Pet Shop Boys Album Discussions

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Havoc, Oct 25, 2014.

  1. Havoc

    Havoc Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Poland
    I love The Pet Shop Boys and next to my Beatles, Simple Minds, U2, Big Country, Pink Floyd, Smiths, Springsteen and Echo and the Bunnymen libraries my PSB collection (all of them and any remasters I could get) belongs right in there in the context of contribution to Havoc's soundtrack. The first track I heard was "Love Comes Quickly" and thought it one of the most perfect pop songs I've heard.

    The history goes something like this, two blokes meet at an electronics store in Chelsea and hit it off after finding they have similar music tastes. Neil Tennant soon becomes a head writer at Smash Hits and gains an understanding of how good and bad pop music can be and Chris Lowe was and is a giant among synth players and programmers. While on assignment to cover The Police in New York, Tennant begins chatting with a notable dance producer Bobby Orlando and the relationship produces a series of wondrous tracks that after being re-recorded with Stephen Hague at the dials, soon find their way on the duo's debut album "Please". From the start the album is packed with memorable pop tunes wrapped in fantastic electronic layers of music and clever yet catchy lyrics. This was in 1984 and to my ears the band has not really slipped up, churning out 12 studio albums as well as one of the most beloved greatest hits collections in Discography. I was fortunate enough to catch the band live on a few occasions and never cease to be amazed at how the band is able to present new and interesting music on stage with such creative imagery each time.

    "Please" is without a doubt one of the finest pop debuts ever as it practically plays like a classic hits disc. Produced by Stephen Hague, it's easy on the ears and vibrant, eccentuating some of the great analog synth work of the era, courtesy of Chris Lowe. Neil Tennant, while not exactly a crooner is just what the music needs. The man can carry a tune and offers a sophisticated component through his singing that is a rare find. The album was an encouraging success on the power of the timeless "West End Girls" along with other tracks such as "Opportunities" and "Love Comes Quickly" but the entire album is completely listenable.

    [​IMG]
    Pet Shop Boys Please 1986
    Produced by Stephen Hague


    Neil Tennant- vocals
    Chris Lowe- Synthesizers/Programming

    1. "Two Divided by Zero" – 3:32
    2. "West End Girls" – 4:41
    3. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" – 3:43
    4. "Love Comes Quickly" – 4:18
    5. "Suburbia" – 5:07
    6. "Opportunities (Reprise)" – 0:32
    7. "Tonight Is Forever" – 4:30
    8. "Violence" – 4:27
    9. "I Want a Lover" – 4:04
    10. "Later Tonight" – 2:44
    11. "Why Don't We Live Together?" – 4:44
     
  2. DrAftershave

    DrAftershave A Wizard, A True Star

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Great debut. I was 11 when "West End Girls" came out and it got my attention right away because of that city noise intro with the cymbal and synths. Then I saw the video for the song pretty much soon after and was hooked. Neil and Chris just walking nonchalantly down the street with Neil singing/looking like he didn't care to be on camera had this detached coolness to it. I pretty much had to go out and buy the album right away.
     
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  3. andy75

    andy75 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Pet Shop Boys really grabbed me when they released Actually. Been following them ever since. Behavior is on of the greatest albums of all time! Very, Yes & Electric are fantastic albums aswell. Not a weak track on any of them. But I do like it all!
     
  4. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Please is a great debut. One of my most played albums of 1986. I'd had my CD player a year then and this album sounded wonderful.
     
  5. Remy

    Remy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn NY
    Killer debut. The Further Listening versions of this and the next 4 albums are fantastic.
     
  6. shaboo

    shaboo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bonn, Germany
    Besides Depeche Mode, one of the few bands that had huge hits in the 80's, and continued to release enjoyable albums (or at least some good songs) later on.

    I always liked their snyth sounds, their artwork and their song titles ("How I Learned To Hate Rock 'N' Roll", "This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave"), and their six Further Listening remasters in 2001 had great packaging, awesome booklets and fantastic bonus discs. Unfortunately they are (not totally brickwalled, but) definitely too compressed (compared
    with the original CD releases):

    http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=pet+shop+boys&album=further

    From their debut, "West End Girls" and "Suburbia" were all over the place, but my favorite song still remains ... "I Want A Lover".

    AND: There were few bands with such strong b-sides as the Pet Shop Boys :)
     
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  7. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    Hearing "West End Girls" for the first time on a warm spring day stopped me in my tracks - one of those great music moments we all live for on this forum. Had never heard anything like it, and still haven't!

    I agree that the debut album is fantastic, although it always surprised me that "Love Comes Quickly" wasn't a bigger hit single.
     
  8. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Please is great, but I always thought Actually had more stand-out songs.
     
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  9. Havoc

    Havoc Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Poland
    Very glad to see a lot of fans here. Should make for a great thread. I'll try and bring the next album in as things die down but feel free to let me know if I'm a little slow. Between work, helping my daughter with Geometry, being there for the wife and letting my pet rats know they're special......not much time in the day. :faint:
     
  10. Torontotom

    Torontotom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    I love The Pet Shop Boys. "Introspective" is one of my favourite *albums* from the '80s. I know some call it an EP but it feels/sounds like a complete album to me.

    And then Behaviour and Very are probably my next two favourites. I lost them by the mid-90s but I still enjoy their music.

    I thought their productions for Liza Minnelli and Dusty Springfield were top-notch. Liza's Results is one of my favourite CDs.
     
  11. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    I need to pull Please off the shelf. It has been far too long. I just realized after reading this thread that I had all of the PSB albums loaded in my iTunes except this one (unforgivable!) and Nightlife (understandable!). I'll get that rectified shortly...
     
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  12. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    Tom, I suggest you check out some of their post '95 material. I find something to either love or like on every album, and some recent releases are very good and consistent throughout. Stay tuned on this thread to find out as we come to the latter day albums!

    Jeff
     
  13. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    I loved the Liza and Dusty albums too. The former was seen as a bit of a disappointment upon release, but it's a great meeting of styles between the PSB and Minnelli.
     
    Torontotom likes this.
  14. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    I've always been a 'rock guy,' but have always loved the PSB. Been on a bit of a kick the last few years and really discovering some of their deeper tracks.
     
  15. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member



    Had to put this up from Liza's 1989 Results album. The PSB didn't write it, though it sounds like they did! This was one of the best tracks on Liza's album and a perfect marriage between her and the Pet Shop Boys.
     
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  16. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member



    While we're on Please, here's the opening track. Still one of my favourites from the album.
     
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  17. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Actually was probably my favorite - or at least most-played - album my sophomore year of college. I probably overplayed it, but the record still hooks me in. The hits are spectacular; "It's A Sin", "Heart" (which should have been a monster here in the US but wasn't - it's the greatest Madonna song Madonna never recorded), and especially "What Have I Done To Deserve This", maybe their finest single ever and the hit that brought Dusty Springfield back, god bless 'em!

    But even the album tracks are all solid - "Rent" and "Shopping" are just incredible, and "King's Cross" became even more haunting after the terrible fire at that station.

    I have a friend who vastly prefered Please to Actually, and while I can kind of see that - Please is probably smarter and decidedly less-commercial - it's hard to argue with Actually's hooks.

    PSB went on releasing great records straight into the '90s, one of the few '80s acts with such a consistent discography. Introspective includes a version of their monster cover of "Always On My Mind", the single version of which I flipped my lid for the very first time I heard it on the radio - one of the great singles of the '80s. I don't much care for the album version though, which sort of colors my appreciation for Introspective.

    The other great single on this one is of course "Domino Dancing", probably the best (and one of the first) singles to be written about AIDS. Who would have thought Pet Shop Boys would release maybe the best Freestyle track of them all? The video remains stunningly homoerotic almost 30 years on.



    Of course, this marked the end of their chart performance in the United States (too Latin or too gay, you be the judge), but they plugged on in the rest of the world for another decade, releasing a couple of records - Behaviour and Very - that I think eclipse even Please and Actually.
     
  18. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Nightlife gets a bad rap, but I think it's better than its predecessor Bilingual. The first few tracks on that one are spectacular, but I've always thought it falls apart after that. "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)" and "A Red Letter Day" both strike me as formulaic, and most of the other tracks don't make much of an impression apart from "Before". I felt it was a huge letdown after Very and Alternative, their B-sides compilation that outshone most artists' original releases.

    The three singles pulled from Nightlife - "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More", "New York City Boy" and "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" are as good as any they've released. "Closer to Heaven" and "Footsteps" hold up as well.
     
  19. boyjohn

    boyjohn Senior Member

    I think what sets Pet Shop Boys apart from almost any other artist is their songwriting consistency. Even though their "Imperial Phase" was long ago, they have continued to turn out great songs album after album (and B side after B side). Because they exit in the Dance/Electronic genre, the sheer quality of the songs is sometime overlooked.

    For example, for what could have been just a throw away B-side in 2012, they came up with the really wonderful A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi".



    The sheer breadth and depth of their just their B-side catalog is unbelievable.
     
  20. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    I remember Actually was released the week after Michael Jackson's Bad here in September 1987. I had 2 great albums in 2 weeks!
     
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  21. Havoc

    Havoc Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Poland
    Well, being a stereotypical member of that dreaded and intolerant sect of conservative Christians.....I never saw them as being too gay but I was the only officer in my bomb wing that admitted to liking them. I have to assume that there were some closet PSB fans in my circle but they just couldn't come out of said closet. I do like how PSB songs have to be included in jukeboxes for "profiling purposes". :pineapple:
     
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  22. shaboo

    shaboo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bonn, Germany
    To me, Bilingual and Nightlife were equally disappointing albums, with Nightlife perhaps a bit ahead because of "I Don't Know What I Want ..." and "You Only Tell Me ...", while "New York City Boy" must be by far the most terrible and boring song they ever released. Actually, my favorite song from these two albums is a Nightlife b-side:
     
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  23. Havoc

    Havoc Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Poland
    It's a great sounding song if a little subdued, they never suffered from bad production and that in itself is quite an achievement. I think Chris Lowe is just the bees knees and I wish I could find some in depth video with him to see how he works. Erasure suffers a bit in that their sound is somewhat repetitive but that never was the case for me with regard to the PSB and that is a triumph.........let us raise our glasses to Sir Chris of the House Lowe.
     
  24. Havoc

    Havoc Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Poland
    So......the video has two...uh shirtless guys frolicking in the surf, I was more concerned about that car recklessly driving through that lot of pigeons....................don't hurt the little pigeons Mr. car driving type guy.....................
     
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  25. bhasenstab

    bhasenstab Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    I give the Pet Shop Boys a lot of credit for their series of Futher Listening editions of each of their first six albums, back in 2001. Not only were they remastered, pretty nicely considering the era, but the bonus tracks on the second discs were *spectacular.* All the rare remixes, all the key B-sides. Those b-sides are remastered, too.

    And while different folks love different albums, my two favorites are probably Please and Behaviour. (Actually is a close competitor.)
     

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