer it more now than I did at time of release, and that's probably because I no longer go to clubs and listen to less pure electronic music. It was New order reforming in 98 that made me go to gigs again and their 2001 tour took me back out of the clubs and into going to gigs again.

The true joy of Republic is not its intrinsic quality, but its nostalgic and evocative qualities... Hear a track and even if you don't like it think, OMG: this takes me back - I was doing THIS thing in THAT place and felt THIS way, and boy, things really were totally and utterly fucking shit. But now, things really are total and utter fucking shit too. And since then till now, things really have been just total and utter fucking shit as well. And even before that song (which is, in itself, total and utter fucking shit) things were indeed total, utter fucking shit... I wonder what the future holds... Thanks Republic, you're AWESOME.

That Chemical review is actually more than kind! This is like an exorcism for me: I'm gonna go through this useless album for the last time and then forget it forever.
Remember: For everyone who doesn't like Chemical, there's always someone else who doesn't like it either.

Edited by user 11 September 2017 08:54:03(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Getting your head kicked in is an absolute joy compared to getting your head kicked in, sliced into six million pieces, rammed up your bottom and then set fire to by a member of One Direction.

Chemical and Times Change reviews now posted.


...more fibre needed...

There are plenty of fine songs from their early period ,while they were in their 20's (JD-LL)and many more from their middle period(B,T,and R) ,as they were now in their 30's . And they actually have plenty more from their late period , their 40 's (GR-LS, and 7singles )
Any single period I choose I have a better, more interesting and exciting group of songs than any of their rivals , contemporaries, bands or individual's entire careers, including current bands .
But they're now in their 50's and with BL and MC adding more fine songs their late,late period is also great.
I expect 2 or 3 more albums of songs. And
Live shows and many extras .
They are the best band ever by far with more than plenty of great songs

Round and Round was apparently about Tony and - another Monkhouse scoop - Liar definitely was. 'I can't stand the music' was reportedly cos they used to have MTV playing all day and Barney hated it (remember this was before the Spice Girls).
Did anyone else notice how the Other Two left a certain Mr Wilson off their 'thank yous' on the first CD? Petty, small-minded, arrogant little wankers. The guy funded the first Joy Division album so you'd probably be cleaning the bogs in a strip club without his generosity. I know he wasn't overstruck by the Other Two And You and was banking on New Order, but let's not forget, said LP was a total and utter pile of shit and almost as bad as Reflange. Wise choice.
Bernard said the 'payroll' line wasn't specifically about Factory, but I found it hard to imagine him penning such a line in 1988. He also said RIAD sounds like it's about Factory but wasn't: they all went out and got 'zonked' and then wrote this tune. Again, I can't picture 1992's NO hanging out together at all, let alone bashing out a (practically Hook-free) track afterwards, and got the impression he was talking about Technique.
I had a friend at university. Really, I did. He used to change the lyrics to 'This is how it feels to be / On London and not Factory'. He wasn't my friend after that.
Writing songs about the fact you write songs really is a cop-out - like 'Loved It (The Other Track)'. It's similar to ''''''ironically'''''' crap comedians who are just crap, or writing a book about being unable to write a book. Just do your job.
The only decent thing about Repubelick is the track order. Imagine if it kicked off with Liar and climaxed with Chemical...
One more track and then I will never bother with it again. I was always attempting to find something worthwhile but not any more... I'm sick of trying. I mean it. It's over.

Edited by user 24 September 2017 00:39:28(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Not sure what your point is. They have two daughters so by Monty Python logic they did it twice.
I'm not a huge fan of Tony Wilson. It would be unfair to Mel C.
The Other Two album was ready before Republic and Tony was reportedly iffy about releasing it cos he - understandably - thought (well, knew) the NO LP would be a safer bet. Given that he'd risked his life's savings on Unknown Pleasures, let the notoriously shambolic 80's New Order do what the fuck they liked and even given Hooky carte blanche with that shitty, misogynistic, my-equally-important-bandfellows-can-fuck-off-out-of-it Pineapple Feces vid, I can understand his scepticism, and I find The Other Two's comments extremely unfair. I saw a vid where Steve actually got a whole sentence out and called Wilson a 'gobshite' - a tad ungrateful, perchance?

Edited by user 24 September 2017 00:38:05(UTC)  | Reason: Yes we can

Yeah! Some interesting comments at http://forums.neworderon...sts&t=3362#post22639 ...
Everyone in 93 was going on about how FINAL the end of Rep sounded and would Reading be the end etc. I must've been the only one to pick up on the irony of people's despairing over the end of a band who had so OBVIOUSLY run out of steam. 'OMG, I WANNA WAIT ANOTHER 4 YEARS FER ANOTHER ALBUM AS BAD AS REPUBLIC, ANOTHER HANDFUL OF TIRED, FORMULAIC GIGS AT 5650876087549739-DOLLAR YANKEE STADIUMS AFTER 4546756543480984 SUB-BLUR ACTS AND ANOTHER PRETENTIOUS, WANKY, UNWATCHABLE PAUL BORELY DOC NARRATED BY SOME AMERICAN GIRL WHO SOUNDS LIKE SHE'S GIVING HERSELF A KIT-KAT SHUFFLE... PLEASE don't bail out on me, you fuck shites.'

Edited by user 24 September 2017 00:44:50(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified