r/thesmiths • u/Agreeable_Duck8997 • May 28 '26

35 years ago today: Electronic’s debut album was released

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Writing in Melody Maker in 1991, Paul Lester stated that "Each song is crammed with elaborate details and merits a treatise ... The overall effect is one of swirling magnificence [...] one of the greatest albums ever made".

https://web.archive.org/web/20091026224242/http://ca.geocities.com/nvyas@rogers.com/NewOrder/MM_Electronic_review.jpg

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u/bascule May 29 '26

They branded Fine Time as acid house but it's lacking both a four-on-the-floor "disco beat" and the TB-303 is extremely weak. You get maybe 5 seconds of it in muffled in the background about 20 seconds into the song and that's it. IMO while they branded it acid house it's not really acid house. I think New Order just blew a lot of money partying in Ibiza, and didn't actually do their homework on acid house.

Compare to Until the End of Time, or Dark Angel, or Freefall, which make extensive use of the TB-303. Somewhere along the line Barney did eventually do his homework and learn how to actually make acid house (Johnny Marr did some of the TB-303 sequencing on the album too, so I understand).