Revelation - Official ILX Pet Shop Boys tracks poll results

I go back and forth on whether Nightlife or Fundamental is their best post-Very album. Nightlife is one of those period albums whose importance in my life squelches its chart record.

32. Try It (I'm In Love with A Married Man). (2003, Disco 3, 136 points, 5 votes, 0 number ones)

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

Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/track/4y0OgNrR076xLFSZWSuCa9

RIF: This was debuted in their only session for John Peel in October 2002, which can be downloaded from here.

It's also a cover of a Bobby O production from 1984.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_rmlzgGX3A

Is "You Only Tell Me You Love Me..." going to outrank this? "Don't Know What You Want" is more profound both lyrically and musically. great track.

'It's Alright' higher than 'My October Symphony'? First WTF moment in this poll. 'My October Symphony' was my #02! Sheer pop perfection.

I voted for "Drunk". Might have even been top 10.

Both are career peaks: "I Don't Know What You Want..." has a marvelous disco vocal and "You Only Tell Me" is perfect acoustic singer-songwriter melancholy.

I go back and forth on whether Nightlife or Fundamental is their best post-Very album.

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

That's exactly the same with me they are both really good records, easily ahead of the other three albums.

^ Oh I think I had to leave "Try It" out of my ballot. :( It's so great!

^ Oh I think I had to leave "Try It" out of my ballot. :( It's so great!

oops

31. We All Feel Better In The Dark. (1991, B-side, 138 points, 1 number one)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFylULoa70w

Spotify:http://open.spotify.com/track/2wqs78KoxpDHR0JgWA0bJx

RIF: The song is inspired by a tape titled 'The Secrets of Sexual Attraction'. which Chris Lowe bought at a health food store.

The Pitchfork review that forced me stop reading them for four years.

Going back to 'Try It', I wasn't aware it was a cover at the time, but they do a fantastic job of turning a fairly routine hi-nrg piece into something quite strange and magical.

not really feeling "Try It". nice production though.

I think of DJ Sprinkles when I hear "We All Feel Better in the Dark". And those have to be some of the most obviously 'dirty' lyrics in the PSB catalog.

Anyway, that's your lot for the night. 30-16 tomorrow.

Did everyone hear "Try It (I'm In Love With A Married Man)" off Disco 3 - one of the best later PSB songs I've heard, very hypnotic and melancholy.
― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 14 August 2003 13:53 (7 years ago)

I'm always amazed at how terrible the Oh Romeo original is, considering how much er questionable Bobby 'O' productions I have time for (his James Brown ripoff, etc).

I find both Fundamental and Nightlife disappointing. A couple of very strong tracks but everything ranges from so-so to kind of awful.

*everything else

Glad "One More Chance" got some other votes - love the original mix to bits'n'pieces; Neil is still singing with a slight goblinoid/Almond sleaziness, and there's some fantastic synthesized "Streets Of Cairo"-esque public domain motifs garnishing the track.

I love "Your Funny Uncle" to pieces, though it always wrongfoots me - to me the title suggests it'll be about a black sheep in the family, the bachelor relation that "never married" etc; instead it's a straightlaced uncle in the military behaving decently at the funeral of his gay nephew.

... oh dear, it seems like one of Keane are covering it on YouTube.

god the 'admit you love me and you always did' part of Red Letter Day never gets old

Wow, a goodly chunk of my ballot was taken care of in the lower reaches (Liberation, It Must Be Obvious, It Couldn't Happen Here, Miserablism, My October Symphony).

Re post-Very records, I like both Nightlife and Fundamental a hell of a lot more than I did a week ago. I suspect that had something to do with relative under-exposure, so I have this poll to thank for rehabilitating them in my mind. On the other hand Bilingual and Release now still seem weaker than I had remembered.

Release has three songs and the rest is filler.

god the 'admit you love me and you always did' part of Red Letter Day never gets old

Elton John said this song saved his life (tonight).

I really should have voted for "Your Funny Uncle". The actual verse about the funny uncle is deeply affecting today.

Recap of 31-50.

31 We All Feel Better In The Dark B-side 138 6 1
32 Try It (I'm In Love With A Married Man) Disco 3 136 5 0
33 I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore Nightlife 129 6 0
34 Your Funny Uncle B-side 124 6 0
35 One More Chance B-side 123 5 0
36 The Truck Driver and his Mate B-side 120 6 0
37 It's Alright Introspective 118 4 0
38 My October Symphony Behaviour 116 5 0
39 Losing My Mind (Liza Minelli) Collaboration 109 6 0
40 Miserabilism B-side 106 6 0
41 It Couldn't Happen Here Actually 105 5 0
42 It Must Be Obvious B-side 98 5 0
43 Some Speculation B-side 98 4 0
44 Love Etc Yes 94 5 0
45 Where The Streets Have No Name(I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You) Standalone 87 4 0
46 A Red Letter Day Bilingual 83 4 0
47 Liberation Very 81 4 0
48 To Face The Truth Behaviour 77 3 0
49 Do I Have To? B-Side 76 4 0
50 I'm Not Scared (Eighth Wonder) Collaboration 69 4 0

I remember playing my pop-hating grandma Your Funny Uncle when it came out and even she was moved. It might have been the lines from Revelation that did it.

lol, of course I was the only one to list "We All Feel Better In The Dark" as #1

I had it as my #3, and almost ranked it higher

I think I might have cut it from my last 25

Can we post our ballots when it's all done?

I don't know if I should be concerned that so much of my ballot is showing up or psyched that I am so clued into the ILX PSB hivemind

btw if "Domino Dancing" is the highest-placing single I will hate all of you all day all day

I was going to post a link to the google spreadsheet if no one objected, anyone who's keen and a bit more spreadsheet savvy could then have a play about with the figures.

btw thank you all for reminding me that "I Don't Know What You Want But This Song Title Just Isn't Long Enough" is fucking great, I often overlook it in the sea of "For Your Own Good"/"Closer To Heaven"/"New York City Boy" that surrounds it

The "For Your Own Good"-"Closer To Heaven"-"I Don't Know" sequence is so good that I stop listening at this point. I'm helped by the fact that "Happiness is an Option" is a fucking dog.

yeah, 4th track on that album is an instant fast-forward. But what a group of first three tracks.

What does everyone think of "In Denial"? I am kind of partial to it despite the obviousness, sentimentality etc.

Love In Denial. Almost voted for it. I may be in a minority there.

It's okay at best. I'm more taken with "Boy Strange."

I dig it's way-over-the-topness.

my favorite parts are the line "who in his pathetic own way denies he's gay" to describe the boyfriend and the turnaround at the end when the daughter asks if HE can still love HER. Very sad situation and thankfully increasingly less common.

On the later albums, I'm drawn to the more overt storytelling - I Get Along is another favourite. In Denial is such a wonderful, economical character study.

Running Spotify playlist here ppls: http://open.spotify.com/user/dalzinho/playlist/727ciD0cHSADIUd8tircRX

4 of mine so far (one more chance, losing my mind, i'm not scared, i don't know what you want etc). amazed there was only 32 ballots tho, thought that if there was one poll on ilm that would see a big turnout it would've been this.

Is "In Denial" the only PSB song that explicitly uses the word gay?

wow a lot of Nightlife love on here, i thought i was on my own with that. easily their best album after the early 90s i think. massively under-rated.

I agree with that; it certainly sticks in my head more than subsequent albums, which all contain songs I like but rarely go back to.

Yeah, expected a few more ballots, especially since Pavement got 60+. Nothing from Geir which surprised me.

Been listening to Actually today and struck by how great the rhythm programming is. The beats on Rent and What Have I Done to Deserve This are so unusual and distinctive. I think they lost something when the pumping 4/4 became their default setting. I voted for Was That What It Was not for the songwriting or Tennant's weird, out-of-tune vocal but the programming. I used to listen to that over and over. Giant drums! Orchestral stabs!

was THAT what it was?

what are ppl's guesses for highest-charting single/b-side/album track?