The Pet Shop Boys' first twenty singles...

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i reckon madness could give them a run for their money, but even thinking about this list of songs brings me out in a tingle. also 'literally' (i'm not sure if this is the same book ned's talking about)is a definite candidate for best pop book evah.

but bloody hell, what was going on when they were on totp the other week? guitars, hollow anthemicism, crappy lyrics. i almost cried.

adam b (adam b), Friday, 4 October 2002 15:52 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Home And Dry is RUB!"

No it isn't, ^Tom. And, er, I love "Domino Dancing"!!

You're right about everything else, mind.

Venga, Friday, 4 October 2002 17:14 (twenty-two years ago) link

i wish there was the equivalent of the 80s Pet Shop Boys in the Top Ten today...is there? but maybe its best if there isnt cos we gotta move on...i just feel they possessed something thats lacking in today's hit parade...maybe its just that 'adult pop' thing - who makes what you could class as 'adult pop' now? (this doesnt mean the PSBs music couldnt appeal to children - cos i loved it as a child but only for the music, didnt pay much attention to the lyrics, but i'd say lyrically and conceptually and even technically their music was more sophisticated than much of today's pop)

but Tom's right, 'Home And Dry' sucks - its just a pointless Johnny Marr advert

blueski, Friday, 4 October 2002 17:17 (twenty-two years ago) link

the last post is my recurring gripe about the lack of 'daftness' in the charts - image-wise, musically/lyrically (e.g. ludicrously long song titles are fun) etc. now and my liking of bands who do something different/weird/edgy with a degree of elegance/subtlety but remain distinctly pop

blueski, Friday, 4 October 2002 17:20 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think their run extended even past that (I think it stopped at "Red Letter Day", but there may be something before that I'm forgetting). 20 is a nice number though. I should say I've never understood hate for "Domino Dancing" either - one of my favorites.

Vinnie (vprabhu), Friday, 4 October 2002 17:25 (twenty-two years ago) link

Other Reasons Why The Pet Shop Boys were great

1) The definitive image of them is with Neil in a suit and Chris in the background somewhere with a townie/b-boy wardrobe and a computer (first time i'd ever seen someone use an actual computer in their performance)...tho you may also consider the pointy hats phase

2) They never toured

3) The fact that Tenant used to be a hack but also went and showed people how to really do it - a remarkable achievement

4) They never seemed camp at all (avoiding stereotypes is cool)

5) Good album artwork

blueski, Friday, 4 October 2002 17:26 (twenty-two years ago) link

2) They never toured

? They've done tours on and off since 1989.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 October 2002 17:27 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, but they never played yer average hoary rawk venues, Ned.

Venga, Friday, 4 October 2002 17:40 (twenty-two years ago) link

Also Search (if you can find it): The Pet Shop Boys Hardcover Annual that they brought out one year (most of it also written by C. Heath). It's a great read, packed full of triv, that works as fan club rave-up and ironic pastiche(they shld write a song called 'Having My Cake'!)

Have we had any hatas on this thread yet? Are the PSB another one of those rare ILM groups that everyone likes (at least a bit)?

Andrew L (Andrew L), Friday, 4 October 2002 17:46 (twenty-two years ago) link

how is that recent PSB album? Release? or something?

g (graysonlane), Friday, 4 October 2002 18:43 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, but they never played yer average hoary rawk venues, Ned.

The Universal Ampitheatre and Irvine Meadows, to name two venues they've played around here over the moons, are very very hoary indeed.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 October 2002 18:43 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think you're right, Tom. There are other groups that started with a great run of singles (Buzzcocks and Undertones, for instance), but none that I can think of with a run of this length and standard. Well, maybe the Rolling Stones.

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 4 October 2002 19:31 (twenty-two years ago) link

_Release_ is a decent enough album. "Home and Dry" is fantastic, but I can't remember any of the other songs on the album beyond thinking they were gentle and nice.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 October 2002 19:35 (twenty-two years ago) link

Actually Martin I think the other groups named on this thread - New Order and especially Madness - are contenders. None of Madness 21 Top 40 hits are bad, its just few of them scale the heights the PSB did. I could imagine doing a similar thread on them, though, no doubt.

Tom (Groke), Friday, 4 October 2002 22:15 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tom, you is MAD - the chorus is suburbia - it HAS to soar, its all about dreams and hopes, self-delusion, self-myffologyzing an shit.

i bought psb, kate bush + madness compos on the same day - their albums SUCK

a-33, Saturday, 5 October 2002 12:32 (twenty-two years ago) link

Well, I can't say I hate them, but the PSB have always left me a bit cold. My semi-irrational fear of Neil Tennant's teeth might be coming into play here as well.

Kim (Kim), Saturday, 5 October 2002 13:09 (twenty-two years ago) link

(The album version of "Suburbia" is about 8 million times better than the single version.)

("State Of The Nation" is a fantastic song; better than "Ruined In A Day", anyway.)

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 5 October 2002 14:51 (twenty-two years ago) link

pet shop boys are incredibly boring to me but tom's write-up is nice enough.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 5 October 2002 16:04 (twenty-two years ago) link

a-33 OTM on Suburbia.

**Go West” – fuck the video and the extra levels, on the levels (foot, hip and heart) that hit you first this is the best hi-NRG track EVER MADE**

Tom - I salute you!

Dr. C (Dr. C), Saturday, 5 October 2002 18:56 (twenty-two years ago) link

Cheers Tom, you've outdone yourself this time. Who could argue with the above? A friend just lent me the videography--I'd love to hear your thoughts on the development of the PSB visual canon... My humble opinion is that it's all downhill after the epic West End Boys, well the first four videos are all directed by the same person, and they seem so Japanese in a way--so clean and sterile in their depiction of London... (PSB London = Tokyo?), then later come the name directors (Jarman/Weber) but I don't notice the same icy stylization of the former... there was a rather charming one with shirtless male nymphs, an Abercrombie & Fitch inspiration waiting to happen, but what's up with all of the babies that later surface?

Mary (Mary), Sunday, 6 October 2002 02:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Discography video comp is the ONLY VIDEO I OWN! (I think - actually I may have a Glass Spider Tour Bowie one I got given as a present, eek). The only think I can remember about it now is that the wanton sensual indulgence in "It's A Sin" was a turn on and the perfect Weber flesh in "Being Boring" was a turn off. The babies are rub yes.

Tom (Groke), Monday, 7 October 2002 08:23 (twenty-two years ago) link

Of course I wuvved the PSBs but...

a) I'm not sure how well they ever worked as perfect Hi-NRG, or proper go-mental-on-the-dance-floor disco, cos of NT's weedy vocals - the closest they got was probably 'Was it worth it?' - but it would have been better with Taylor Dane/Hazel Dean/Pete Burns/Divine/Marc Almond singing. The PSBs could never do abandon .

b) There has never been such a dismal fall from grace as the PSB's 'Absolutely Fabulous' single. This, coupled with NT's godawful pretentious pronouncements on the state of pop on every comeback promo tour of the last ten years, make me wonder how fondly I will look back on them. They've kind of ruined the spell, a bit, for me. That said, the first record I put on when I moved house last week was 'Behavior'.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:04 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes OK they were indie-NRG, curses rumbled. ;) But actually no - Hi-NRG like all dance music has never been just an 'abandon' thing and the lack of it was surely what enabled the PSBs to take the sound to the top of the charts?

You are so right about "Absolutely Fabulous", and it did actually 'infect' their surrounding stuff - one reason why the other upbeat singles off Very didn't do it for me any more is that they suddenly sounded like cousins of AbFab.

Tom (Groke), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:11 (twenty-two years ago) link

From the final verse of "Being Boring":

"I never dreamed that I would get to be the creature I always meant to be - but I thought, in spite of dreams, you'd be sitting somewhere here with me."

My life, as of October 2002, in a nutshell.

The PSBs - I can't really talk about them right now. They belonged to both of us, not just to me, like Northern Soul, Joy Division, Dexy's, Cocteau Twins, etc. It was OUR music.

Marcello Carlin, Monday, 7 October 2002 12:58 (twenty-two years ago) link

one reason why the other upbeat singles off Very didn't do it for me any more is that they suddenly sounded like cousins of AbFab.

????? I don't think I've ever heard the original mix of "Absolutely Fabulous" then, because none of the _Very_ singles remind me of it at all. I'd go so far as saying "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing" is one of their best singles, particularly when remixed.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 7 October 2002 13:07 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, I don't get the AbFab comparison either. Probably because there was so little Neil on it that therefore it could just be anonymous (or, say, one weird Electronic remix ;-)).

And for all my talk about lyrics and what they generally don't mean to me, Marcello's comment reminds me about how that line in particular always was suffused with...I don't want to call it a 'perfect' grief, but the combination of delivery and words speaks to my heart more than a thousand screams at an empty universe.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 October 2002 14:32 (twenty-two years ago) link

John Peel - PSB in Session !

Big surprise: John Peel show:

Thursday 10 October - Pet Shop Boys ! Is this the most mainstream pop artist ever to record a Peel Session?


The boys have been having a quiet one since the end of their massive 'Release 2002 Tour'. The next single they are set to release from their album Release is 'London'.

The Pet Shop Boys have adopted a 'back to basics' approach towards tonights set with fully live guitars, bass and drums on stage. They recorded two songs which they wrote back in 1983 but never got down to recording and they also recorded an old Bobby O song from the early 80's. Their next single is 'London' which has also been recorded for tonight's session.

The lads have tried to approach this Peel session with a view to doing something different and they hope that's what comes across.


I only have listened to "Please" and "Disco", taped "Actually" off my sister years ago back in the 80s. After that not listened to any PSB (albums) apart from a few chart singles on the radio that have not interested me.

The production on Disco - is superb.

DJ Martian (djmartian), Monday, 7 October 2002 18:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I hadn't considered "Being Boring" to be about grief, I'd always thought it was wistful regret over a relationship turned sour, but, listening to it again, you're absolutely right.

I still don't like the descent into balladry, though, for me Behaviour was when they turned from the coolest band on the planet into a decent duo turning out one or two good singles per album. Those singles could still be astonishing, Tom says everything that needs to be said about "Can You Forgive Her?" far more eloquently than I ever could, but "So Hard" was their perfect single. The KLF remixed it while they were at their glorious best and the result is a pop Field Of The Cloth Of Gold, two titans in their pomp competing in splendour.

Random thoughts: Chris Lowe should release a hi-nrg spoken word album (cf "Paninaro", "One Of The Crowd") and promote it standing motionless on Top Of The Pops. I saw them play from the back of Wembley Arena, hoary rawk venue par excellence, and it was great, especially the baroque freakshow accompanying "It's A Sin". Introspective is perfect. Can you get the dance album that came with initial copies of Very anywhere?

I could go on.

Mike (mratford), Monday, 7 October 2002 18:28 (twenty-two years ago) link

PSB were the soundtrack to my early teens. Bit of a generalisation but a great 80s single band became a half decent albums band in the 90s. As albums Behaviour, Very and Bilingual probably top Actually, Please and Disco without having any of the killer singles. Discography has to be one of the great singles comps.
What have I done to deserve this - I can't think a better song involving a '60s' artist in the last 30 years.

Paul Cunningham, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 19:27 (twenty-two years ago) link


I always hated the PSB. Whether I still do, I'm not sure.

In that sense, if no other, I am the inverse of the Nipper.

the pinefox, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 19:35 (twenty-two years ago) link

Why did you hate the PSB, Pinefox?

Arthur (Arthur), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 19:43 (twenty-two years ago) link

Can we do a PSB albums S/D please - I have Discography already but want to investigate further - especially with the recent release of reissues of all PSB albums with extra tracks, b-sides etc.

Ta!

Charlie (Charlie), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 01:50 (twenty-two years ago) link

Search: everything.

Vaguely more seriously...well, this might be a dumb question, but what songs on Discography do you especially like? That'll help in determining a good starting point. :-)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 02:11 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'd personally vote for anything up to and including Behaviour.

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 03:07 (twenty-two years ago) link

Discography was the first PSB I owned as well, and I was still blown away by Very when I got it afterward (which says a lot!). So I'd say Very, or if you're into their less energetic stuff, Behaviour. Alternative is a VERY strong compilation, but I think most of the tracks on there have been added to the albums, so don't bother with it.

Vinnie (vprabhu), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 03:38 (twenty-two years ago) link

I recongnized the first half of the list with something akin to pleasure, which suprises me. I hate them is my official statement, but it comes down to that voice, and that unapologetically disco stance... I guess they do have some good tunes, and their lyrics tackle weightier topics than most disco. What am I so afraid of?? I'm listening to Madonna right now for crissakes! Maybe this best-of might be a worthwhile purchase... but please don't tell anyone!

Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 04:47 (twenty-two years ago) link

On a related topic, someone please (Ned, I'm looking at you) write a brief defense of the Boys writing and producing an LP for Liza Minelli. I mean sure we all like Dusty, but who here (besides Arthur maybe) is a Liza fan? And if they're not camp, how does this fit in with their CV?

Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 05:01 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Liza Minnelli lp ('Results') is -seriously- fantastic! An inexplicably marvellous version of 'Twist in my Sobriety', a luscious string-swollen take on 'Rent', Liza reading Shakespeare sonnets, 'Don't Drop Bombs', 'So Sorry I Said', the mad romp through 'Losing my mind'... I could go on... In fact, I would go so far as to say that 'Results' is secretly the best PSB lp of all - all the good bits (songwriting/production values) and none of the bad (NT's voice).

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 07:56 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm inclined to agree with you about that, Jerry. "Results" is indeed a fantastic record. A shame they didn't do more in that vein, either with Liza M or others (Streisand?).

Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 08:07 (twenty-two years ago) link

Great thread. Yeah, I was listening to my Discography ++ tape recently and it made me so happy. Don't really like It's Alright or So Hard though. I agree with Dan about IWNDTKOT and Se S Vida E (best drum intro and chorus evah?) and possibly about 'Home and Dry'. I love the new album. Mind you, it's the only one I have apart from Actually, so what do I know?

N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:06 (twenty-two years ago) link

This thread is just magic. I always forget how great PSB are until someone reminds me of them. (Shock horror, I might even start mellowing on my "_Introspective_ is irredeemable crap!" stance.)

Is it worth getting the rereleased versions of their older albums if you already have _Alternative_?

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:21 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tom's terrifyingly OTM in identifying Victoria St and Kingsway, by the way - more so than anywhere else in London they seem to have the kind of poignant soulnessness that the PSB are getting at in 'Actually'.
Peter Ackroyd's 'London: The Biograpy' says something similar about Victoria St, I think.

adam b (adam b), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:54 (twenty-two years ago) link

While we're on the topic of the PSBs, can someone tell me how they were critically perceived in the Please-Actually period (ie. before I started read the music press). I have an idea that they were dismissed as too poppy by the rockist fratenity and too ironic/clever for the poppist bunch. I don't think they made it to many year end polls, did they?

N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:12 (twenty-two years ago) link

Dan, the first two each have five 'previously unreleased' or 'previously unreleased on CD' tracks. I think they're worthwhile for the 12" versions more than anything.

Nick, I got the piss taken out of me for having them, if that is any kind of barometer.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:34 (twenty-two years ago) link

By the rockist fraternity, of which I am a card-carrying member.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:35 (twenty-two years ago) link

I vaguely remember critics in the US falling all over themselves praising them, but this is probably my reaction to them coloring how I read other people's reactions to them.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:40 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think the piss-taking may be wishful thinking on my part too. I never had any PSB until the second album, by which time they were fairly respectable (because of Dusty Springfield). I like the idea of myself as a terribly camp outcast though.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:46 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, it is appealing.

N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:48 (twenty-two years ago) link

They were very much thought of as a 'pop group' by people when I went to school. During the year or so when I tried not to like pop music and listen to proper stuff ('87 or thereabouts) the PSBs were very much on the no-go side of the divide. Then Actually came out and I had to admit it was ace and I pretty much gave up on the whole pop-is-bad concept. I think critics started liking them because they were 'intelligent pop' at around that point. Also of course even if the "poppists" disliked the music they all loved Smash Hits so maybe there was a nuff-respect-to-Neil thing going on.

Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:48 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think the press (even Smash Hits!) were a bit sniffy about them until around the time that 'Suburbia' came out. I think some people thought they were too-clever-by-half novelty-popsters: 'Opportunities' lends itself to that critique, and it sank without trace when first released. Also, when 'Love comes quickly' failed to go top ten, it looked like they might be one-hit wonders. I remember the NME being mean to them because they weren't OUT AND PROUD like Jimi Somerville or whoever. By the time of 'Actually' the fawning critical consensus started: which went to NT's head, I think, and turned him into the insufferable twit he is today.

(This thread made me remember to download 'I'm not scared' by 8th Wonder - which, combined with the Minnelli lp, makes me think so much of their best work was with other people [see also: 'Getting away with it'].)

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:06 (twenty-two years ago) link

good mourning Alfred!

Dreadnought of chicanery (Ross), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 16:15 (six years ago) link

The only thing that sucks about these lists is that Soto seems to spend more time compiling 'em than posting here!

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican),

Maybe! I'm all over the political, book, film, and poll threads.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 16:16 (six years ago) link

five months pass...

Was out doing some quick grocery shopping this afternoon when I heard a familiar voice and keyboard lick playing faintly over the speakers, and after listening intently for a while to figure out what it was, it turned out to be...

...'DJ Culture'

Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 19 January 2019 15:27 (five years ago) link

dance with me

Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 January 2019 15:40 (five years ago) link

I always find myself forgetting about 'DJ Culture' for some reason. I think it's because I very rarely put Discography on, but then I don't have a similar issue with 'Was It Worth It?' ... it's not a song I ever hear out "in the wild" anyway, so it was a real surprise.

Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 19 January 2019 21:29 (five years ago) link

"Was It Worth It" is by far the best song and one of their least heralded great songs -- Tennant's unofficial coming out record.

Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 January 2019 22:45 (five years ago) link

It's very cleverly done because it's only apparent if you're really paying attention. Like the second verse in which he acknowledges that he's in love with a guy and it's changed his life and he regrets it not happening much sooner, or later on in the song with "I reserve the right to live my life this way and I don't give a damn when I hear people say I'll pay the price that others pay" ...

Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 19 January 2019 23:10 (five years ago) link

It sure sounds to me like "then he smiled and I was lost" instead of you, too.

Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 19 January 2019 23:13 (five years ago) link

that's how I heard it for years

Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 January 2019 23:13 (five years ago) link

I think it's a better lyric/song than the later and similarly themed 'Metamorphosis', which is really on the nose. I dunno, Tennant must have thought he needed to address the subject as directly as possible after many missed it on 'Was It Worth It?' ... although there was a lot that went over people's heads as far back as Please, really.

Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 19 January 2019 23:19 (five years ago) link

"Later Tonight" is explicit as he was before 1991, and no straight man would have written "Why Don't We Live Together"

Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 January 2019 23:20 (five years ago) link

Yeah, 'Later Tonight' is so blatant!

Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 20 January 2019 00:01 (five years ago) link

or later on in the song with "I reserve the right to live my life this way and I don't give a damn when I hear people say I'll pay the price that others pay" ...

...all of these lines rhyming with (a very implicit) “gay”

breastcrawl, Sunday, 20 January 2019 00:04 (five years ago) link

since nobody ever got around to it back in 2003, a poke through Discogs suggests these were Chic's first 32 US commercial A-sides:

1977 Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)
1977 Everybody Dance
1978 NORMA JEAN - Saturday
1978 NORMA JEAN - Having A Party [Cooke] b/w So I Get Hurt Again [Nile/Bernard]
1978 NORMA JEAN - Sorceror
1978 Le Freak
1978 I Want Your Love
1979 SISTER SLEDGE - He's The Greatest Dancer
1979 SISTER SLEDGE - We Are Family
1979 SISTER SLEDGE - Lost In Music
1979 NORMA JEAN - High Society
1979 Good Times
1979 My Forbidden Lover
1979 My Feet Keep Dancing
1979 SISTER SLEDGE - Got To Love Somebody
1979 SHEILA & B. DEVOTION - Spacer
1980 SISTER SLEDGE - Reach Your Peak
1980 SISTER SLEDGE - Let's Go On Vacation
1980 SISTER SLEDGE - Easy Street
1980 SHEILA & B. DEVOTION - Your Love Is Good
1980 SHEILA & B. DEVOTION - King Of The World
1980 DIANA ROSS - I'm Coming Out
1980 DIANA ROSS - Upside Down
1980 DIANA ROSS - My Old Piano
1980 Rebels Are We
1980 Real People
1981 Stage Fright
1981 DEBBIE HARRY - Backfired
1981 DEBBIE HARRY - The Jam Was Moving
1982 Soup For One
1982 CARLY SIMON - Why b/w CHIC - Why
1982 Hangin'

sans lep (sic), Sunday, 20 January 2019 20:51 (five years ago) link

I can hear what Tennant is on about when he says it's PSB doing SAW, because the verses of 'Was It Worth It?' remind me of late '80s Kylie stuff melodically, although not so much the chorus. I could totally imagine '80s Kylie doing a rendition of it.

Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 21 January 2019 00:53 (five years ago) link

three months pass...

Conspicuously, no Hague! (But yes Stephen Hague!) Knowing that none of those songs are necessarily bad, I can totally get with your grouping.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 24 April 2019 00:35 (five years ago) link

Not one is less than meh, and only after a certain year. What a run.

recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 April 2019 00:58 (five years ago) link

four months pass...

Just about to be live on BBC2 for their headline show at Hyde Park.

piscesx, Sunday, 15 September 2019 19:20 (five years ago) link

Chris's hat makes him look like odious pickup artist Mystery.

just another country (snoball), Sunday, 15 September 2019 19:26 (five years ago) link

relistening to Bilingual and it's pretty much as i remember it - that is, not remembering much of it other than the stand out tracks. but rediscovered the closer, Saturday Night Forever and i think it didn't get the attention it really deserves.

that includes treatment from the boys themselves - it could be a proper disco anthem instead of what feels like an afterthought. Love To Infinity remix gets a bit closer - i wonder why it was never officially released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kms6dlWs078

scanner darkly, Thursday, 19 September 2019 17:19 (five years ago) link

nine months pass...

So many old videos look like they’re viewed through ground glass, nice to be able to view them properly. Hopefully others will be remastered.

Five Pet Shop Boys music videos that have been updated with improved high definition audio and video tracks are now available to watch in a new YouTube playlist at the link below.https://t.co/Eubo2IeaTd pic.twitter.com/qN181pujNa

— Pet Shop Boys (@petshopboys) June 26, 2020

Dan Worsley, Saturday, 27 June 2020 09:02 (four years ago) link

I don't know exactly when or why this started happening, but whenever I hear the synthy intro to Bon Jovi's "Living On a Prayer," at exactly where you would expect it to be I hear a British voice intoning, "Sooner or later, this happens to everyone ..."

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 1 July 2020 17:22 (four years ago) link

lol

TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 July 2020 17:24 (four years ago) link

Taking Sides on songs with short spoken intros: "Love Comes Quickly" vs "Livin' on a Prayer" vs "Caribbean Queen"

Vinnie, Thursday, 2 July 2020 08:34 (four years ago) link

vs Modern Love.

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 16:00 (four years ago) link

Now imagine Neil Tennant starting "Love Comes Quickly" with "She's so awesome."

TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 July 2020 16:11 (four years ago) link

two years pass...

As they did fifteen of these twenty songs last night I hold Tom's original collective judgment of their worth to be fully accurate. (DJP is still wrong about "Domino Dancing" of course -- and that was a LOUD crowd singalong.)

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 October 2022 14:38 (two years ago) link

five months pass...

Best bit about the news of yet another compilation;
a Blu Ray with 66 videos

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/pet-shop-boys-smash-the-singles-1985-2020/

piscesx, Thursday, 30 March 2023 14:09 (one year ago) link

Great indeed, but my real hope is that they do a sequel/update to the amazing commentary track they did for the PopArt DVD -- and if that's not ported over somehow I'm holding onto my copy.

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 30 March 2023 14:41 (one year ago) link

Hear, hear. A friend you and I have in common quote it all the time.

"Fabulous acting here."

"Unintentionally hilarious."
"As ever."

"Oh, look! We're doing choreography."

the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 30 March 2023 14:44 (one year ago) link

Chris Lowe's laugh at the end of the commentary for "Somewhere" lives in my head rent-free, as does "Ah...revenge" from the "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing" commentary.

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 30 March 2023 14:50 (one year ago) link

SO many highlights but Chris’s drawling, sighing
“Urrgh GOD.. “ when he sees himself at the start of ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’ is the one that has entered my lexicon.

piscesx, Thursday, 30 March 2023 16:50 (one year ago) link

"I look TERRIBLE! Stupid hair. Dickie bow."

the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 30 March 2023 16:58 (one year ago) link

Here’s that old Pop/Art DVD commentary in full

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG9W0NbssnI

piscesx, Tuesday, 4 April 2023 17:31 (one year ago) link


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