Pet Shop Boys - Tracks Poll

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.