Pet Shop Boys POX

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

Nice! There's also a new concert movie in theaters tomorrow and Sunday. Hopefully some similarities to the show I saw in 2022, I'd love to relive that.

Sleaford Mods cover of 'West End Girls' is abysmal in every way.

Sally Shapiro's 'Rent' gets a basic competency pass.

Not sure a PSB Covers POX can be done.

Thanks to Saltburn my students know "Rent."

Pet Shop Boys are happy to announce the forthcoming release of their brand new studio album, “Nonetheless”, on Parlophone Records on April 26.

The album can now be pre-ordered, which (for Europe and UK stores) will also give access to priority tickets for a very special run of five PSB shows at London’s Royal Opera House from July 23 – 27. The first single from the album, “Loneliness”, is available digitally now and will be released as a CD single on February 16. Link to pre-order and listen below.

“Nonetheless” features ten tracks and will be available digitally and in various physical formats, including CD, black vinyl, clear vinyl, grey vinyl and cassette. Recorded and mixed in London last year, the album is the duo’s first with producer James Ford.

The track listing is:

Loneliness
Feel
Why am I dancing?
New London boy
Dancing star
A new bohemia
The schlager hit parade
The secret of happiness
Bullet for Narcissus
Love is the law

The 2CD and double white vinyl deluxe editions of “Nonetheless“ include the bonus four-track EP, “Furthermore”, featuring completely new recordings of “Heart”, “Being boring”, “Always on my mind” and “It’s a sin”.

Hopefully some similarities to the show I saw in 2022, I'd love to relive that.

That was a really good tour, or at least the show at the Hollywood Bowl was. I went with no expectations (I was there to see New Order), and was really pleasantly surprised.

wrt to successful PSB covers, I am fond of Dubstar's Jealousy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIPW4yat5Zs

on Parlophone Records

Ah wait, they're back on home turf?

On the flip side, PSB have two of the greatest covers ever.

https://superdeluxeedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/PSB-Nonetheless.jpg

i didn't remember the pet shop boys being in the video for "two weeks" by grizzly bear

Always liked this sort-of-novelty cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUpL9Z79Kpk

On the flip side, PSB have two of the greatest covers ever.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, January 31, 2024 10:54 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You Were Always on my Mind is prob my fave song to dance to ever.

The Nonetheless lp sleeve is giving me The Gentlemen from Buffy vibes.

xp I adore their cover of "Where the Streets Have No Name." It takes a ponderous anthem and completely inverts it.

Their Springsteen cover.

Their Blaze cover.

Their Village People cover.

They rule.

Their cover of Bobby O’s “I’m In Love With A Married Man” is astonishing compared to the original.

Long Guardian interview

Laura knows what to get out of them:

“Weirdly, music ceased to be ageist,” says Tennant, as various chocolate cakes arrive and the pair produce an astonishing amount of crumbs. “Young people are listening to their parents’ records. It’s all up for grabs.” He credits YouTube. “You could have a fond memory of seeing the video for Strawberry Fields Forever on Top of the Pops in 1967, and then you never saw it again. But I could look at it now. Something happened then. It all existed at the same time.” They crashed into this last year when Drake released a song with an unlicensed quotation of West End Girls, which Tennant found out about through a young nephew: “He was quite impressed, actually.” It got sorted after a cross tweet. “They were very helpful and apologetic,” says Tennant. Did they get paid? “Oh we certainly did.”

Hahah just highlighted that on my FB post.

Tomorrow’s the last day to see Dreamworld (the concert film mentioned upthread) in theaters. Saw it Wednesday and loved it.

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.