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).

POX from the Quietus list:

Discoteca
Do I Have To?
Dreaming of the Queen
It Always Comes As A Surprise
I Want A Dog
A Red Letter Day
Some Speculation
This Must Be The Place I've Waited Years To Leave
The Theatre
Violence

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.

Album is good!

Mouthing off about Taytay like he's got a record to sell eh lol

Look forward to checking new album out later.

The Swift comments are in this interview, about 35 minutes in, which is great and often very funny. Predictably they’re a lot more nuanced than reported, not that he’ll care too much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um3o8CUgHRc

IT's fine, ultimately not much better or worse than Hotspot.

Pleasantly surprised by the new album. Hotspot ended up rivaling Elysium as my least favourite album they've done. Only Will-O-The-Wisp and Dreamland stood out. I like just about everything on the new one and really enjoy how lush and refined it all sounds.

"Loneliness" and "Feel" are the keepers, "Love is the Law" too.

The Schlager Hit Parade is the only one I'm not totally sold on after a couple of plays. This is the album that should have followed Electric.

I’m three songs in and I can definitely say it’s a new Pet Shop Boys album

Neil's voice is getting a bit thin and "Loneliness" is a terrible album opener. But it's... alright! I have a feeling I'll be listening to "Why am I dancing?" and "New London Boy" quite a bit.

They released an EP of jokey songs before the pandemic that was just abysmal, and so I'll be basically glad whenever it's better than that.

I feel like I haven't heard "1980s rapping Neil" (as on New London Boy) for a while

This is much better than Hotspot, which I found listless and actively embarrassing in several spots. Best for me since Electric.

I quite enjoyed that the bonus disc for "Nonetheless" was "Furthermore".

Saw them play some tracks on a Vernon Kay presented thing a few weeks back and found it a bit cringey.

The new album sounds like one of those drugstore-dollar-bin "greatest hits" albums where a Sixties act re-records their old songs, and you buy it by mistake and get those uncanny-valley "this is the song I like...but it's not quite right somehow" shivers.

This happened to me precisely with a George Jones comp.

I think the re-records are just the arrangements for the new tour with vocals added

'I’d love to be in the House of Lords, because it’s a job, isn’t it?'

The most successful British pop duo in music history on tantrums, touring when you turn 70, and why it feels unreal to hang out with Liza Minnelli — over Lunch with the FT: https://t.co/ujKxMKGSJW

— FT Weekend (@ftweekend) April 26, 2024

A pro­du­cer for an earlier album, Stu­art Price, worked with them in Ber­lin and made them go out for din­ner in week two to the same places they’d been to in week one, in the same order. He also made them record all the tracks in alpha­bet­ical order. “And we did, didn’t we?” Ten­nant mar­vels. “And then we put them on the album in alpha­bet­ical order. It’s actu­ally quite a good logic. It worked out quite well.”

They must have cheated a little bit but so close:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_(Pet_Shop_Boys_album)

Maybe “Bourgeois Construct” was the working title for track 3…

The first few songs are the weakest for me. Once it gets to New London Boy it gets really good and stays as such. I have a lot of time for the freestyle getup on Dancing Star.

yeah I feel like it's missing a really great single up front, something like that would do wonders for this album. it's still quite good I think, especially given the point in their career that they're at. Neil's voice still sounds pretty good to me!