Pet Shop Boys

Really not feeling this at all although I'm enjoying seeing one of their self claimed lifelong fans on Facebook claim they shoudln't start singing about politics as it will alienate their fanbase!

Hahaha... christ, that's funny. They've only been doing that since ever!

Anyway, no - it's not one of their better singles and falls well within the "lighters aloft" section of their discography alongside 'Winner' ... on the plus side, it's not a painfully slow, sombre ballad, which was what I was expecting.

"I'm With Stupid" was similarly stupid.

It makes sense, really. They give you a stupid song about a stupid president, and then give you a more stupid song about a more stupid president.

Without having heard the song (I'm not eager), I'm thinking that if this is an itch they couldn't help but scratch, they nonetheless had the wisdom this time to put it on a separate EP rather than on the forthcoming album.

That song sucks.

Oh right, this isn't destined for the new album at all but a completely different thing recorded with a completely different producer.

It's just their fan club EP for the year, but they're releasing it digitally for all. Understandable move, really.

PHEW DONT PANIC

It is *wildly bad* though - and just to rub it in, some echoes of Hey Headmaster, an all-time fave.

Lyrics are bad but might’ve worked with a less structured (and boring) backing

This is terrible. I don't necessarily agree that they should stay away from politics/social commentary but could they at least tone down the obviousness? It just doesn't work.

Songs like "Shopping" work so well precisely because you could listen to them without even realizing they're political (almost, anyway).

Also, Tennant using phrases like "WTF" annoys they hell out of me.

I'm no fan of "I'm with Stupid" either but at least the intent there was to make it plausible that it's about a couple's relationship.

According to Popjustice, the new EP contains 3 satirical songs and a sad one. That's the only one I'm looking forward to, TBH.

"Did you see me coming" probably has a couple of meanings too

Neil Tennant's lyrics book had me pondering why there were so few of the 'out in the city/hedonism' early songs (no Why Don't We Live Together, Later Tonight, I Get Excited etc) and so many of the 'from the pov of a Russian spy' ones. I have a dreadful feeling NT thinks those are what he's best at.

I think Norm MacDonald was pretty otm as to why satire was dead in the age of Trump, it's hard to effectively satirize someone you have nothing but contempt for

"Out in the City/Hedonism" is a good PSB title.

that's why Alec Baldwin's Trump is such a dire mimicry xp

"Why Don't We Live Together" is my favorite PSB song.

This song is ludicrously bad.

Second track. Marginally better but still kind of a mess, imo. It's sounding a little better on a second listening, probably because I'm not paying attention to the lyrics as much.

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

I think this "satire" output is such a disaster in part because it's nothing new (both self-obsessed social-media culture and post-truth politics/Trumpism have already been scrutinized to death) and because it's so basic: no new insights, wit or anything meaningful to convey. And it's painful/embarrassing to witness an act so dear to my heart do such a poor job. That's a third problem, it's the PSB so expectations are higher than normal.

Musically it's a lot better. The lyrics still seem kind of clunky though.

What happened to the Neil Tennant that was great at writing lyrics?

"You're feeling 'hashtag blessed'" - an actual lyric from an actual Pet Shop Boys song

This exists already, recorded in....1993

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG5oi1FGf_I

The lyrics (to "On Social Media") are something Brad Paisley would write for an awards show appearance, and the music is completely bland. This is frankly depressing.

I never took you for a fan.

I stopped paying serious attention after Very but yeah, I was on board for a while.

30 seconds into the new one and these are definitely the two worst songs they have ever released

it's wild that someone who has always been so great at assessing and analysing his own work has a blind spot that lets him keep writing such thudding clunkers as these, I'm With Stupid and Winner

well, they're old now.

An aging artist devolving into writing a bunch of blindingly obvious social critiques actually seems like a great subject for a Pet Shop Boys song

(though I heard half of the Maxi-Mix of IWS the other day and very nearly enjoyed the middle-eight's counterpoint against the main thrust of the song)

also Powell is not a great collaborator for them, I can't remember anything at all about Together. hopefully this EP is deliberately, like Elysium, clearing the pipes of tedious soggy chaff before an album of Stuart Price rave bangers

An aging artist devolving into writing a bunch of blindingly obvious social critiques actually seems like a great subject for a Pet Shop Boys song

― frogbs, Wednesday, February 6, 2019 4:21 PM

ahem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLBN6CAs8oY

well, they're old now.

yes, but they've written the likes of Vocal and Thursday and Love Is A Bourgeois Construct and The Former Enfant Terrible since then! and even, say, Pandemonium and The Pop Kids are diminished versions of things they used to write that take their aging into account.

xpost ha that too I guess, one listen to Elysium was enough

I loved the last two records.

On a brighter note, I listened to Electric yesterday for the first time ever, and it includes a lengthy interview track discussing each song on the album, and it was sharp and entertaining.

^^ The interview is on Spotify

I like I’m With Stupid. The drums, man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMk9WdoFHg&

I don't know if I'm suffering from extremely lowered expectations now but I kind of like this one

Mind you, I'm still googling for a GIF of Neil and Chris jumping over a shark

Whew -- this is easy. It's terrible too!

It's better than the other two, though

It's hard to forgive those hamhanded emphases and squeezing in of polysyllabic words.

They need to release a song called 'Jumping The Shark' about how they've jumped the shark.

I mean W T F

xp (waits for someone to post a link to a PSB song where they sing about doing just that)

I'm fairly confident that they know they've released a bunch of leaden almost-word-salad tracks. This isn't like Muse's Olympics song (I think they were trying to be clever?) or Prince's Vikings track (who knows what The Purple One was thinking there). It's just that the Boys can be subtle and clever and these tracks are neither, even if they were made with the best intentions.

xxxp they jumped the shark with Bilingual 24 years ago. they've jumped back the other way occasionaly though.

Their one-off between-album cuts have always sucked; that olympics thing (Winner), Together for the Ultimate comp, and Was It Worth It for Discography.

No fucking way. "Was It Worth It" is beautiful music as well as their first coming out song.

I think it's the Greek chorus bits; "WHAT?" "WHERE?" "HOW?!" etc that always put me off. I liked Chris's hat in the video.

Yes, 'Was It Worth It' is excellent and, please, Bilingual is actually a very super release.

This one is the best by far, but that’s not saying much, unfortunately. It threatens to get good at the end but it’s still too word-salady. Why such a rush, Neil? At some point I started thinking about late period Elvis Costello which is *really* a worry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Two6mcJGYCM

I never liked Was it Worth it as a kid (which is a shame, because if I’d noticed the coming out theme, it would’ve been extremely useful). I love it now, though - a very similar vibe to Before, and for once Neil is just as hot as the models in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px1sxZKiokc