Pet Shop Boys POX

Always on My Mind
Rent
I'm Not Scared
It's Alright
My October Symphony
This Must Be the Place I've Waited Years to Leave
Can You Forgive Her?
I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing
Miserablism
Some Speculation

What would a POX or CD-R80 look like these days?

probably a list of ten or more Pet Shop Boys songs

Well done.

I'd definitely include Vocal, maybe Thursday or Fugitive, on a career-length compilation. You can totally make an all-killer 80-min zip file of just the last 17 years.

Yeah, I've got loads of PSB albums ... many of which I'd forgotten about ... and there's a long stretch of (recent-ish) ones I've never heard but might be tempted by.

I would look to include Fluorescent, Integral, Burn, and Love Inc

in what universe is Love Is A Bourgeois Construct not on everyone's updated POX, cmon now

albumwise Fundamental (2006) is very good, and Electric (2013) is their third best ever, or so. Everything else in that span is good to okay, bar Elysium (2012), which is 94% tedium, and last year's "political" EP Agenda, which is sadly an unwitty misfire.

The Springsteen cover is excellent.

21st century POX

Sexy Northerner
Time On My Hands
Try It (I'm In Love With A Married Man)
Integral (Perfect Immaculate mix)
I Made My Excuses And Left
Ego Music
Bolshy
Love Is A Bourgeois Construct
Entschuldigung!
Inside A Dream

Can't think of anything really any good at all from Yes (the singles are OK tho) or Super - new one has a couple of things I can at least remember

"The Way It Used to Be"

Super has "Happiness", "The Pop Kids", "The Dictator Decides", "Inner Sanctum", "Say It To Me", "Burn", and "Into Thin Air", all of which range from very good to fantastic.

yeah but what about the non-Ilx version

The Pop Kids just sneaks into my Top 6 or 7 PSB singles; just below What Have I Done To Deserve This? but above Opportunities. It's probably my all time favourite 'late period banger' by any band, i didn't know they had it in them.

Thanks all.

Have compiled everything mentioned into a Spotify list, here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ksHIsa9UOMtH3pXOqSQ3I

I soured a bit on "The Pop Kids," alas. A bit awkward in places.

Should've added:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywk3vA8Y8xY

I love The Pop Kids, but it manages to be Being Boring-lite and Vocal-lite at the same d. t.

Tiga mixes of Minimal are good iirc.

These are 20 from the 21st century that I'd be happy to have on a playlist.

The Samurai In Autumn
Try It (In Love With A Married Man)
Flamboyant
The Sodom & Gomorrah Show
Minimal
Casanova In Hell
Fugitive
Love Etc.
More Than A Dream
The Way It Used To Be
Leaving
Love Is A Bourgeois Construct
Inside A Dream
Thursday
Vocal
Happiness
The Pop Kids
Burn
Willow The Wisp
Hoping For A Miracle

Thanks! In truth, the original 2020 question was intended to find a full career CD-R80, partly because I was making a compilation for a friend. However, it has ended up at a more interesting place.

Modern era track I really like that hasn't been mentioned: "E-mail".

Other recommendations for your Spotify list: Psychological (also the Ewan Pearson remix), Flamboyant, She's Madonna (by Robbie Williams), Sorry (PSB Maxi-Mix, by Madonna), This Used To Be The Future, Axis, I Don't Wanna, My Girl, the Genuine Piano version of London (not released outside Germany until 2003), Girls Don't Cry

Their cover of We're The Pet Shop Boys is not as good as My Robot Friend's original, but is very fun, and their cover of Viva La Vida is 1000x better than Coldplay. They also did a cover of the song In Private that they wrote for Dusty Springfield in 1990, now as a duet with Elton John, that goes much harder than the original.

djh see also POX Pet Shop Boys B-sides

Cool. Ta.

Their cover of We're The Pet Shop Boys is not as good as My Robot Friend's original

I think they did it better! Great track.

"I Don't Like Much Really, do I? But What I Do Like, I Love Passionately - A PSB compilation"

Alternative title: "Drunk"

Paninaro
Sexy Northerner
The Truck Driver and His Mate
It Must Be Obvious.
I Don't Know What You Want
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk.
Violence (Hacienda)
Euro Boy
Home & Dry
Why Don't We Live Together
Betrayal
You Choose
Email.

There's room for a few more perfectly poised tracks.

There's some great stuff in your suggestions - thanks.

:D

"You Choose" is a minor masterpiece.

It's great, isn't it?

It's a track I'd missed but I'm quite bad (good?) for just getting engrossed in a group for a bit ... and I love it.

Link to the (slightly mutating) playlist here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/205aTQBpnwJEwUZzQMMS6W

You Choose meant a great deal during a period when I felt the stirrings of love for a guy who three years earlier hadn't returned it.

Makes sense.

Compilation artwork, obvs.

First time I’ve been on a train since March! Hope you’re all keeping well. Neil xx#PetText pic.twitter.com/ASouFg5OaY

— Pet Shop Boys (@petshopboys) August 1, 2020

Might be of interest:

https://thequietus.com/articles/29906-pet-shop-boys-best-of-b-sides-album-tracks-beyond-the-hits

Contains Mr Raggett.

They praised the wrong version of "I Want A Dog"

The great wars begin. Mr. Soto is also in there.

Excellent selection !

It’s a dialogue between robots well before Daft Punk. Camp and terrifying, electronic exultation achieved at the expense of everyone and everything else — perhaps that’s the real European canon in the end

A terrific insight, Ned. Also, "Euroboy" and "Some Speculation" made my shortlist too. In the '00s my online dating profile name was SomeSpeculation. Only one dude got it.

Credit to that dude. And thanks!

re Mr Soto - oddly, I've only heard that Timmy Thomas song this year ... on a mix by ISAN.

Anyway, spent a happy hour or so compiling this into a playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5CH0dsOUoBVJ6kE9A1Rmp4

oooh thanks

Genuinely, that was a gorgeous read - full of love and affection (and, remarkably, some tracks I've missed and/or didn't know).

To be honest, my favourite thing about this is the photo of Chris in a face covering.

The tracks not actually very good, is it? (I could have just not been in the mood for it).

It’s not their most engaging work

I haven't bothered to stream.

It's very Always On My Mind and Go West but with a very basic melody. You've heard the whole song after 18 seconds.

The thing about the best PSB and Soft Cell songs is that I can remember what they sound like. When I think about this song all I can recall is that the chorus reminds me of Coldplay's 'When I Ruled The World' (which is bad). Also the video makes me want a battered sausage.

Looks from the link like Happiness Not Included is a Soft Cell album?

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Thursday, March 24, 2022 3:21 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

For a second there I started hyperventilating at the thought of PSB going for a multi-word album title

New/old EP on the way, single “Living in the past” out now. Piano-heavy, you’d almost think Jack Antonoff recorded it.

https://www.petshopboys.co.uk/news/2023-01-23/psb-release-lost-cd

Pet Shop Boys will be releasing their first new music for two years with the four-track CD EP, “Lost”, which accompanies the 2023 edition of Pet Shop Boys “Annually" book, available in April.

The four songs, “The lost room”, “I will fall”, “Skeletons in the closet” and “Kaputnik” were written and recorded as demos in London and Berlin in 2015 for potential inclusion on the album “Super” but weren’t included “not because we didn't like them,” according to Neil Tennant, “but because they didn't fit the album.” The decision to release them now as an EP was made because “they all sit together quite well, production-wise, they're all super-electronic,” and also because “some of them are sort of relevant to the world at the moment.”

The EP takes its title “Lost” from the first song, “The lost room”, but “it also seems to represent a sort of larger, philosophical or political point, where there've been times recently where the world feels a bit lost in terms of the direction it's going in.”

The “Lost” CD EP and the 2023 edition of “Annually” will be released on April 14th and can be pre-ordered at the link below.

New four-song EP Lost is out today (details above). This one bangs in the headphones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ntMUs6SKA

Not really moved by anything on the EP, but I have belatedly realised that Integral is one of the greatest PSB songs ever.

I'm unmoved too.

Surprising to hear @Drake singing the chorus of “West End girls” in the track “All the Parties” on his new album. No credit given or permission requested.#PetText #kobaltmusic #WestEndgirls #Drake #PetShopBoys pic.twitter.com/P5siIccTw9

— Pet Shop Boys (@petshopboys) October 6, 2023

New song on the way:

https://x.com/Lowetennant/status/1752424210448699748?s=20

Nice! There's also a new concert movie in theaters tomorrow and Sunday. Hopefully some similarities to the show I saw in 2022, I'd love to relive that.

Sleaford Mods cover of 'West End Girls' is abysmal in every way.

Sally Shapiro's 'Rent' gets a basic competency pass.

Not sure a PSB Covers POX can be done.

Thanks to Saltburn my students know "Rent."

Pet Shop Boys are happy to announce the forthcoming release of their brand new studio album, “Nonetheless”, on Parlophone Records on April 26.

The album can now be pre-ordered, which (for Europe and UK stores) will also give access to priority tickets for a very special run of five PSB shows at London’s Royal Opera House from July 23 – 27. The first single from the album, “Loneliness”, is available digitally now and will be released as a CD single on February 16. Link to pre-order and listen below.

“Nonetheless” features ten tracks and will be available digitally and in various physical formats, including CD, black vinyl, clear vinyl, grey vinyl and cassette. Recorded and mixed in London last year, the album is the duo’s first with producer James Ford.

The track listing is:

Loneliness
Feel
Why am I dancing?
New London boy
Dancing star
A new bohemia
The schlager hit parade
The secret of happiness
Bullet for Narcissus
Love is the law

The 2CD and double white vinyl deluxe editions of “Nonetheless“ include the bonus four-track EP, “Furthermore”, featuring completely new recordings of “Heart”, “Being boring”, “Always on my mind” and “It’s a sin”.

Hopefully some similarities to the show I saw in 2022, I'd love to relive that.

That was a really good tour, or at least the show at the Hollywood Bowl was. I went with no expectations (I was there to see New Order), and was really pleasantly surprised.

wrt to successful PSB covers, I am fond of Dubstar's Jealousy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIPW4yat5Zs

on Parlophone Records

Ah wait, they're back on home turf?

On the flip side, PSB have two of the greatest covers ever.

https://superdeluxeedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/PSB-Nonetheless.jpg

i didn't remember the pet shop boys being in the video for "two weeks" by grizzly bear

Always liked this sort-of-novelty cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUpL9Z79Kpk

On the flip side, PSB have two of the greatest covers ever.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, January 31, 2024 10:54 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You Were Always on my Mind is prob my fave song to dance to ever.

The Nonetheless lp sleeve is giving me The Gentlemen from Buffy vibes.

xp I adore their cover of "Where the Streets Have No Name." It takes a ponderous anthem and completely inverts it.

Their Springsteen cover.

Their Blaze cover.

Their Village People cover.

They rule.

Their cover of Bobby O’s “I’m In Love With A Married Man” is astonishing compared to the original.

Long Guardian interview

Laura knows what to get out of them:

“Weirdly, music ceased to be ageist,” says Tennant, as various chocolate cakes arrive and the pair produce an astonishing amount of crumbs. “Young people are listening to their parents’ records. It’s all up for grabs.” He credits YouTube. “You could have a fond memory of seeing the video for Strawberry Fields Forever on Top of the Pops in 1967, and then you never saw it again. But I could look at it now. Something happened then. It all existed at the same time.” They crashed into this last year when Drake released a song with an unlicensed quotation of West End Girls, which Tennant found out about through a young nephew: “He was quite impressed, actually.” It got sorted after a cross tweet. “They were very helpful and apologetic,” says Tennant. Did they get paid? “Oh we certainly did.”

Hahah just highlighted that on my FB post.

Tomorrow’s the last day to see Dreamworld (the concert film mentioned upthread) in theaters. Saw it Wednesday and loved it.

appreshed Tennant's IEM fucking up for much of the first half, in a clear nod to Lowe's sheet-music prompter breaking down for the second half of Cubism. the only piece of 2000-2010 nostalgia in the set! one for the real heads.

Best cover by the Pet Shop Boys

Didn’t know they’d covered Springsteen, will check it.

It’s a fantastic cover

Really is.

^thirded! also, saw Dreamworld last week, was a great time, pretty much a longer version of the set they played on their tour with New Order. especially grateful to have seen "Love Comes Quickly" again. beautifully staged, and the way Tennant does "you can fly away..." in a lower register but still in haunting contrast with the rest of the vocal, maybe the highlight of the whole show for me. braced for it the first time, anticipated it this time.

Not new so may have already been discussed but enjoyed this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016gwh

(Neil Tennant's This Cultural Life).

Just started reading this: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/bodie-a-ashton/the-pet-shop-boys-and-the-political-queerness-culture-identity-and-society

Will report back!

The new album is available in a 2-CD version that includes an EP of "2024" versions of some of their hits, including "Being Boring".

On the one hand, yeah, I'm going to buy that version but, god, doesn't that feel a bit shit, somehow?

Volume 1 - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/205aTQBpnwJEwUZzQMMS6W

Volume 2 - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Vo5riagO7TOdB92H8fvuJ

The latter still a bit a work in progress but without any real criteria for it.