The song was first performed live at a fanclub gig on 22 March 1999 at the Glasgow Garage; the band's first show since their Reading Festival appearance in 1997.

[4] On the day after its release on 12 April 1999,[5] "Electricity" was holding up well at number two on the UK Singles Chart, behind Martine McCutcheon's "Perfect Moment".

British music charts commentator James Masterton felt that the decline from the midweek position was an indication that it is "only dedicated fans who are buying their records.

George Byrne wrote: "Just as 'Trash' served as a statement of intent back in 1996, so too 'Electricity' layers on slabs of driving guitars and bubbling synths, allowing Brett to take his warped vowel-yodel way beyond its Bowie-esque beginnings.

A combination of Glam and Electronica, 'Electricity' offers further proof that Suede are the only real competition to the Manic Street Preachers for the title Best British Band of the Decade.

They added: "OK, so there are distinctly T. Rex-like backing vocals and nominal touches of studio trickery hinting at that much-touted New Direction, but essentially this is a tailor-made Uplifting Pop Single (imagine 'New Generation' morphed with 'The Beautiful Ones').

"[12] Paul Connolly of The Times was favourable of the song and looked forward to the album, writing: "Its dense guitar structure is coated with a fierce metallic sheen but Brett Anderson's vocals are confident and expansive, and the song swells inexorably to a huge chorus, although the lyrics do stray into Celine Dion platitude territory: 'Our love is bigger than the universe/It's bigger than the two of us.'

Stevie Chick of the former was generally favourable by comparing it to earlier songs, saying: "a splash of 'Trash', a bar of 'Filmstar', er, quite a lot of 'She' actually but recycled cut-and-paste Suede is still a fair old mince ahead of most other singles you'll hear this year.

"[15] James Masterton said that the song "hardly ranks as the most appealing single they have ever released, lacking the killer chorus that made Trash and Metal Mickey such celebrated hits.