Pet Shop Boys - Tracks Poll

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 :-)