Pet Shop Boys POX

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.

Chris Lowe adapts well to the facemask era:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv4QNTg1Mps

To be honest, my favourite thing about this is the photo of Chris in a face covering.

The tracks not actually very good, is it? (I could have just not been in the mood for it).

It’s not their most engaging work

I haven't bothered to stream.

It's very Always On My Mind and Go West but with a very basic melody. You've heard the whole song after 18 seconds.

The thing about the best PSB and Soft Cell songs is that I can remember what they sound like. When I think about this song all I can recall is that the chorus reminds me of Coldplay's 'When I Ruled The World' (which is bad). Also the video makes me want a battered sausage.

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

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Thursday, March 24, 2022 3:21 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

For a second there I started hyperventilating at the thought of PSB going for a multi-word album title

New/old EP on the way, single “Living in the past” out now. Piano-heavy, you’d almost think Jack Antonoff recorded it.

https://www.petshopboys.co.uk/news/2023-01-23/psb-release-lost-cd

Pet Shop Boys will be releasing their first new music for two years with the four-track CD EP, “Lost”, which accompanies the 2023 edition of Pet Shop Boys “Annually" book, available in April.

The four songs, “The lost room”, “I will fall”, “Skeletons in the closet” and “Kaputnik” were written and recorded as demos in London and Berlin in 2015 for potential inclusion on the album “Super” but weren’t included “not because we didn't like them,” according to Neil Tennant, “but because they didn't fit the album.” The decision to release them now as an EP was made because “they all sit together quite well, production-wise, they're all super-electronic,” and also because “some of them are sort of relevant to the world at the moment.”

The EP takes its title “Lost” from the first song, “The lost room”, but “it also seems to represent a sort of larger, philosophical or political point, where there've been times recently where the world feels a bit lost in terms of the direction it's going in.”

The “Lost” CD EP and the 2023 edition of “Annually” will be released on April 14th and can be pre-ordered at the link below.

New four-song EP Lost is out today (details above). This one bangs in the headphones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ntMUs6SKA

Not really moved by anything on the EP, but I have belatedly realised that Integral is one of the greatest PSB songs ever.

I'm unmoved too.

Surprising to hear @Drake singing the chorus of “West End girls” in the track “All the Parties” on his new album. No credit given or permission requested.#PetText #kobaltmusic #WestEndgirls #Drake #PetShopBoys pic.twitter.com/P5siIccTw9

— Pet Shop Boys (@petshopboys) October 6, 2023

New song on the way:

https://x.com/Lowetennant/status/1752424210448699748?s=20