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

this is probably as much to do with my age as anything else, but I always thought of Bilingual as being the last album from their 'classic' period, or at least the last album where they were seen as a contemporary act, with everything from Nightlife onward a 'late-period' album. I'm surprised whenever I'm reminded that Nightlife was released only three years after Bilingual, I remember Nightlife being very much sold as a comeback record at the time? Bilingual is wonderful anyway, I'm surprised that so many people seem to think that it's one of their weakest.

Agreed. Bilingual felt like a followup whereas Nightlife felt as it were released 7900 years later.

Yeah, that's pretty much the way I saw it too. I seem to remember 'Se A Vida E' being everywhere in 1996, whereas by the time of Nightlife they seemed to be struggling commercially. I think Radio 1 were even no longer playlisting their singles by then?

Look at their American chart positions too.

I think that 'Se A Vida E' was the last of their big iconic hits, the ones that would probably be remembered by a majority of random people stopped in the street (looking at the UK chart placings 'You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk' actually reached the same position - they both got to #8 - but I don't think it had anything like the amount of radio play or general ubiquity of 'Se A Vida E')

(that said, although people remember 'Se A Vida E' I'm not sure that they remember it was a Pet Shop Boys song? I don't really have anything to back back this up, but I get the impression that people would be less likely to associate the song with the PSBs than their other best remembered hits, say 'West End Girls', 'Opportunities', 'Always On My Mind' and 'Go West'? maybe because they don't appear in the video?)

According to Wiki, Se a Vida was a considerable European hit.

More people here know "New York City Boy" than "Se A Vida E". It was a genuine hit in Canada.

looking at the UK chart placings 'You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk' actually reached the same position - they both got to #8 - but I don't think it had anything like the amount of radio play or general ubiquity of 'Se A Vida E'

As I remember it, it didn't... nowhere near! Apart from one TV performance of 'You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk' I actually don't recall hearing any Nightlife single on radio or TV, whereas 'Se A Vida E' was in regular rotation on radio and on MTV Europe etc. Weirdly, I remember 'I Get Along' and 'Home and Dry' getting far more radio play than any Nightlife single, although not to the extent of 'Se A Vida E' ...

I remember being so shocked when You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk went in at number eight. I'm not sure I'd even heard it before it charted (I didn't have the album until a few years after). Think it just did well as sales were low in those first few weeks of the new year. The previous two singles scraped into the top 15 after a decent amount of exposure.

The single was one of the most widely played records on UK radio in 1996 and its video set in a water park was shown on both MTV and VH1 on a regular basis that summer.

It was the second single to be lifted from the album Bilingual, which saw the duo take on a Latin influence as a reaction to the Britpop explosion that was prevalent at the time.

In the US, the single was released by Atlantic Records in April 1997 with "To Step Aside" as a double A-side. Thirteen mixes of the track were commissioned and spread over various formats, several of them promotional only. The single did not chart in the States, but following its success in the UK it became a major success all over Europe.

It was the second single to be lifted from the album Bilingual, which saw the duo take on a Latin influence as a reaction to the Britpop explosion that was prevalent at the time.

Yeah, I remember them talking about this in interviews at the time, and it did sound (and was) very apart from the whole Britpop thing that was going on then, but it still didn't prevent it from being a hit.

'Before', on the other hand, I seem to remember not being particularly well-received, even though it eventually went Top 10.

So, there's a new b-side out there apparently! I haven't heard it yet, though!

There's (I think) 7 mixes of The Pop Kids, plus In Bits and One Hit Wonder. Something else?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaBUT6Jx8eM

It's on Spotify too.

WHERE IS MY ADVANCE COPY

Ooh, new Chris Lowe interview at The Quietus too!

Apparently, this record is supposed to be a follow on from Electric and then they're planning to make another album with Price which is to be more in their ballad-heavy mode.

I'm sure no one will agree with this but

"The Pop Kids" < "In Bits"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLPP0nAJxBo

I love everything about Happiness.

That is some straight-up EDM, but... I like it?

if that were made by anyone but the Pet Shop Boys I would have turned it off after 45 seconds...

Yeah probably.

CHRIS: that were made by anyone but the Pet Shop Boys I would have turned it off after 45 seconds...

NEIL: Yeah probably.

first part of a 4 hour (!) docu series starting as we speak

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b073qwf8

Wow -- they actually (heh) discuss songs ("Violence," "Two Divided by Zero," "Kings Cross").

wow shit yeah, and Young Offender!

I haven't heard any of that documentary yet, but haven't they talked about those songs in detail a million times before? At this stage, I'm more interested in how the songs take shape musically and their methods of building up a track in the studio than I am about what the songs are about or the inspirations for the lyrics.

You can read that in the liner notes of the 2001 reissues.

Next part on now!

Actually laughed out loud when Chris started talking about 'Hold On' ... "The fans didn't appreciate the effort that went into this, because the fans don't like this do they? That's why they're wrong. Where they're wrong."

I wondered if they might address how much people hated Winner and that record in general. Couldn't believe they picked Hold On, terrible song.

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/musicians-richard-marx-chris-lowe-neil-tennant-and-billy-idol-pose-in-picture-id117056640

Well, put it this way: how many times have you ever heard PSB slag off one of their albums? Or even, apart from the odd B-side, one of their songs?

Chris did on the documentary. He doesn't rate So Hard and thinks it spoils the flow of Behaviour. I'm sure I read they're not that keen on Red Letter Day too.

That opinion on So Hard is complete and utter madness

Definitely. It's probably in mt top five PSB songs. As for it spoiling the flow of the album, wouldn't How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously be a similar problem for him?

They're barking mad about Elysium, which sounds as tentative and wan as ever.

highlight of part 2 was Neil bursting into I Have Confidence from The Sound Of Music and Chris pissing himself. i don't know of 2 bandmates who can make each other laugh so much or appear to get on so well.

Yeah, 'So Hard' is one of my favourites and I don't think it spoils the flow of Behaviour at all, and I think their "issue" with 'A Red Letter Day' is more in the recording rather than the song itself, but it's very rare you'll hear them slag off their work. If anything, they (particularly Neil) get really defensive about their post-Very work.

Oh come on, Chris takes the piss out of literally everything they do, especially when Neil takes himself too seriously.

(Having said that - a friend of mine was a backing dancer during the Yes tour. Apparently the Boys got fairly miffed when the dancers all openly slagged off Winner after it was first played to them.)

well, how can you dance to that drivel?

So, this definitely isn't as good as Electric. Anyone else heard it yet?

This album has exceeded my expectations so far. I'd say the only thing still bothering me is Price's "cold" production. I know it's not a good word to describe it, but I can't think of a better one atm. I think probably any other producer would have done a better job. I wonder how good this could've been in the hands of Greg Kurstin, for instance.

This one's my favorite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J50nLCeTHIk&index=10&list=PLxFN5K79aSHDQYsre_8b_nQW2Mvru_waR

A couple of tracks excepted, this is smashing. I love "Twenty-Something" and "Groovy."

I still haven't heard it yet, but what I've read/heard about it seems to be mostly positive.

So, having my first listen to this now... the intro to 'Twenty-Something' sounds like it could soundtrack a 16-bit side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game from the early '90s...

like "Young Offender"?