Band: Electronic
Album: Twisted Tenderness
Year: 1999
Label: Parlophone
Status: Disbanded 1999
We’ve met this supergroup already, so by now we should have got the message about how they formed: this is how Electronic ended.

Their third and last album. A sign off, a tactic to finish something on a high. Twisted Tenderness represents how potentially good things get destroyed if you’re not careful. The murdered Russian mystic Rasputin raises a hand on the cover.

Make It Happen is the first track of the album. An epic guitar-backed beat-thumping funky intro that lasts over a minute says this album means business, sustainable because Sumner and Marr have confidence born of experience and ability. They take every word and sound, layer it up, and somehow build optimism into that depth of music which lasts nearly eight minutes before the orchestral strings and acoustic guitar lay their hand on us. When an album opens like this you should always sit up and listen.


What’s the song about once the words kicks in? People who find themselves at a crossroads, looking for a way forward, something new. A song about a man who isn’t whole; unsatisfactory sex and the aftershock of that. Not just one person, either, since Sumner sings “let’s make it happen” to a heartbeat background. Let us. It takes two to tango. And two geniuses to create this fantastic hybrid album.



Extract from page 362 of 2000 Tunes: A History of Manchester Music by M. H. Rees; used with permission. Read the whole series (25 extracts) here; or my summary post. Readers might be interested in my forthcoming novel about a man obsessed with Manchester music - confusingly, it is also called 2000 Tunes!
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