Revelation - Official ILX Pet Shop Boys tracks poll results

(I hate the original too so it isn't totally PSB's fault)

You have to at least give them credit for taking a genuinely joyful and optimistic track and turning into something rather mournful without actually changing much.

I've never liked Bilingual, but look forward to pulling out Nightlife and Fundamental again.

Interesting fact: PSB one of the few bands my wife and I love equally, can listen to every day, any time. It's true!

Other true fact: PSB my cousin's fave act besides Pearl Jam and Rush (!).

You have to at least give them credit for taking a genuinely joyful and optimistic track and turning into something rather mournful without actually changing much.

I have never gotten "mournful" off of their version of "Go West", including the listen I just gave it to see if I'd changed my mind (I hadn't).

It was a really significant cultural moment here and I can't quite remember why.

if you don't like go west you don't get the pet shop boys

Didn't it accompany their official coming out? That was how it was pitched over here, anyway.

also jabba is completely OffTM

I definitely detect a tinge of sadness/hopeful melancholy in "Go West."

;)

I definitely detect a tinge of sadness/hopeful melancholy in "Go West."

that is largely because of what Neil Tennant's voice sounds like, IMO

I can buy that. But not everything he sings is steeped in melancholy. Compare this song to something like Se a Vida, for example.

Nice run tonight! Bit bummed that "I Want To Wake Up" placed so low though.

xxpost It's not super obvious, context is an important part of it: The gay utopia thing gone sour because of AIDS and the fall of the Soviet Union and communism... but I sort of agree with jabba hands, it's all in Tennant's voice really.

wait, how did the fall of the Soviet Union make gay utopia go sour

(I do remember subtext around HIV/AIDS now that you mention it)

wait, how did the fall of the Soviet Union make gay utopia go sour

It made English departments in American universities the only places to fuck self-avowed communists.

Unrelated. They thought of it in the context of AIDS, but then they thought it could also apply to the demise of the communism, which was happening at the time. They went with that idea for the video.

I wish allmusic could find a better intro to the PSBs than this:

Postmodern ironists cloaked behind a veil of buoyantly melodic and lushly romantic synth pop confections…

fuck adverbs

okay which ILXor wrote that

yeah, I don't hear much of anything mournful in Go West, either.

I guess you could interpret it as an impossible fantasy of escape from a shitty situation.

Translated into English, "Postmodern ironists cloaked behind a veil of buoyantly melodic and lushly romantic synth pop confections" means "English faggots."

"Satiric and irreverent -- yet somehow strangely affecting -- Pet Shop Boys transcended the seeming disposability of their craft, offering wry and thoughtful cultural commentary communicated by the Morse code of au courant synth washes and drum-machine rhythms."

Please stop ("yet somehow strangely affecting "!). btw that AMG profile is at least ten years o.d

"Go West" absolutely has a mournful side to it, a lot of it stemming from it being a cover. The original was about pre-AIDS San Francisco, and their 1993 cover is a kind of bookend. In a deeply ironic and moving way, it's like they're angels of death singing this song. My #1.

They're basically doing a gay version of Randy Newman's "Sail Away."

(And I can't stand synth-horns, but "Go West" and Jane Wiedlin's Fur get around that.)

Hear a song
That's the bomb
If you don't get the mix
It's gone eighty-six

These lines in NYCBoy make me cringe a bit, like Neal is reaching for, but not grasping, some sort of "authentic youth culture."

I prefer "Go West," but regardless of preference they're very different songs. NYCB is a coming of age song, it celebrates individual freedom. GW is about solidarity, community, a collective freedom.

You know what other song I missed that I wish some of you mentioned? "Was It Worth It." It gets better with each listen.

Didn't they leave that off PopArt because it was their first single not to make the Top 20? Amazingly, only two subsequent singles (Numb and Did You See Me Coming?) have missed the Top 20 and both did better than Was It Worth It?

Recap 50-18.

18 Go West Very 223 10 1
19 Home and Dry Release 216 10 0
20 Se A Vida E (That's The Way Life Is) Bilingual 215 9 1
21 Suburbia Please 205 9 0
22 I'm Not Scared B-side 195 8 0
23 Domino Dancing Introspective 195 10 0
24 Young Offender Very 194 7 1
25 I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing Very 189 9 1
26 I Want A Dog Introspective 169 7 0
27 I Want To Wake Up Actually 162 6 1
28 Flamboyant Standalone 161 7 1
29 Jealousy Behaviour 158 9 0
30 In The Night B-side 157 7 0
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

17-1 coming up soon. If you want to try predicting the top 10, now's the time to do it.

OK then. No particular order:

Being Boring
West End Girls
Rent
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
Always on My Mind
Left to My Own Devices
It's a Sin
Paninaro
So Hard
Can You Forgive Her?

Further down: Drunk, Dreaming of the Queen, Zero, King's Cross, This Must Be the Place… and some other stuff

I am still holding out hope for appearances by at least one of "Don Juan", "Jack The Lad" and "You Know Where You Went Wrong"

I'll add Opportunities and Shameless to the predictions list for the full 17.

in order: West End Girls - Left To My Own Devices - Being Boring - Rent - What Have I Done To Deserve This? - King's Cross - So Hard - Can You Forgive Her? - Paninaro - It's A Sin

gah, that's practically the same ten

Funny that Fundamental has been rated higher than Release and Yes and yet it doesn't look to be represented in this poll.

It's a much stronger album but it doesn't have a standout track - I could have voted for Integral, Indefinite Leave, Casanova in Hell, Sodom and Gomorrah or Minimal but ended up choosing none of them - whereas Release and Yes have obvious highlights and a fair few duds.

17. So Hard. (1990, Behaviour, 223 points, 10 votes, 1 number one)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFAA6Z_YIEM

Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/track/7imWD2KFgk54awjfjmK3cJ

RIF: The track contains a sample from a porno movie featuring a woman moaning the title.

I voted for "Minimal", as I think that's one of their strongest singles in a while. I was tempted to vote "Casanova in Hell" for the Rufus Wainwright version, but I don't guess that would have gathered much steam.

xpost

Aah, I didn't vote for it, and I didn't expect to see it here, but it's always been one of my favourite singles by them. I think the "so whose matches are those" line is what made me realize I really loved the band back when I was first listening to them.

Also, isn't that Gazza's daughter in the video?

Me too. I also love the contrast between all the different elements in the arrangement - it's almost too cluttered but it works.

I didn't end up voting for "So Hard" but it is a great, great song

This was in my head for days while making the poll. Very scattershot track but every part of the chorus is seriously catchy and the bass line is awesome.

while making my top 20 I mean

16. You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk. (1999, Nightlife, 235 points, 10 votes, 1 number one)

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

Spotify:http://open.spotify.com/track/0lu6VJmIZSC5hPAfpLo4Xp

RIF:The godlike BJ Cole provides the pedal steel on this track.

^^^^^^ can imagine Merle Haggard covering it.

Listened to this a lot recently and seriously considered it for my #1. I think my love for Joe Meek swayed me towards it as much as the song itself.

"What a performance tonight" - "dissing him like a punk" - sorry, I can't see Merle singing those line. I'm always reminded of this bar in Atlanta that has line dancing - it's like the theme song for the queeny country boy.

This is the kind of song that means I get angry when people call them post-modern ironists. There's a mile-wide streak of emotional vulnerability in their songs. I think Disappointed is one of Tennant's quintessential titles. His heartbreak songs are rarely angry or vengeful or melodramatic - they're disappointed.