Trivia / Republic

• Black Sheep Hit: "Regret", an upbeat, guitar-driven Alternative Rock track from an album and a band otherwise defined by highly sardonic Alternative Dance music. The song is an additional black sheep in that it's a straight love song without any catches, a far cry from New Order's more conventional Anti-Love Song tendencies.
• Channel Hop: The band signed onto London Records on this album following the dissolution of Factory Records in 1992, and would stick with London all the way until 2014. The London deal would mean that the band's music would be distributed by Warner Music Group on both sides of the Atlantic.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Peter Hook really doesn't like this album due to the Troubled Production detailed below, and refuses to even talk about it. However, in recent years he has performed it live along with Technique with his backing band the Light. New Order on the other hand haven't played anything from it since they reformed, even as "Regret" remains a setlist staple as one of the band's biggest hits.
  • Stephen Morris also has less-than-fond memories of Republic, placing it as his least favorite New Order album in a 2015 interview with Vice thanks to its Troubled Production and the band's perception of it as a contractual obligation album rather than a product created of their own volition. Unlike Hook, however, Morris didn't ascribe his perception of the album to any personal tension between the band (as most of it was just Creative Differences between Hook and Bernard Sumner that had already been present for years) and felt that most of the album's tone and content was simply reflective of how apathetic they all were when working under pressure to raise Factory Records from the dead.
  Morris: "It was difficult, very very difficult. Listening to it, it just brings back memories of a very unpleasant time. It wasn’t fun at all. That’s why it’s my least favorite."
• Creator Killer: While their labelmates Happy Mondays famously bankrupted Factory Records with Yes, Please!, the band also helped kill the label by taking too long to record a follow-up to Technique. Technique famously served as a last-minute safety net for Factory in 1989 during an earlier period of financial troubles, so when they were caught in dire straits a second time thanks to Happy Mondays, it's understandable that they would've expected New Order to help them out again with another hit album. Ultimately however, Creative Differences between Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook as well as between Factory head Tony Wilson and New Order as a whole delayed Republic far past due, leaving Factory to die unceremoniously. The tensions seemed to seep into the music, with collapsing relationships a common lyrical theme on the album. Tellingly, once Republic was released, it was another commercial success for New Order, and it's widely believed that had it released just half a year earlier, it would've saved Factory a second time.
• Hostility on the Set: The sessions were marked by tensions between Sumner and Hook, and were one reason the band went on hiatus following the album's supporting tour.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Republic's first release in the United States was as Republic – The Limited Run, which packaged the album in an orange, foam-filled rubber digipak meant to mimic the look and feel of the inner tube featured on the standard cover art. The insert was printed on waterproof plastic instead of paper and tucked away in an inner wallet on the cover flap, and the CD label featured exclusive artwork◊ of several orange inner tubes superimposed against a fire (the standard edition CD label◊, for comparison, is just plain text on a transparent background in all regions). Like the standard album cover, the disc art is made entirely from edited stock photos. The Limited Run release came in two versions: one with the album title and band name printed on the front in metallic blue text, and one with silver text.
• Rarely Performed Song: Due to lingering bad memories of its Troubled Production and their dissatisfaction with how it turned out, most of the material on this album was dropped from live performances following the conclusion of its supporting tour, save for "Regret".
• Troubled Production: The album is widely regarded as a personal low point for the band. Reconvening after a three-year break, the group found themselves under increasing pressure to produce an album in order to save Factory Records from financial oblivion. Fuelled by increasing drug use, musical differences between Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook, which had been bubbling for over ten years, finally came to a head, with Sumner favouring an electronic-pop direction, and Hook wanting to return to the band's rock roots. While the eventual album was a commercial success, it arrived too late to save Factory and the resulting tour caused further schisms, resulting in a second hiatus that would last until 1998. Even after nearly 25 years, Hook cannot bring himself to discuss the tracks on the album, such was the animosity of the sessions.
• What Could Have Been: According to Peter Hook, a knock-on effect of the Troubled Production behind the album was that it prevented New Order from being able to score The Crow (1994), with Bernard Sumner specifically vetoing the proposition to give them more room to continue work on Republic.

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