Pet Shop Boys - Tracks Poll

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/26123039/Pet+Shop+Boys++2000.jpg

Following the success of the Blur, Pavement, MC Tunes and Manics polls we now move onto the Pet Shop Boys.

So again identical set-up to the last two and I'm also copying the rules verbatim (cheers):

No need for nominations, just pick your favourite Pet Shop Boys tracks from any of the albums or singles or whatever. To make it a little less predictable I'm going to include their production work too, so if you want to vote for e.g. Losing My Mind by Liza Minelli you can do so.

No need to seperate by different mixes so e.g. any votes for the Bobby O version of 'West End Girls' will be put in together with the more familiar 7" version etc However if you vote for an act other than PSB, put their name in brackets e.g. 'I'm Not Scared' (Eight Wonder) otherwise I will assume it is for the PSB version.

Discography (lol) can be found here http://www.discogs.com/artist/Pet+Shop+Boys and their productions can be found here http://www.discogs.com/artist/Pet+Shop+Boys#t=Credits_Production&q=&p=1

Choose your top twenty tracks and they'll score as follows:
1:40, 2:36, 3:33, 4:30, 5:28, 6:26, 7:25, 8:24, 9:23, 10:22, 11:21, 12:20, 13:19, 14:18, 15:17, 16:16, 17:15, 18:14, 19:13, 20:12.

Please send your ballot to:billy (dot) dods (AT) gmail.com (except obviously without the spaces and using the . and @ symbol) by midnight gmt July 2 (that's a week from Sunday).

In the meantime, use this thread for bigging up tracks you want people to vote for and asking any questions..

That's the silliest photo of them I've ever seen.

Also, YES! EXCITED!

I hope there's lots of votes for "Why Don't We Live Together" and "Do I Have To?"

One for Do I Have To? right here. So pleased they made that a big part of their Pandemonium tour.

and "Two Divided By Zero"!

Yeah, they were throwing something to the heads on that tour.

btw "Two Divided By Zero" remains my favorite PSB album opener.

"Nervously" is a beautiful album track that gets way too little love.

btw "Two Divided By Zero" remains my favorite PSB album opener.

OTM, although "One More Chance" is a very strong rival

this may be the only poll where i'll be happy with whatever lands at no. 1.

X-Post: Strongly dislike both openers on their first two albums, although the original unused re-recording of "One More Chance" was great (as was also the original Bobby O single)

I've really enjoyed reading the previous polls, but even with Pavement (who I love), I'm not familiar with half their catalog. This is one of the few bands where I know pretty much everything - yay! Narrowing it down to 20 is gonna be brutal.

I love "One More Chance" but I don't know how you top "Can You Forgive Her?" as an opener.

10 days -- I might have time to play enough catch-up to vote.

Wow very exciting! Except choosing only 20 tracks will be difficult.

lol going by my initial ballot I should just copy the tracklist to Alternative and call it a day

xp: tbh I've never really been convinced by "Can You Forgive Her?"; I think it's brilliant until the last verse

I love "One More Chance" but I don't know how you top "Can You Forgive Her?" as an opener.

You can't. Although "Love etc. " was the best attempt in a long time.

lol that's right, I'm the only person on ILX who liked "Home and Dry"

I don't think I'll include that many b-sides. Surely "Miserabilism" and maybe a couple more. But even though they were largely good, few were among their 20 best ever.

10 days -- I might have time to play enough catch-up to vote.

Same. I'm really familiar with the first three (proper) albums. I've heard everything else, but not enough for total recall.

I could easily put all of these on my ballot:

We All Feel Better in the Dark
I Want A Dog
Some Speculation
Jack the Lad
Don Juan
In the Night
Paninaro
You Know Where You Went Wrong
It Must Be Obvious
Do I Have To
I Get Excited (You Get Excited Too)
Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend
A Man Could Get Arrested
Too Many People
Miserablism
Shameless

Really looking forward to breaking my brain over this one at the weekend!

"The Truck Driver and his mate", the only song inspired by a Yorkie ad?

(OK, ignoring Cirrus and "Moving On", the only record issued in a brown oblong format)

I'm the only person on ILX who liked "Home and Dry"

You are not alone. That's a dead cert for my 20.

20 tracks is way way too few, Billy make it a top 50

hoping for high placings for My Funny Uncle and I Want To Wake Up

"The Truck Driver and His Mate" is so awesome.

this is going to be fun, there are 4-5 locks but there are dozens that could fill up the rest of the ballot.

First ballot in, so unless you want 'Absolutely Fabulous' number one you'd better get voting.

Disappointing lack of youtubes, I'm hoping these will get some love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZip7Y_IDqQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNdfweCLbws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mBS-9KP7_A&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgl6zuHBrHw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGWnCEy4leE&feature=related

Are all the Paninaros going to be considered as one track?

"Young Offender" definitely going to be on my ballot. Probably "Your Funny Uncle" as well. I'm gonna have to spend all weekend listening to every Pet Shop Boys track.

Are all the Paninaros going to be considered as one track?

Yes, but if people want to specify a version I'll bear that in mind when doing the reveal.

yeah, time to drag out those Further Listening CDs that I paid so much damn money for and have barely opened since ripping them to digital.

I also hope "Home and Dry" gets some love.

How many are in the final countdown?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm6LLym2tE4

^^^underrated gem^^^

will also be voting for "Home and Dry".

How many are in the final countdown?

To be honest I don't know. It will depend how many tracks get votes, probably 50.

and this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-ga9jVZ8Tg

I like "I Get Along", but it's chorus is too close to Super Furry Animals.

I'll be interested to see how many people vote for newer tracks. Miracles, Flamboyant, I'm With Stupid, Minimal, Integral, and Love etc. are all on my shortlist.

Could seriously do a really awesome ballot of non-singles and b-sides.

I have a kneejerk ballot but need to go back through the newer albums before I send it

it is the ballot of someone inordinately in love with Alternative

Quick question: Should our ballots be numbered? If so, should the format be

1 - "Track 1"
2 - "Track 2"
.
.
.
20 - "Track 20"

?

?

also, soooo psyched abt this!!

"Young Offender" is one of the few songs about which I can, "OK, this is my life."

also, remember before they ruined it on Introspective "I Want A Dog" was a fucking great song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0yIJ7TLZeg&feature=related

It'll be close to impossible narrowing this to 20 tracks.

I could list twenty great songs and not even mention "West End Girls."

"West End Girls" didn't make my initial ballot

Neither did "Opportunities", "What Have I Done To Deserve This?", "It's a Sin", "Being Boring", "So Hard" or "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?"

also if you don't love this song you may be dead inside:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDteRvSWkjc

The mystery of the world
For every boy and every girl
Who don't understand
What's going on anymore

Helena Springs and Tennant harmonizing is one of the best sounds in the world.

Should our ballots be numbered?

Yes, absolutely.

In format:

1. Track 1
2. Track 2
.
.
10. Track 10 (Dusty Minelli)
.
.
20. Track 20

DON'T FORGET THIS ONE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETMqQTMDgiE

Neil Tennant seems to write about my life all the time.
"Nervously", "Boy Strange", "Sexy Northerner", "Liberation", "So Hard", "It must be obvious", "The Way It Used To Be", "A Red Letter Day", and so many more.

I agree we should get 50 votes!

To me their only utter bore of an album is Yes, with Release close behind; and even then there's "The Way It Used to Be," "Home and Dry," "You Choose," and "Love, Etc."

I like "I Get Along", but it's chorus is too close to Super Furry Animals.

I'm a massive fan of both bands but had somehow never noticed this! It is "Something for the Weekend" though, huh.

Don't think this will make my 20, but I hope it gets a few votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHI7OHqKzW8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roca7FVAIEs&feature=related

I'd actually forgotten how much I like this song; I should really get around to replacing this album soon

If "Being Boring" didn't exist, the album would still have "This Must Be the Place..." and "My October Symphony."

"So Hard" is great, too, and "End of the World"

Coming across a lot of tracks I had forgotten about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgiL6Gg5_wE

At least two of these collaborations will end up un my ballot:

Losing My MInd (Liza Minnelli)
I'm Not Scared (Eighth Wonder)
Hallo Spaceboy (David Bowie)
The Crying Game (Boy George)
We're The Pet Shop Boys (Robbie Williams)
Walking On Thin Ice (Yoko One)

Choosing just 20 songs is…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFAA6Z_YIEM&feature=related

Are all the Paninaros going to be considered as one track?

Yes, but if people want to specify a version I'll bear that in mind when doing the reveal.

― The multi-talented F.R. David (Billy Dods), Thursday, June 23, 2011 8:47 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

This goes for all 'double's' and remixes? (I'm voting for the dance remix of Love Comes Quickly from Disco, for example)

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgWu37xXFkg&feature=related

this is hot

oh ffs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgWu37xXFkg&feature=related

The Crying Game (Boy George)

I'd forgotten how great this is.

multixpost, yes all remixes/alternate versions will be collated together, unless it's a collaboration and the artists will be treated seperately, I think there's less than a handful of tracks this would affect.

Thanks Billy, and thanks for doing this!

Listening back to a lot of stuff. PSB was the very first band I got into, when I was 7 or 8. Still incredible love for all that music, though looking at the discography now I stopped listening to the full albums after Bilingual.

93 song shortlist, and I'm willfully ignoring the songs sung by other artists.

haha, had forgotten about this wacky video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niwrx19lUQg

It's that shot, by the way, that makes Chris Lowe collapse into hysterics on the commentary track for their video compilation.

"Unintentionally hilarious," he mumbles.

"As ever," Neil says.

Chris is kind of a jerk sometimes, isn't he?

Ballot submitted btw. Only one post-Very track.

Alfred, is that dvd compilation any good? The commentary I mean? (I know the videos are)

Left this track out and am now regretting it :( (sorry for the info, won't reveal anything else)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F9yfAcnXk8

some gaps on that commentary, but some lolz to be had as well xpost

Which dvd? PopArt?

Let's put it this way: if there were no DVDs and you just had the commentary to play, you would still have a ball.

The early 00s reissue liner note Q&As with Chris Heath are a treat. I could read/listen to them talk about their music for hours.

Yeah, those reissue booklets are essential.

would like to vote in this but all i have is a greatest hits comp and "actually"

Transcribed here.

xpost - I'd still vote if I were you. Probably not everyone will agree but to me the PSB are a 'singles' act.

Ah, just vote anyway. The true heads will see it right. I'm going to even though I've just counted how many tracks I like and only came up with a dozen - turns out they're not as good as I thought they were.

just fill in the rest of your ballot with random tracks from Alternative and you'll be fine

urns out they're not as good as I thought they were.

I thought the same about you.

ha!

ive got 14

SB's for Kismael?

*Ismael?

Neil/Chris chemistry in the discussion of Don Juan is A+

Neil The basic song was written in the Seventies, in about 1978, before I knew Chris. It was written on the guitar and was supposed to sound Spanish, which was why I thought of reviving it to go on the b-side of 'Domino dancing'. While Chris complains that I write songs about Russian history all the time, this is about the Balkans in the 1930s. I was trying to write lyrics in the style of Facade by Edith Stilwell, a sequence of poems she wrote with music by William Walton. Facade was very controversial when it was first performed at Cheyne Gallery on King's Road as Edith Stilwell declaimed it through a curtain with a megaphone while the music was playing.

Chris Was it slightly pretentious?

Neil In the Balkans in the 1930s, they were caught between Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany leading up to World War II. They had all these funny monarchies. There was King Zog of Albania, King Boris of Bulgaria and Prince Paul, the Regent of Yugoslavia, and they were all trying not to be allied to Hitler while trying to stop Stalin annexe half their lands. Don Juan is supposed to be Hitler or Stalin but I could never quite work out which. I think its Hitler. It's always interested me, that area. I suppose it's the hopelessness of it. The song attempts an Edith Stilwell use of words: 'an impasse has been reached with the teacher of the rich'. It's like someone coming to their senses: throughout all this decadence and complex language, they have this flash of complete reason.

Chris Then it goes into a bit which is like 'Flash dance (What A Feeling)'.

Chris' interjection is like a sudden major chord thrown into a ballad.

lol I was about to post "Don Juan" but chose this instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFsuUPbxLnA&feature=related

I really love their b-sides a lot

A New Life is wonderful.

"To be honest, it's a very minor work" - Neil on "Was That What It Was?"
WTF? :/

he's right

I mean really now re "Jack the Lad":

Neil It started with a knock-off of one of Erik Satie's Trois Gymnopedies. We'd had the idea that there was going to be a Neil track and a Chris track on the 'Suburbia' single; Chris's track was 'Paninaro' and this was mine. The idea of calling a song 'Jack the lad' came from Big Audio Dynamite, whose song 'E=MC2' had a very similar chord change to 'West End girls'.

On 'EM02' there's a sample from the film Performance which says, 'who do you think you are- Jack the lad?' and I had been reading about Lawrence of Arabia at the time, and about the spy Kim Philby: people who go too far, and people who practice deception. The second verse refers to the fact that Lawrence of Arabia is supposed to have been homosexual - 'telling lies in public, breaking codes at home, underneath the blankets...' When I say, 'Are you only Jack the lad?',

I'm saying: are you just messing about? 'To feast with panthers...' isa reference to Oscar Wilde who said that when he was going out with all these rent boys it was like feasting with panthers because they were all so dangerous and it was all likely to destroy him. Which, of course, it did. Lawrence of Arabia, Oscar Wilde and, in the third verse, Kim Philby-they each lived as an establishment figure but lived another life at the same time.

The song is asking why they're doing it. It is just for bravado? 'Are you only Jack the lad?' Or another Suggestion, 'They must have hurt you, Jack'. Is it some kind of resentment against your fellow upper class people that makes you want to betray them? It's a sort of anti-bravado song in a way. It's saying: why not come to terms with all this resentment you have? 'We all fall' - everyone makes mistakes.

When I sing 'this is your only religion' I'm suggesting that to not be restrained has become the main point of their lives. To never want to grow up and face responsibilities. I'm kind of talking about myself there as well.

just fill in the rest of your ballot with random tracks from Alternative and you'll be fine

― chupacabra - a delicious burrito (DJP), Thursday, June 23, 2011 9:16 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

^this. Preferably from CD1

CD2 has its share of greatness, too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u994yjpfOBg

"Euroboy"!!!

Almost tempted to vote for the book 'Pet Shop Boys vs America', but as it's a tracks poll...

quote from discogs:

Somewhere around the Very album, they started to loose their inspiration, which by now is on miserable levels. Comparing to the stuff like Actually, Introspective and Behavior, everything later is getting more weaker. I don't know what happened to them, but somewhere deep I know they're missing their own vibes. That's for sure. Domino Dancing, Left To My Own Devices and DJ Culture, this kind of inspiration - that's what true PSB lovers miss. Even their 2-girl tribute band from Sweeden remade just their older songs.

lol

ultra-harsh. at least 5 of the songs that will deffo be on my ballot are post-Very.

And that critic must have forgotten that people get old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ozNtnaxGk

There's plenty of great material post-Very, I just think they're not as good at deciding which cuts should make it to the albums and what their order should be.

I had to pretty much completely rearrange Fundamental and Yes to enjoy them. I took out some songs and added b-sides and different mixes and reordered them and ended up with 2 great albums. I mean, how can you leave out "Fugitive" or "This Used To Be The Future" from the main sets?

"Minimal"! "Indefinite Leave to Remain"!

I kept those.

I don't think I will have more than two votes on my ballot from post-'Very'. It was an age/life thing, I got into completely new music then and didn't care much for Bilingual, and lost track of them completely after that (always keeping the old music close at heart, but not dipping my toe in the new albums.

But I do relish the opportunity for ilm to point me to all the gems I must have missed out on after 'Very' (apart from the hits that I know). That's what makes these polls so great.

They didn't lose their songwriting or production chops post-Very: Yookay and American culture changed. As the "eighties" (which I'll use as a synecdoche) receded and became another nostalgia piece the PSB lost their immediacy in the minds of the public. In the UK they still scored lots of top ten singles and albums coasting on their reputation. For better or worse, for reasons beyond an artist's control, the times in which the artist lives matters; it nourishes the muse. The Boys simply didn't fit the laddishness of British AND American culture.

When I reviewed Bilingual for my college paper, my editors were amused; the Boys were already seen as throwbacks -- only three years after Very received their loudest acclaim and actually got American college airplay! But the timing is interesting: 1993 is really when The Nineties began in both the UK and America. The Boys were anachronisms.

Thus, it didn't matter how good the records continued to be: "Se a Vida E," "Before," "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk," "New York City Boy." Their moment was gone, and after a while their inspiration wilted.

"It's not as easy as it was, or as difficult as it could be."

Also: don't overlook the silent diffusion in America of the knowledge that they were gay. And British. Being British was a bad thing in '94 and '95 unless you were Tricky and Oasis.

I got into them in the late 90s and people in the US either thought "lol80s" or "lolGAY". I remember being really surprised at their larger acceptance when I moved to the UK as well as the middle-class family audience when I saw them in Germany.

I didn't like "Numb" until England went out of the 2006 World Cup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZByrHy7nrE

Great writing, Alfred.

And I do mostly agree, they lost 'their moment'. I have been continuously surprised that they remained such a high profile the last decade in the first place. Which is a massive accomplishment, re-inventing yourself, or rather, re-inventing your audience. Because next to the hardcore fan base they managed to attract new fans in three decades.

For me personally though, and this goes for a lot of people I know, I just took a different turn after 'Very'. I can't put my finger on it now, but the people that grew up and were young and heavily into music around 'West End Girls' got on, enjoyed the ride up until Bilingual, and got off at the next stop after that one.

It says something about their continued vitality that their last album nearly debuted at #1 in the UK and they themselves could inspire this response at Glastonbury last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y8JyDbwmRg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWJtWuMoeNs

all of the aforementioned CD reissue booklet interviews are here:
http://www.petshopboys.net/html/interviews/Interviews-1d.shtml

the very reason You Tube was invented is basically this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGg3e_PBLX4

still the best documentary/tv stuff i've ever seen about the boys

"and if they stop liking pop music, they'll hear a hard days's night on the radio and they'll suddenly remember the first time they fell in love or what it was like doing their O-levels or something"

Opening made me wish for a Pet Shop Boys edition of In Our Time.

Been listening to Discography and Please today and finding the sonic palette a little...samey. Good background music for getting some work done, though. Sorry PSB fans!

I was surprised to see the performance they gave recently after receiving some kind of UK music lifetime achievement award - the entire crowd, straight and gay, male and female, was enjoying and singing along to tracks that made either a minimal impact in the US or are seen as "lol80s or lolGAY", e.g. "It's a Sin". To the extent anyone knows that here, it's as a gay anthem, not just an anthem. My straight peer group knows "West End Girls" and perhaps "Opportunities" but that's about it, and even most of my gay peer group is mostly clueless about them.

My first PSB albums were Bilingual and Nightlife at age 16; I'm not sure how I would have reacted to tracks like "You Only Tell Me You Love Me" and "New York City Boy" if I had grown up with the pre-Very stuff. There is certainly a different vibe, I'd argue a less universal one. Those albums made a lot of sense to me but neither the production nor the lyrical content obviously resonates with the typical "West End Girls" fan, let alone the typical American listener.

yeah, time to drag out those Further Listening CDs that I paid so much damn money for and have barely opened since ripping them to digital.

I ripped the Further Listenings into three or four mega-albums of Twelves, B-Sides, Mixes and maybe something else. This was an A+ decision.

I'd actually forgotten how much I like this song; I should really get around to replacing this album soon

Dan if you don’t have the remasters of the first six you are doing yourself a massive disservice. (I was going to say “for the booklets alone” before pisces and someone else linked them.)

Alfred, is that dvd compilation any good? The commentary I mean? (I know the videos are)

It’s very very well done as a DVD as well – you can program your own order, or set it to random, and has extended versions of three clips – but the commentary is absolutely a delight. Neil: “Now the themes here in the song were being undercut by the imagery, I feel at this remove, but what the director, James Smythenby-Ponson, had in mind was a more elliptical representation of my lyrical allusion, as you can see by the repeated scroll in the background. The technology is dated now, perhaps, but it was very cutting edge at the time. We spent 12 days in a freezing warehouse in Barnesly for this shot here, and you can just about see the chilblains forming on the extras noses in a minute – yes, there. Now the cover photo for the single was taken in the same location, but a month later, and –- “ Chris: “Look at that hat I'm wearing, I look bloody stupid. Can we leave this one off the DVD?”

They're the best-selling duo in British history, right? Unlike their American co-beneficiaries of that honor, Hall and Oates, they're still making the top ten though. Plus, they carry 24 years of accumulated critical and popular good will. They've never been tacky or uncool.

"It's a Sin" was a UK #1 and US top 10; hardly a non-entity/non-impact.

Four other US top ten singles besides "West End Girls" actually.

There's a huge gap between having five top ten US tracks, all of which came before 1988 and only two of which are occasionally still played on the radio, and being one of the best-selling groups in British history who have never had an album not make the top ten over nearly 25 years of making music. "It's a Sin" may not have been a non-entity at the time (#9 in the US according to wiki) but it's just not a high profile track any more, at least in the world I'm in.

Pet Shop Boys are something like the 3rd best selling dance act of all time in the US. I know that doesn't mean much, and I'm right with you about today's perception (the decline of radio airplay of anything pre-1996 that isn't Nirvana or various classic rock tracks has a lot to do with this). 80s Flashback hours in the mid-to-late 90s featured West End Girls, What Have I Done To Deserve This, and Opportunities quite a bit, at least where I lived.

I still hear the five top ten hits all the time, but admittedly only in the last ten years. In the nineties I only heard "West End Girls" and "Always On My Mind."

Pet Shop Boys are something like the 3rd best selling dance act of all time in the US.

Other stats:

the most successful male artists on the U.S. dance charts
the most successful duo or group
the most successful non-Americans
the eighth most successful artist of the 1980s
the sixth most successful of the 1990s
#3 in the number of dance hits (28), exceeded only by Madonna and Janet Jackson*
#5 in the number of Number One dance hits (8), surpassed by Madonna, Janet Jackson, Donna Summer, and Whitney Houston*

Really, anyone who's stuck on the early albums should try Disco 3. First half is flawless, fantastic.

Piano London >>>>>>>>> Housecat London

Man, I love the 7"-inch version of "A Man Could Get Arrested" on the second disc of Please, originally the B-side to "West End Girls." It's the only track about which you can say it sounds EXACTLY like 1985.

This poll is impossible. I'm listening through chronologically and noting down my votes. And i'm just listing every single, and most of the album tracks and bsides. IMPOSSIBLE.

Decided that "Home and Dry" might very well be top 5 for me. Take that post-Very h8rs.

Home and Dry is fantastic.

When is the deadline on this?

A week from Sunday.

shit I'm listening to some Fundamental tracks and thinking I need to revise my ballot

Albums were never nearly as consistent post-Very as they were before, but there a lot of absolute gems on them. Fundamental is probably the best of them. Or maybe Bilingual.

So, for clarity's sake, if I was to vote the PSB version of "I'm Not Scared", would that count as separate from those who might vote for the Eighth Wonder version?

lol I had no idea someone else did "I'm Not Scared" until this thread

Oh, Dan you lucky boy, you're in for a treat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkE-UKVEdCo

The different versions of "I'm Not Scared" will be counted seperately.

For info I had a vote for "Viva La Vida/Domino Dancing" and initially counted it as "Domino Dancing" but after listening to it for the first time I'm going to class is as a seperate work.

Their recent cover of "Viva La Vida" is their best song since 2006.

So, for clarity's sake, if I was to vote the PSB version of "I'm Not Scared", would that count as separate from those who might vote for the Eighth Wonder version?

yes, this is specifically mentioned in the first post

raise the ballots to fifty votes Billy

whoops xpost

I could easily do 50 songs but I think keeping the limit at 20 is a good idea tbh

Their recent cover of "Viva La Vida" is their best song since 2006.

It's better than Coldplay's original, I will give you that.

keep it at 20, it's a good mental exercise.

okay the demo version of "Don Juan" is so... different

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJMof6ThawI

My problem with the post-Very (I would even say post-Behaviour) era has less to do with consistency and more to do with a certain shift in the way the Boys decided to present themselves. Their sentimental side gradually became much more obvious (not necessarily in the lyrics, more in the delivery) and somehow that ruined things for me. If "It's A Sin" had been recorded circa Nightlife it would be a very different track and I would've probably hated it.

Bilingual has great b-sides:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viYi43QU2oA

My problem with the post-Very (I would even say post-Behaviour) era has less to do with consistency and more to do with a certain shift in the way the Boys decided to present themselves. Their sentimental side gradually became much more obvious (not necessarily in the lyrics, more in the delivery) and somehow that ruined things for me. If "It's A Sin" had been recorded circa Nightlife it would be a very different track and I would've probably hated it.

I don't buy this, especially considering the Actually singles besides "It's a Sin" were "What Have I Done To Deserve This?", "Rent" and "Heart" (with "Always On My Mind" released during the same era)

Their recent cover of "Viva La Vida" is their best song since 2006.

I just about prefer "Legacy", partly down to Owen P's contribution, though the paranoid lurch of the lyrics towards the end is my favourite bit. Actually the closers are easily my favourites on both the last two albums. "Viva La Vida" comfortably made it onto my ballot too though - love how much more dramatic they make the entry of the 'oh oh oh oh oh' at the end.

Man, I'd never heard "Legacy" before tonight, but the Owen P mention made me look it up and I am hooked!

what's that track playing towards the start of the soutbank show clip? the one that sounds like a Kompakt record from 2003?

Also, JEEEEEEESUS, 'Losing My Mind' .... just heard this for the first time, am literally gobsmacked...what an incredible record!

i'm NEVER going to be able to narrow this down.

xp South Bank Show song is this i think Darren
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1btaBgzGApk

check the Wogan clip of Liza doing Losing My Mind!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR_mjkxc7Ys

making an iTunes playlist with shortlist songs I consider "really good" and I'm already at 17 through the A's (Actually and Alternative). Going to be a fun week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cHsyCPUpDQ

This is probably not going to make my top 20 but I really enjoy this track. It's like a tasteful mashup of 2 Unlimited and "Go", or at least as tasteful as that combination can be.

I made one of those. Got into the high 90s. Been listening for the last 3 days and am no further to a decision. Watching Pandemonium, Performance, and Cubism didn't help either.

Have avoided clicking this thread so far because the idea of picking my favourite PSB track throws me into a kind of low level panic. I will think on, though. The Liza Minelli one is an all-time favourite of mine.

I've always liked Bumtschak's mashup of "Home & Dry" with Superpitcher's "Heroin":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2i88VHndDU

They've a pretty good strike rate with covers, don't they? "Try It (I'm In Love With A Married Man)" & "We're The Pet Shop Boys" (any other bands aside from the PSBs and the Ramones who've covered songs about themselves?) rank up there with the Elvis/Village People/U2/etc.

Losing My Mind too

nb: they've covered We're The Pet Shop Boys twice!

92-94 Further Listening is so damn good!

I want to vote for Discoteca-Single-Bilingual as one track but that's probably not kosher.

They've a pretty good strike rate with covers, don't they? "Try It (I'm In Love With A Married Man)" & "We're The Pet Shop Boys" (any other bands aside from the PSBs and the Ramones who've covered songs about themselves?) rank up there with the Elvis/Village People/U2/etc.

Not just 'up there'. They're all better!

Wait I misread that, I thought you were comparing "Always On My Mind", "Go West" etc. with their original versions.

down to 29 tracks, and they are surprisingly well-distributed across the years (except post-1999).

how long left have we got to do this?

people should vote for Miracles. I will.

Disappointed that In Private (Stuart Crichton Club Mix) is so vigorously removed from youtube by EMI. I remember it being quite ridiculous but haven't got a copy on me.

oppet, send me an email through ILX and I'll send it over.

armani armani a-a-armani

"Party Song"'s a great later B-side - grinding Benassi-style electro with a KC & the Sunshine Band interpolation, ha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTvL1DUBNfA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBmAw9eoRJU

Disappointed that In Private...
― oppet, Sunday, June 26, 2011 6:35 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

...which reminds me, I forgot to vote for "Disappointed". People, please don't forget about this amazing track. I counts right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJlHSFwYEPs

"Disappointed" is by Electronic, not PSB.

Does anyone have Helena Springs' "New Love" (her version of "A New Life") floating around? Can't find it on YouTube etc.

The record company shelved her album, right?

Context:

Neil: Helena Springs wanted us to write a song will her, and we went to her house one Sunday afternoon She'd already written an idea, which became the bridge of this song, and we took that away and wrote the rest. She also already had that part of the lyric: 'The night goes by...' I wrote the rest of the words; except she had a good line we wanted to keep in: 'Then rise the daylight sky'.

Chris: She had some lyrics that were very positive, and when Neil had changed it around the song became more negative.

Neil: This version was made as a demo for her to sing. We sent it to her because she was touring with Elton John at the time, and we never heard anything back from her for ages and we were dead disappointed because we thought it was a really good song. Then we got David Jacob to mix it and put it on the b-side of 'What have I done to deserve this?' - we had been recording 'King's Cross' with Stephen Hague and we stayed one night to mix this. Helena Springs did her own version, for her solo album which was never released, which she called 'A New Love'. Hers was much more complicated. The words I wrote - which were for her to sing - are about a woman leaving her husband, going to get a new life. She doesn't know whether she's doing the right thing - she's creeping away at night because he's repressing her. I like the line, 'how do you get to heaven if you never try?' I don't know why but I always imagine Boy George singing this.

That's what I'd assumed reading those transcriptions, but googling around it seems it was released in Germany on Arista?

http://www.discogs.com/Helena-Springs-New-Love/release/1655288

There's a few copies for sale on vinyl on Amazon etc, and this guy's showing on last.fm as having listened to it, and ... ooh, if you listen to the second audio sample at http://www.cdandlp.com/item/2/0-220206-0-1-0/114692082/helena-springs-new-love.html, you can here a very brief snippet of the chorus!

OK so to help myself start whittling down, I've made a list of hopefully all their songs - google spreadsheet here, what have I missed?

(There's 235 tracks in there; I've included Closer To Heaven pieces that haven't been scavenged for or taken from other PSB releases, because they're actual songs, but not Battleship Potemkin or the Hans Christian Anderson thing, as they're entire scores (also not credited to PSB, though that didn't occur to me at first). Always and Always/House are listed separately cos In Your House doesn't exist otherwise; Viva/Domino and Viva are listed separately cos they started playing Viva La Vida by itself after they recorded a studio version of the medley; the other two live half-medleys get listed seperately because there's no other version of the cover. Vacillated on including both Forever and Forever In Love, but other re-written re-recordings are excluded from the poll as I understand it, so didn't.)

"Disappointed" is by Electronic, not PSB.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, June 26, 2011 9:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

but then why does 8th Wonder's version of "I'm not scared" count? Pet Shop Boys co-wrote "Disappointed" (as well as "Getting Away With It" and "Patience of a Saint"), so it's technically a collaboration.

Patience Of A Saint is the only one with both PSBs - and it's them guesting on someone else's project, not something they're directing, like Eighth Wonder or Results or Cicero &c &c &c

very fun putting together my top 20 this weekend. One More Chance and I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing are battling out for my final vote.

C'mon peeps. Only 5 ballots in so far, I guess this is more to do with the difficulty of narrowing down choices rather than lack of interest.

There's more than a week, and I'm counting on the long weekend to help.

I've listened to the 7-inch version of "A Man Could Get Arrested" a lot though!

Hard choices ahead.

Just had another two ballots in, so a total of 7 ballots so far and 71 different tracks. The field's very much wide open.

VOTE ALTERNATIVE

I WANT A DOG
WE ALL FEEL BETTER IN THE DARK
JACK THE LAD
YOU KNOW WHERE YOU WENT WRONG
SOME SPECULATION
ETCETERA

Et Cetera would be a great name for a Pet Shop Boys B-sides comp, actually.

I see what you did there :-)

xpost - except it's two words.

Just sent in my ballot. I had to leave out so many tracks that I love.
And ordering them was just as difficult.

I didn't have room for this one, but hopefully it wil get some votes.

This remix improves on the original. It suits the lyrics better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrXTDpr56dA

^^^^ love that mix!

made my top ten that year

for the manics one most came in near the end (not that we had a huge amount) but yeah there's loads of time yet and its mega hard to narrow this down. need to relisten to loads more before i can send in mine!

Cool "Flamboyant" mix. Not sure I like it as much as the original (which made my ballot - fantastic latter-day track) but I like the direction it takes.

armani armani a-a-armani

― Introducing the Hardline According to (jim in glasgow), Sunday, June 26, 2011 3:08 PM (Yesterday)

Versace, cinque

Tracks submitted!

It's going to be really hard to narrow this down to just 20 songs they are easily one of my top five bands ever.

Good to see some mentions for The Truck driver & His Mate that will be very high on my list.

Really agree with the comments about there being some really good tracks on the last couple of albums, even if they are not consistant enough to be great albums. I made myself a playlist of the best tracks and it flows really well as an album.

1. The Sodom & Gomorrah Show
2. Minimal
3. Love Etc
4. Casanova In Hell
5. This Used To Be The Future
6. Luna Park
7. Fugitive
8. All Over The World
9. More Than a Dream
10. Indefinite Leave To Remain
11. The Way It Used To Be
12. Integral

Been finding "Pandemonium" to be a pretty jaunty little tune recently. It won't make my list, but I'm slowly gaining more respect for Yes, which I largely ignored upon release.

Fundamental is almost a straight-up very good PSB album - the reunion with Horn pays off, they're stylistically focussed, the combination of being very current-cultural aware with the often mature and reflective nature of the lyrics is synergistic - but Numb and I'm With Stupid are the two worst PSB singles ever, by a huge margin.

(Numb even fits OK in the album flow, but I'm With Stupid is just a dire, shiny turd.)

(I bought Yes and Fundamental a couple of months ago.)

"Party Song" would be a great one to slip into a DJ set. Never heard it before today--as if they listened to Blackout and decided to write their own.

Saw them at Villa Park yesterday, supporting Take That. Short set. They opened with Heart - then we had, in approximate order, Love Etc, Always On My Mind, Go West, Left To My Own Devices, Together, Suburbia, Se A Vida E, It's A Sin and West End Girls.

The Battleship Potemkin soundtrack is an unexpected treat

Seems strange that PSB were supporting Take That, even though I know the latter were/are huge in England. Maybe the Boys wanted to go to bed early?

Not so very strange: the current Take That tour is a UK record-breaker in terms of seats sold, so around 1.76 million people will be seeing the PSBs live this summer.

Also the PSBs are at least 10-15 years past their commercial peak while Take That are still huge. But yeah that support slot will give them mad exposure.

Latest update, just tallied the 12th ballot. 101 songs have been voted so far. Currently something with 30 points will make it to the top 50.

Seriously tempted to place "Paninaro" at the top.

you wouldn't be the only one...

Seriously tempted to place "Paninaro" at the top.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 28, 2011 7:16 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

DO IT!

Paninaro is incredible and deserves to be at least top 5. I went with one of the 'boring' options for no. 1 but surely wouldn't mind to see Paninaro steal the top spot.

If you wanna walk
Don't walk
DO IT!

Only 12 ballots so far?!

Only 12 ballots so far?!

― the presidential candidate inside me (WmC), Tuesday, June 28, 2011 7:28 PM (4 hours ago)

It's so hard narrowing things down when The Pet Shop Boys' first twenty singles... ...are the greatest run of singles in the whole history of pop music & like Dan I could happily vote for most of Alternative (I will probably be the only for for "The Sound Of The Atom Splitting", mind). Ta for the Yes/Fundamental/b-sides cherry-picking above, Kitchen Person!

I've DJed this nearly every Halloween. Trip-hop PSBs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAA2yUrKle0

any more votes today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmAHwvxvFrU

I kept trying to think of reasons not to vote for this track and couldn't come up with any.

I endorse voting for practically anything that appears on Alternative except "If Love Were All"

With all the B-Side voting I'm not going to feel too bad about tossing some singles some pretty high votes.

I shall add a ballot shortly. This poll comes at a good time, having just reaquainted myself with their first decade or so very recently. Oddly enough, PSB have a similar status for me as Pavement, just shifted maybe six years earlier: both school-era #1 favourite bands that I've barely listened to in the new millenium.

Saddened to find that Nightlife and Release are mostly still not especially compelling. Totally down with the Alternative love though. Several of those tracks are no-brainers.

To my ears Release started the decline.

There's never been enough love for the Swing Version of "Can You Forgive Her"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tNINKfP_Lw

...or the Unicorn Kid mix of "Did You See Me Coming"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV7YtpgRVoY

Swing Version of "Can You Forgive Her"...

AFAIK this is the only PSB-produced Parlophone track left off the Further Listening discs. Which is INSANE because it is GREAT.

I had never heard it before. Pretty fantastic. Original version is probably going to be on my ballot already.

I'm spending a ludicrous amount of time on this poll. Not helped by the fact that those copious Further Listening notes are so friggin' enlightening and hilarious.

is there any pop artist that has done so much public analysis of its own music?

I've always wished there was a collection of Neil Tennant's writing for Smash Hits! How does Pet Shop Boys vs America compare with Literally?

"I stood at the kitchen-sink, my radio played
Songs like "Tainted Love" and "Love Is Strange""

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj6zSmayyeQ

I Want To Wake Up should win this poll. Why it was never a single i'll never know.

Bump for the Friday update.

Now had 18 ballots in and 117 different tracks voted for. 43 points will make the top 50. There's a clear leader but nothing which can't be caught with one or two high scores.

You've got the weekend to get your votes in. I got the date wrong in the opening blurb. So if you haven't voted get your ballot in by 2359 BST on Sunday 3rd July i.e 52 hours from now.

I hope this clear leader is "The Truckdriver and His Mate."

I just made a list of my 12 automatic favourites--I'd have to start re-listening to expand the list. Can I send that in? I read the rules and I'm not sure.

if any of the songs I've been babbling about aren't on your list, I strongly recommend listening to them and considering them

also, "Love Inc" is great

xpost

If you can only manage 12 that's ok, they'll get the same points as the top 12 from someone's top 20. I hope that makes sense.

Fill it out with 8 from the Battleship Potemkin soundtrack. I'm not kidding, it will mildly enrich your life.

Incidentally for UK Ilxors BBC 4 are showing at this moment 'The Most Incredible Thing', which of course features a score by the Boys. If you miss it I guess it'll be on iplayer.

For those who may not be all that aware of post-Alternative B-sides, consider this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obLQksYWjQg

^Prob. my favourite track of the "Release" era.

I only have a few of their singles so don't know all of their later B-sides, I would love them to do Alternative volume 2.

I only have a few of their singles so don't know all of their later B-sides, I would love them to do Alternative volume 2.

― Kitchen Person, Friday, July 1, 2011 7:58 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark

http://www.discogs.com/Pet-Shop-Boys-Beside-Pet-Shop-Boys/release/1179576

Unofficial fans edition of the so-called Alternative Pet Shop Boys second installment, compiling singles b-sides / extra tracks from "Before" (1996) to "Numb" (2006) as well as the fan-club exclusive "It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas".

"I Didn't Get Where I Am Today" is a helluva B-side -- one of their few rockers.

A latter-day b-side that samples Father's Name Is Dad by Fire:

I’ve been called repressed
A poet, a pest
I didn’t get where I am today
Qithout getting in someone’s way
I live my life on a stage
Put it down on the page
I didn’t get where I am today
Without writing a resume

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6R7Ym4w4oQ

XPOST DAMMIT

Listening to "Lies" - are there any other tracks where Chris sings rather than sing-speaks/raps?

He's got that bit in the coda to "Go West" ("I believe in ecstasy...").

Probably not eligible (not a PSB track), but there's also this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuRNSB8CYp4

Also, something on "Yes," iirc?

Hey, I like that "I Didn't Get Where I Am Today"...but then I love "Father's Name Is Dad," so maybe that doesn't count for much.

He's got that bit in the coda to "Go West" ("I believe in ecstasy...").

That's a seperate song, not a coda (generally called "Postscript")

Bump, another 3 in today. No doubt I'll get 50 ballots tomorrow.

Can I just take a moment to boost the 50s poll as well, which only has a week to go. You can vote for songs like 'Tainted Love'* and 'Love Is Strange'.

* well almost, it's just a few years out

Ballot submitted but it's still basically impossible. Hope some of my stragglers got picked up in other people's ballots.

Oh wow, why have I only just heard the Original New York Mix of Why Don't We Live Together post-ballot? It's the first of their Latin Rascals-related tracks that's lived up to the shimmery "One Way Love"/"Tears Will Fall" (or even the LR rmx of "Notorious") promise I'd hoped for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-i1lHMMX_c

& ta for that Stop Modernists track, Daavid - wow, Chris Lowe might be the first person to out-everyman-voice Barney on a New Order cover!

"Why Don't We Live Together" will score very high on my ballot (coming shortly).

Also: guys, please listen to "Decadence."

starting to feel like Album Trax are going to get shunned in this poll. Just B-sides and Singles.

rong

Love that original NY mix--another new one to me. This thread is a great mix in itself.

Luckily I found twenty other songs better than "West End Girls."

ballot submitted!

wasn't even considering voting for "west end girls" but then it came up on my playlist and...it's really pretty great, isn't it?

it's perfection. don't front on the hits people.

I haven't been pumping up the singles because I assume people know and will vote for them. WEG's Disco Mastermix, Dance Mix and 10" Version are all worth having.

Morning bump, just over 14 hours to go. Only 12 points seperates the top two, so every vote counts.

I'm going to send in my flimsy ballot before the deadline. That's the plan, anyway.

Okay, sent.

Sent!

23.59 BST = British Summer Time no? Just checking :-)

Over a week listening and listening. I couldn't come up with anything, so I just sat down and bashed out a ballot in less than ten minutes. It ain't perfect, but no going back. Are the results going to be this week?

23.59 BST = British Summer Time no? Just checking :-)

Yes, but as I'll be tucked up in bed then I'm not going to be too much of a hard ass if it comes in after the deadline.

All being well, I'll start the countdown tomorrow night.

good excuse to miss the fireworks!

Voted!

Teared up a bit to "Dreaming Of The Queen" - I think if it'd been a "Being Boring"-style single, I wouldn't lose track of it in the middle of Very as much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjjMP53khro

Looking forward to whenever the countdown works out to be at GMT+12

I was just listening to all the b-sides collected in "Beside," and damned if the PSB's output is not simply overwhelming in quality, even when the Boys are not operating at top level. I mean, "I Didn't Get Where I Am Today" .. is that their only rocker?

"Dreaming Of The Queen" is great. I don't recall nearly enough expressions of love for it (though I seem to recall Stephen Merritt chose it to represent 1993 in his 100-recordings-of-20th century thing). Sadly excised from my own ballot at the last moment though.

"Dreaming Of The Queen" is great. I don't recall nearly enough expressions of love for it (though I seem to recall Stephen Merritt chose it to represent 1993 in his 100-recordings-of-20th century thing).

I'd always wished old-ILM had done a Taking Sides: Pet Shop Boys vs the Magnetic Fields - two bands I love to bits but never think to compare; both literate, queer, tagged as ironists, fluent in non-rock pop history and in a way both reviving earlier 80s synthpop while still in the selfsame decade.
I guess "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" is the most PSBs-like MFs song, though "Rats In The Garbage Of The Western World" has the same sort of Soft Cell bedsit seediness found in Neil's delivery in Bobby 'O'-era PSBs (and possibly "We All Feel Better In The Dark").
Speaking of that Merritt list, I wonder what the Pet Shop Boys made of White Town's "Your Woman"?

Poll is now officially closed. If you haven't voted you've missed the boat.

I'll check and double check the results today and hopefully will start the roll out this evening.

Righto, Official ILX Ballot number two will be around shortly.

"I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" vs "Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend"

I'd always wished old-ILM had done a Taking Sides: Pet Shop Boys vs the Magnetic Fields

It's a close one. It's hard to beat Stephin Merritt as a lyricist, and he can certainly write good melodies. But Pet Shop Boys are infinitely better in the production/ arrangements dept. ... so them.

Results Happening Now

FACT: "Why Don't We Live Together" is a top five tune.

Every track on Please apart from 'Violence' has been "best song ever" for me at some point or another. A ridiculously strong debut. Everyone talks about Very or Behaviour, but Please ranks as one of my favourite ever synthpop albums.

for my money, they never bettered Please or Actually

I like thinking about this phenomenon sometimes, where an act comprehensively establishes itself so clearly early on that what follows is ultimately finesse, but where all kinds of varying fates happen after that. Pet Shop Boys had full imperial phase recognition and then settled into being a cult/oldies act (the former in the view of the fanbase, the latter in the view of the wider world) but with albums and singles that people can point to in terms of variety and experiment; an act like the Ramones establishes only a subcultural preeminence and never varies from it, and their later albums simply become curios.

in an interview with sw00ds from 2013 I asked him and Chris Mol@nphy how the North American perceived the PSB on the eve of Actually's release. There had been so many fluke English synth pop duos that I wondered if anyone thought this duo's second album would matter.

But we talk about the stellar career of Naked Eyes to this day

Three weeks ago a 20-year-old girl at the station was blasting their comp. I was like, the Bacharach-David one, 'Promises, Promises,' and, uh..."

There really is no shame in a 2 track CD release, if that's all that's needed.

for my money, they never bettered Please or Actually

― ¶ (DJP), Monday, 19 December 2016 02:18 (yesterday) Permalink

^this!

amazingly the first 2 albums were pretty much all from the early demos so not only did they arguably never better the first few years of recorded output they arguably never bettered the run of songs from before they were even signed.

nah. the first two albums ARE the best, but they have approx. 900 songs better than most of the songs on those albums.

(and Electric is their third-best album!)

'Jealousy' and 'Nervously' were both fairly old songs by the time they recorded. If I remember correctly, 'Nervously' was a Neil song that predated PSB, and 'Jealousy' was one of the earliest Tennant/Lowe things.

"What Have I Done to Deserve This?" wasn't an old demo.

no but they had it by the Please sessions so i mean.. early demos and early sessions covered a massive chunk of albums 1 and 2 and attendant B sides. so if one were to make the point that the very very early stuff was The Best then the point stands IMO.

i mean they're aware of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLBN6CAs8oY

You've got your whole life to release your first album, and 6 months to release your second.

Proud history of bands like Cheap Trick, Pixies and Van Halen burning through their backlog.

The thing is, though, I really really dislike the idea of the Pet Shop Boys discography ending with Actually. At one point I would have said Bilingual would have been a great place to leave it, but I'd hate to be without Fundamental or Electric, so...

Saying their first two albums are the best is not the same as saying that they shouldn't have recorded their subsequent albums, many of which are great.

Of course not, but as much as Please is one of my favourite PSB LP's, and one of my favourite synthpop albums of all time, I don't really rate Actually as high. I'd reach for Very or Introspective (*hears the faint sound of DJP combusting*) over it.

Actually also contains 'Hit Music', which is probably one of the only "imperial phase" PSB tracks that I actively loathe.

It's the only song from this period that's HEY WE'RE THE PET SHOP BOYS LET'S WRITE TO CHARACTER

Hit Music is great, wtf

another excuse to post the 7" mix of this B-side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS7-j4Wnw4k

^^^ one of their best full stop

that said I think Behavior/Very >> Please/Actually

xp - Yeah, also the Please/Actually-era B-sides is yet more proof of how on fire they were during this period.

I like plenty of later era PSB songs, but had they stopped at Actually (OK, let's say Introspective), their status of legends would stay intact in my book.

1986 to 1994 is a good run imo

xp -I am aware that, for me, part of the appeal of these to albums is the mid-80s sound, which I've always been partial to, above any other era.

'Hit Music' feels like more of a B-side than the B-sides of the period.