Electronic: Twisted Tenderness

Supergroups don't have it as easy at it seems. Sure, they can coast on the achievements of their individual members, but if they don't begin to match up, they could hurt the reputation of the talents involved, in turn tainting their previous work. Electronic began with immense promise, teaming two of England's most beloved Mancunians—New Order's Bernard Sumner and The Smiths' Johnny Marr—for a tantalizing digression. The group's 1991 debut as Electronic even boasted assistance from the Pet Shop Boys. Sumner and Marr were able to postpone the expected follow-up with other work (a New Order reunion and work with The The, respectively), but when those projects ran their course, the pair had run out of excuses. As a last resort, Sumner took part in a Prozac study to determine whether the drug could compensate for his writers' block, and the result was 1996's sunny but uneven Raise The Pressure, an album that hardly justified the five-year wait. The same could be said for the lackluster Twisted Tenderness, which finally arrives in the U.S. a year late with four bonus tracks to compensate for the gap. The album is especially disappointing because Sumner and Marr co-produced it with erstwhile electro king Arthur Baker, who had famously worked with artists from Afrika Bambaataa to New Order to Bruce Springsteen before burning out. Alas, Baker is not back in top form, nor are Sumner and Marr. Songs such as "Make It Happen," "Haze," and "Breakdown" boom with big (albeit dated) "Madchester" sound but little in the way of melody, as if the current state of bombastic Britrock has set the bar too low for these former chart hogs. The occasional brush with former glory, such as "Vivid" and the title track, isn't enough to make up for the eager-to-please inadequacies of the other material. New Order, The Smiths, and even Electronic (circa 1991) are hard acts to follow, and if Sumner and Marr don't feel up to the task, they probably shouldn't have bothered.