Music / Song Review
You Need to Listen to This Song Right Now #51
Heavy Rotation — Disappointed, Electronic (single, 1992)
Heavy Rotation was a music industry term for songs that saw incessant airplay. It referred to the large number of rotations that a particular record was given on turntables at radio stations. Since, until the 1980s, this was the only way to get new music into the ears and brains of listeners, heavy rotation meant increased sales — good for record companies and artists alike.
Today, some people still put records on at home and give them a spin. Most of us don’t. However, the term still applies, just in a different way. Streaming services like Spotify sell subscriptions to listeners and then pay artists based on listens. At least, that’s the way we think it works.
For me, heavy rotation means a song that is in my head for some reason. Maybe for a moment, maybe for a day, maybe for longer. It’s a song that I come back to occasionally, and it still feels just as good. This series of articles is dedicated to these songs.
My aim is to highlight a particular song by a particular band or singer. It’s good to know a bit about the band, a bit about where the song fits into its history, and where the song fits into what was happening in music at that time. Then there’s the song itself. Who’s playing on it, what are the lyrics getting at, and why is it so good? How does it still occupy sonic space in our lives?
I’ll (try to) keep it short. It shouldn’t take you any longer to read this than the song itself. To that end, I put a Youtube clip of the original recording at the top of the article so you can listen as you read. Or not. And because a song is often much different live than in the recording studio, I stick a live clip on at the end.
What song is in your head right now? Here’s the one that won’t leave mine today:
#51 — Disappointed, Electronic (single, 1992)
There we were, as the decade went from the 80s to the 90s, putting away our hair-sprayed faux glam of Mötley Crüe, the syrupy balladry of Bryan Adams, and the overproduction of Van Halen and replacing it with the raw power of Metallica, the self-reinvention of U2, the rock-funk of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the plaid shirted earnestness of Pearl Jam.
Some people skipped the aforementioned heavyweights altogether, opting for the indie street cred of the lesser-played sounds coming from the UK: Stone Roses, James, the Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets, and Happy Mondays.
But wait: What if minor chord guitar rawk didn’t do it for me and silky smooth synth-pop / dance music was more my bag? What if I needed a break from all the contrived authenticity of what they called alternative music at the time? Then there was a third way on offer, and it came in the shape of three giants of the 80s uniting to form one of the greatest and shortest-lived super groups in pop music history.
Electronic, featuring Bernard Sumner of both Joy Division and New Order, Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys, and Johnny Marr of the Smiths managed to put out three albums — a self-titled one in 1991, “Raise the Pressure” in 1996 and “Twisted Tenderness” in 1999.
Each is a masterclass in using the members’ individual sound and energy to produce music that put a bit of each of those seminal bands from the 80s into one.
For their efforts, Electronic was virtually ignored in North America, but I’m convinced a reunion tour now would sell out in minutes. As a matter of fact, Pet Shop Boys and New Order toured the US and Canada together but played separately just last year. They’ve still got it.
The Smiths will never reunite, miserable bastard that Morrissey is, but Johnny has been putting out plenty of great music on his own. He’s still got it too.
This particular song, Disappointed, comes from their first round of collaborating but was not on the first album but rather on a movie soundtrack. It is an instant dancefloor classic.
The synthesizer theme is laid down first, followed by a background vocal that would not be out of place on Pet Shop Boys’ “Behaviour” (1990), and the disco beat and bassline kick in at 00:18.
It’s Tennant’s familiar voice that leads the song. He’s always employed a unique blend of speaking and singing the words that sounded pure, unfiltered, and real to me. Just human, really.
The lyrics — always a Pet Shop Boys strong suit, but never a New Order one — tell the tale of someone falling in love. Again. And having had their high hopes dashed too many times, find relief in the fact that this time it will be different. For now, anyway.
“Now, my head is spinning
At the back of my mind, I think I’m winning
I was somebody falling for one who was not
Somebody tired of dreaming
Now it’s already dawning that this time I’ve got
Someone who won’t leave me feeling…”
The chorus follows for the first time at 1:07, and the joy in the often deadpan voice of Tennant is unmistakable. “I think I love you, for sure / So you’re not disappointing at all.”
Johnny Marr’s equally inimitable guitar gets involved at 1:39 and leads into the second verse. The song is moving, with hopes, dreams, and exuberance, cutting a hole in the minor chord dreariness of a lot of the popular music of the time, as though it was a breath of fresh air.
While much of the song has a distinct Pet Shop Boys disco feel to it, the piano break at 2:40 foreshadows the sound of the upcoming New Order album, “Republic” in 1993. Tennant’s voice and Marr’s guitar come in again simultaneously, creating something we may never get again.
They don’t make them like this anymore, and it’s unlikely you’d ever hear this in a club, not that any of us are still going to them. I’d suggest creating your own dance floor at home if you haven’t already and letting this one do what it does.
Making it the soundtrack of a windows-down road trip up the coast isn’t a bad idea, either.
Here are the three heavyweights in a live TV performance in 1992. For my money, it’s a little too slick to be completely live.
If you have made it this far, it will occur to you if this is #51 in this series, then there must be 50 previous ones. This is a correct assumption and here I will link #50. At the bottom of it, you find a link to #49 and the bottom of that, you can — if you so choose — be taken to #48. This ingenious system that I thought up all by myself continues all the way to #1.
I really do hope that you like what you have just read. If you want unlimited access to thousands of writers, consider a subscription to Medium. It will set you back $5 a month, and if you use the link below, then I get a slice of that. I wonder if I’ll ever find this on vinyl.
