Pet Shop Boys - Tracks Poll

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.

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.