From their inception, Electronic were always going to be dogged by high expectations. Let's face it, what act could possibly translate into music the point where three Manchester angles (The Smiths/Joy Division/New Order) trisected?

Furthermore, the reunion of that last band must leave Johnny Marr, a gifted sidekick who never quite found his post-Morrissey life-partner, swinging in the wind.

Still, Twisted Tenderness is an occasionally valuable marriage of contemporary technology and classic pop sensibilities. It might be simplistic to attribute the former to Bernard Sumner and the latter to Marr, but whatever the dynamic of the relationship, the proof is in tunes like 'Vivid', a classically sourpussed Sumner melody hitched to state of the art sounds. Also, this tune exhibits the best use of blues harmonica on a pop record since The The's 'Beaten Generation' (another Marr collaboration).