Pet Shop Boys POX

"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

"In the Night" really is a banger of the first order.

I like the Quietus List

Personally, I would have added these:

Was That What It Was?
I'm Not Scared
Hit And Miss
Always
We're The Pet Shop Boys
Fugitive

On a second thought, perhaps not Hit and Miss. It hasn't aged that well.

I love "Hit and Miss" and a few other b-sides on Format, but I imagine my POX would still be ten songs from Alternative

My b-side POX, that is

it seemed they skipped covers? so that would rule out We're The Pet Shop Boys and, kinda, I'm Not Scared

both megabangers ofc, as is Fugitive

I never understood the issue with the Instrospective version of "I Want a Dog". Possibly my favourite thing on it since I was a child. The b-side rendition feels like a less perfect iteration along the journey to the bitchin' housey endpoint. The Quietus OTM.

Perticularly good to see the likes of King's Cross, You Choose, The Theatre, Flourescent and Your Funny Uncle there too.

pArticularly, obv.

Devastating lack of "A Man Could Get Arrested" though!

it seemed they skipped covers? so that would rule out We're The Pet Shop Boys and, kinda, I'm Not Scared

both megabangers ofc, as is Fugitive

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), T

Ned wrote about the Springteen cover.

Ah yeah! I even approved of his non-Boss-belief.

The issue with the Introspective version of I Want A Dog is that they took a wistful, delicate song and removed all of the personality from it with a boring beat

One could and should quibble with bits and pieces of that list, but it's at the very least a great reminder of the wealth of good stuff this group has released or, more shockingly, sometimes barely released.

xp
It was entirely Knuckles's work according to the Introspective sleevenotes.

Neil: "We got back to London and played it to Trevor Horn and Steve Lipson and Trevor said 'See? Cheap gear sounds better.'"

The Communards keyboardist plays the piano, I think.

He plays the piano on What Keeps Mankind Alive? but as far as i know that was it.

Confusingly, I did once play with the Pet Shop Boys #pointlesstrivia

— Richard Coles (@RevRichardColes) October 4, 2012

ah! That's it.

Vicar!

Listening again, the second half being dominated by the piano solo rather than (something resembling) dog bark samples has likely been a factor for me. Actual aural representation of dogginess threatens to undermine the wistfulness!

The dog barking is the most distinctive, singular component of the song. Removing it removes the song's identity.

This is the only remix of "I Want A Dog" that works and it's largely because it interpolates a good amount of "Atomic Dog" into itself while holding onto the dog barks, plus the beat doesn't sound like an extremely square preset:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB7mOdWk9hc

x-posts: Yeah, what Josh in Chicago said (though I realise there is joy to be had in arguing the detail).

Had we posted this Tweet on here? (I can't see it but might be being an idiot).

Classic question from a taxi-driver in London today! “So are you still making music and is the other one still a vicar?” Neil x

Fun to hear them do "Mr. Vain" on this '94 Rio show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl-nPbUSihQ

The covers were fun on that tour; Girls and Boys, Rhythm Of The Night, Mr Vain and I Will Survive

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pet-shop-boys/1994/auditorio-nacional-mexico-city-mexico-6bd2faf2.html

I read years ago that when Brett Anderson joined them for "Rent" he and Neil had been tootin' the nose powder.

Great list. I’d probably add End of the World. X-rated cover excepted, I’ve never seen the appeal of “Truckdriver”. I kind of think the A-Side, Before, is a great hidden-in-plain-sight deep cut

So many PSB threads. Anyway:

Ouch ! https://t.co/PQIfCwiZPu

— Johnny Marr (@Johnny_Marr) August 13, 2021

Press release incl. link to new audio/video, song to be on PBS alb Happiness Not Included, out May 6:
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Soft-Cell-Team-Up-With-Pet-Shop-Boys-For-The-New-Single--Purple-Zone-.html?aid=sqHHp24xO3Q&soid=1101984419757

also PSB alb

Looks from the link like Happiness Not Included is a Soft Cell album?

Your're right, sorry! At least the Boys also do several mixes of the single.

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.