This two-man Manchester supergroup--New Order's Bernard Sumner and the Smith's Johnny Marr--made one of the best debuts of the '90s with Electronic . More New Order than Smiths, the album was a blend of plangent fretwork and frenetic sequencing, with bleak lyrics intoned in Sumner's clean, boyish tenor. Get the Message was orthodox '80s pop, but the heartbreaking Gangster was an electro-rock masterpiece.
The album featured engaging cameos from the Pet Shop Boys on Getting Away with It and The Patience of a Saint . --Barney Hoskyns