Thanks again wrote:How anyone can rate Here To Stay as a good song is beyond me.
Here's why.
I am one of the fans who responds more to the synth-based songs. After reuniting in 1998, the first new song they released was Brutal, which I don't rate. It set the stage for Get Ready, which I think is their worst album by a long shot - and part of my opinion is influenced by having received a CD-R of the album in progress, which included tracks like Player In The League, that weren't on the finished album once it appeared a few months later. I think Crystal is a really boring song, and not the rousing comeback that a lot of the British fans seem to favor.
I'll listen to Jetstream on repeat before I listen to Get Ready.
Outside Underworld, Chemical Brothers, and a handful of other acts, '90s electronic music was dreadful. It was nothing but an endless parade of tuneless remixes, hard trance, techno, and complete bullsh*t.
So when Here To Stay was released, it was a revelation. Here was the synth-pioneering band I loved, doing a proper synthy pop tune - the first such that New Order had released in 9 years, coming 4 years after their reunion. I never thought I'd get that again.
I don't think it holds up over time, but in 2002 I was clinging to it, because it gave me a glimpse of the band I'd fallen in love with. This also came on the tail of other British bands I'd grown up with (The Cure, Depeche Mode) releasing weak and disappointing albums.