Electronic's debut single remains its prime achievement, a beautiful, sweeping piece of dancefloor melancholia that brings together a slew of fantastic performers.
Sumner's vocal is a delight; his winsome, shy approach, which works so brilliantly in
New Order, succeeds just as well, delivering a lyric about unrequited love with regret and gentle ache. His synth-piano line works nicely, a bit of stuttering salsa-techno appropriate for the proceedings.
Marr, meanwhile, contributes both a crisp,
Chic-style electric guitar line and a fine mid-song acoustic flamenco break, increasing the sense of lost romance. Add in
Neil Tennant's counterpoint backing vocals,
Anne Dudley's string arrangement, and
David Palmer's solid drumming, and the result sparkles. The American release of the single contains both the little-different beyond length extended version of the song as well as an instrumental take, both of which originally appeared on the U.K. single release. As a further bonus, four other songs also appear. Two, unsurprisingly enough, are further revamps of the key track. The "Nude Mix" takes everything down to a fairly minimal techno pulse, while the "Vocal Remix" doesn't do much beyond pumping up the bass a bit and throwing in some extra instrumental breaks. There's also one fully new track, "Lucky Bag," appearing in both original forms and a "Miami Edit." A pleasant enough slice of late-'80s bubblesalsa instrumental fun, it's not deathless but still exudes good electric fun. ~ Ned Raggett