Pet Shop Boys

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

It also helps that I love this era of pop house

Yeah it’s their SAW-iest song by far (which is part of the appeal for me)

Oh hey, this one isn't completely terrible

I remember thinking "Was it Worth It" was the worst PSB single up to the point it was released. But in hindsight (and especially given the shoddy quality of their latest output) it sounds a masterpiece now. Its only problem is that it doesn't have a great chorus. But the "I don't know why/I never thought I'd fall in love" bit at the end more than makes up for that.

So, yeah, seconding Chuck_Tatum here

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.

update on this though

Yeah, exactly what I expected. "The Forgotten Child" is by far the best of the bunch. Still, very subpar for the Boys.

yeah, it would register as fine if the three others hadn't been so dire

I remember thinking "Was it Worth It" was the worst PSB single up to the point it was released. But in hindsight (and especially given the shoddy quality of their latest output) it sounds a masterpiece now. Its only problem is that it doesn't have a great chorus. But the "I don't know why/I never thought I'd fall in love" bit at the end more than makes up for that.

― daavid, Friday, February 8, 2019

Mishearing a key lyric as "Then he smiled/and I was lost" helped too.

What's the best PSB *London song*?

It doesn't actually have to name London but has to feel London (which is probably most of them).

the Carter USM version of Rent that changes "off Broadway" to "Fulham Broadway," obv

King's Cross?

I'm wondering "Violence"?

"Two Divided by Zero"

I thought this was an erronous eBay listing at first, but no, it is being sold as a valid bit of PSB history:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PET-SHOP-BOYS-Dairy-Book-Of-Home-Management-1980/113637460627?epid=1805382223&hash=item1a75520a93:g:BLkAAOSwBPxcZAFU

Ha! I mean, yeah, I knew Tennant was involved in stuff like this just before (and around the time of) his stint at Smash Hits, but I never thought I'd see this stuff being sold as PSB memorabilia. The seller's obviously trying to make more money by pointing out the PSB connection... I suppose there are a lot of opportunities if you know when to take 'em...

I was on the lookout for PSB books beyond Literally and Vs America. I suppose this will have to do.

Thanks for pointing this out! I just bought a copy via Amazon for a friend who's a big fan. Not bad: $15, free shipping, supposedly "very good" condition.

Seems like I mostly just listen to Pet Shop Boys on Thursday mornings when I'm getting ready for work.

And they have a song called "Thursday "!

Glad to be of assistance

that's why I only seem to listen to them on Thursday, Alfred. I assumed the connection would be made. good way to kick off the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=angHvxq1XLU

Surely there's not just me thinking that we should have heard something more about a new album by now.

We got an answer! A new track featuring Years & Years (for their forthcoming album, I assume):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RokbHjyPbyk