Pet Shop Boys - Tracks Poll

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