Pet Shop Boys -- Super (another Stuart Price production)

It pains me to say it, but I'm thinking at this stage that I'd rate this album roughly about the same as Yes.

you need more you need more

I like it about as much as Nightlife. I definitely prefer it to Yes.

Yeah, after another couple of listens to this I'm fairly comfortable with ranking this one about the same as Yes, in that I'd rank it higher than Nightlife, Release and Elysium, but it doesn't touch Bilingual, Fundamental or Electric. There's some brilliant moments on Super, but I was expecting a little more from the production this time around because Price did such a wonderful job on Electric. I'm also getting a kinda weird hollow feeling from this record. Here's hoping the next one, which is meant to be ballad-heavy, is a bit of a better effort.

I'm rating this as marginally better than "Yes" and a significant improvement over "Electric," which didn't do much for me (I know I'm in the minority here).

I hope someone talks them out of a ballad album.

I only realised recently that the second half of Yes really isn't that strong. The Way It Used To Be is probably my favourite song they've done in the last fifteen years but apart from that, it just passes me by.

Yeah, a ballad album doesn't excited me at all.

Well, it depends on the ballads for me. If it's stuff like "Always" or "The Crying Game" I'm down. If they're more "Numb" or "Winner," no thank you.

My review: http://www.spin.com/2016/04/review-pet-shop-boys-super/

Nice review, Alfred. And I agree about "Undertow," the only track I'm not feeling immediately.

I'm with daavid upthread, I like "In Bits" quite a bit and wish it was an album track.

But yeah, early (first listen) impressions: this is really good!

Loving this album very much lately :)

I haven't felt compelled to listen to it since those first listens, whereas with Electric I found it hard to not play it. I'm not saying they've made a complete dud this time around, but I don't feel much of a connection to it either.

I think I like it better than the last album.

No "Thursday" on this album, alas.

The Pop Kids is the only song that is of the same quality of Thursday, Vocal and Fluorescent but I am enjoying Super a lot. I still think Groovy and Pazzo could have been left off. I ended up loving every song on Electric, even Bolshy.

I really wish "The Dictator Decides" had more hints of it being a relationship allegory because it's nearly perfect otherwise.

Did someone already post this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USOSo67Trn8

https://twitter.com/empiresend/status/718493856065527809

Jerk.

Well, finally tried to listen to this one all the way through, and it's pretty dire. The music is great, but the lyrics are hard-to-take, and feel especially shoehorned-in. A couple of good mostly-instrumental tracks, though.

^^^ dictator has decided to terminate your life

Death by eye-rolling at horrible lyrics!

Lyrics are fine, exceptional in the case of "The Pop Kids." More importantly, I can dance to this thing.

McNabb tweeted this back in February as well: https://twitter.com/empiresend/status/702868868126154752

did Tennant once give the Icicle Works a bad review in Smash Hits or something?

a truth seeker

Yeah, I've gone cold on this one pretty quickly, it seems :(

xxpost - what a twat!

Who in their right mind could possibly dislike Neil Tennant.

McNabb appears to be a massive cunt if you check out his social media posts

Fall tour:
http://petshopboys.co.uk/tour

I'll have to give this another listen to see if I can get into it a little more.

And the video for "Twentysomething" is out, and it's marvelous.

Well fucking hell, this is sounding absolutely marvellous to me this go-round!

told you!

Alright, alright...I'll give it another spin!

It does run a teeny bit out of steam towards the end, IMO, but the first five tracks or so are a great run, I think. May actually grow on me further!

Apt choice of adverb.

'The Pop Kids', 'The Dictator Decides', 'Groovy', 'Twenty Something' and 'Undertow' are all marvellous, I think, but the only one I didn't really enjoy was 'Sad Robot World', and maybe 'Pazzo!' could have been left off. But this go-round pretty much confirmed to me that I'm not done with this record yet.

"Burn" has become the one I've listened to most.

I love it how the beginning of the vocal melody to 'The Dictator Decides' reminds me of 'Love Goes On!' by The Go-Betweens. It's got me thinking that these guys would do a wonderful cover of a Go-Betweens song.

Hehe, yeah, that synth riff on 'Burn'! It's not too hard to imagine '80s PSB coming up with that.

I agree! A lot of the album reminds me of vintage PSB in a good way.

Looking forward to finally seeing them in October. That took me long enough. (But I felt better when Tom Ewing admitted he's still never seen them either!)

Yeah, I'm hoping to finally see them on this tour too. I was hoping for a Minnesota date but they're coming close enough.

Ned - I'm going to the Fox show in October. I saw them back in like 93 in Boston - amazing theatrical show...

I've been playing this album a lot this week and even with the Air pastiche in the middle, theres a noticeable euphoric lift starting at Inner Sanctum

isn't "Burn" awesome?

I'm increasingly agreeing with Alfred that someone should talk 'em out of making their next record ballad-heavy. As much as I love a lot of PSB ballads, knowing that PSB still stick up for Elysium is enough to make me worried that their next album will be like that, rather than, say, Behaviour. Nobody wants that!

If they want it, they should do it. You or I don't have to listen to it, and they're under no illusions as to how many more people want bangers than Elysia.

Well I hope to be pleasantly surprised by whatever they do next, and if they manage to pull off a great ballad-heavy album, then I'd be the last to complain - I'm not optimistic, though.

Just saw their first of two nights here in the Bay Area -- and I finally see them after thirty years of being a fan! That took me long enough.