That's perfectly natural. I know I'm not breaking down any pseudo-intellectual barriers when I say that people change and I've found my preferences in music changing a lot but it's a bit of a mixed blessing in that while you find you don't care for some things you were over the moon about you discover things you had previously written off.
Actually, only three of the songs are Xenomania co-writes, "Love etc.", "More Than a Dream" and "The Way It Used To Be". I think those are three of the best songs on the album, so not sure that the co-writes hurt anything. The album does have a certain "modern sheen" feel to it, but I guess when you sign up with hot producers you have to expect to get their sound on the album.
Wow, you're right! For some reason I thought they got co-writing credit on every track. Also, despite my general crankiness about Xenomania, I think one of the strengths of Disc 2 is that every dub was remixed by PSB and Xenomania themselves, rather than calling in a wide range of other mixers. It gives it a nice, cohesive feel.
Wow, I've fallen behind. OK, quick recaps I guess: 'Disco 3'. For me, essentially the 8th PSB studio album, righting pretty much all the wrongs that 'Release' fell prey to. The new songs are some of my favorite of the era, with "Time on my hands" and "Positive role model" being the best picks of the batch. The remixes, while a little bit on the clubbed-to-death side, fit well with the upbeat yet still a bit melancholy feel of the album, with the PSB extended version of "Here" absolutely trouncing the album version. The only thing I don't like about the record is that it never got a proper 10-track LP release, instead getting a double LP with extra (pointless) dubs and a mega box, neither of which interest me. (The art also isn't great.) 'Pop Art'. A second 'Discography' would never have worked, so this was really the only way to do another Greatest Hits album. The division is arbitrary at best and the incorrect single mixes is a bit annoying, but the set works well as a front-to-back listening experience so that's all you can really ask for as a fan with most of the material anyways. "Miracles" and "Flamboyant" continue the upward trajectory started with 'Disco 3' and I would rank both among my Top 25 PSB singles for sure. B-side wise, "Transparent" is a nice Kraftwerk homage, but the other two are stunners: My Robot Friend's "We're the Pet Shop Boys" was perfect for them to interpret themselves (if you haven't already, the first My Robot Friend album is a load of fun and you should definitely check it out), and "I didn't get where I am today" would have easily been the best track on 'Release' had it been there...but as mentioned, it doesn't fit. At all. For me, this begins the second Golden Age of the band. 'Fundamental'. Rebirth complete. I will admit the album was moodier than I expected when I first heard it - "I'm with stupid", "Minimal" and "Integral" had all snuck out prior to the full album so I was expecting an album full of bangers, not that those were the only three - but once I got over that, the beauty of the album revealed itself to me and I fell in love with it. Not quite a full on Pet Shop Boys classic, but their most cohesive full length since 'Very' for sure. Horrific tour, though, which is a shame because it featured the genius one-two of "Minimal" into "Shopping". (Or the other way around? I forget.) Even better was the bonus disc. Finally, modern third-party remixers that don't just reduce the original tracks to 4/4 floor fillers. The highlight is, of course, the Richard-X collaboration "Fugitive" - I mean, WHY wasn't this a single, or even on the main album? Massive missed opportunity - and I've always been a fan of Trentemoller's take on "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show". 'Disco 4' in all but name, really, until 'Disco 4' actually came out, so I guess 'Disco 3.5'? The b-sides are uniformly great but none of them really deserved a spot on the main album - there's no "Shameless" or "We all feel better in the dark" for sure, but there's also no clunkers like the previous couple of albums had. "Bright Young Things" finally makes an appearance but it's the worst of the bunch, coming across like a re-hashed "Nothing has been proved" crossed with one of Suede's girl-name-list songs. Not terrible, but not great either. "Party song" is probably my favorite of the bunch, complete with gratuitous "That's The Way (I Like It)" interpolation out of nowhere. It delivers what it says on the package, that's for sure. 'Yes'. Top Three Pet Shop Boys album for me, no joke. Actually, Top Two behind 'Actually'. The pairing with Xenomania was absolutely brilliant and produced their best set of material in decades. Stalling at #2 on the charts due to early release of preoders on iTunes, it was a very Pet Shop Boys situation for the album to underperform and strain relations with Parlophone, essentially the beginning of the end of their relationship. The singles campaign *should* have been a year-long, five single celebration of pop, but they did it ALL wrong. "Love, etc" was a good start but was released either too early (nothing else really going on at the time to sustain interest) or too late (too close to the Brits performance) to be as successful as it could have been, and having no new single out at the time of said Brits performance was just poor planning. "All over the world" not getting a proper single release - yes, it was on 'Christmas', but it should have been single #2, no question - is one of their biggest missed opportunities. For me, the release schedule should have gone: Love, etc All over the world 'Yes' the following week Did you see me coming? Vulnerable Pandemonium to tie into the victory lap tour at the end of the year But it was not to be, and one of the greatest rebirths in Pop history faded out with a whimper rather than being the massive pop explosion it should have been. The b-sides, on the other hand, are kind of hit and miss. Neither 'Love, etc' b-side has ever done much for me, and "The former enfant terrible" - another one that had been lingering in the vaults for a few years - was the spiritual brother to "The sound of the atom splitting" no one asked for. On the other hand, both "Up and down" and especially "After the event" are fabulous. The artwork is also possibly my favorite Pet Shop Boys album sleeve. Simple and effective and perfect. I guess that puts the album rankings: Actually Yes Please Behaviour Fundamental Bilingual Very Introspective Nightlife Release
@brokenhanger nice summaries and catchup. Looks like we feel similarly about Yes. Why wouldn't a second singles collection worked instead of PopArt? The Cure were able to release Galore. Granted, it wouldn't have sold to all the casual fans but the "@Havoc petheads" would certainly buy it.
Hey!!! Before my wife chucked out our lil' houseape I was buying anything I could get my hands on. I even have that box of Cure singles called "Curiosities" and almost was bedded by some Goth chick for having acquired it. Now, in my older age I have time to contemplate things like the potential legal complications of a career spanning singles box from arguably the best singles act in music history. No wonder Neil doesn't like you.
I don't know if there would be too many legal hurdles to do a singles box or an extended collection of PSB. Basically the thing to remember is that every release has to withstand a P&L statement by the label originating the package. This means that they can only allow a certain percentage of licensed tracks from outside labels. Now, Warner Music bought the Parlophone label in 2013, so you have all of that label's catalog plus Atlantic/Sire/Rhino under one umbrella. At this point, they'd only have to license in (if they were being complete) the Bobby O tracks and their most recent stuff that's been handled by Kobalt Label Services. iTunes isn't a label; they're just a digital store offering what the labels put into their store. There are cases where you'll see a "Partial album" available in iTunes. Those are usually compilations where the originating label has the digital rights to only a percentage of the album and there's no agreement in place with the other label that the licensed tracks came from. Or if they do have an agreement, you can usually only buy the full album, not individual tracks. As others have said, a PSB singles box would probably be a nightmare to put together since, as the years went on, so many of their tracks were released in 5,000,000 different versions. Still, I'd love something similar to the Duran2 boxes where you got the artwork for all of the original singles, but with bonus tracks tacked on. The Simple Minds Themes Box (yes, I have the one released in the '00s) is another nice way to do them.
I don't have time for these facts, just tell them to release the box o' singles so Jeffmo can think he's back in Neil's good graces. I read somewhere that the Themes set almost did not happen due to label wrangling but it had more to do with mergers than material spread across multiple labels. If they just kept it as a UK release then it should be fairly easy, just let the guys pick out their favorite version, do some research with respect to attractive additional tracks to add and then use maybe the Duran 2 as a model. As far as I know, that's the best singles box I have seen with respect to preserving the original artwork and the added material. They give anyone a great road map on how to do it right. I don't have any of the DM so I can't really objectively comment but they look like another viable example. If I can only get my wife to stop spending my retirement money on those "Chat with a real man" services then maybe I can collect some of those.
@jeffmo789 You hit the nail on the head regarding a second 'Discography' over 'PopArt'; including the older singles as well opened up a much larger potential audience than just having the 'Very' through 'Release' singles. The issue with a singles box isn't lack of desire from band or fan-base, it's a cost/revenue issue for Parlophone. There's at least one great interview where Neil goes into it. Basically, it was under serious discussion at one point but they wanted to make sure they did it right - promo mixes, etc - but the cost of getting everything together and done proper was going to push the price of any potential product up too high. Which is a bummer because if any one is worthy of a full on, properly done singles box campaign, it's the Pet Shop Boys. The Duran boxes were pretty simple and straight forward, but even the second one was lacking in terms of content. (OK sure, technically it was all of the UK b-sides, but in many cases they were just album tracks and the actual b-sides that were released in the US got left off.) For Depeche Mode, they were kind of hit or miss - especially for the 'Construction Time Again' and 'Some Great Reward' singles, they didn't include the tracks from the second 12", which was kind of the biggest potential draw in the first place. I guess for me, I'd rather have nothing than a poorly compiled, incomplete project. Also, I forgot to mention in my first post, my #1 Pet Shop Boys want is their demo of "The Loving Kind" for Girls Aloud. Supposedly there's some sort of embargo on it where they couldn't release it for a set amount of time after the GA one came out, but surely that time has passed by now.
Actually, I have always thought Actually their best, by quite a margin, especially the version that included Always on my mind, one of the great covers (and in my view one of the best versions of that song). the cover of Dusty's What have I done to deserve this was pretty neat too, along of course with It's a sin, Rent, Heart etc. One of 87s essential albums and just the job for that new CD player....
Yeah, I wouldn't have bought all those if they weren't cheap at the time. I bought most of my PSB stuff as it was released so it was relatively easy to find and fairly cheap. Doing it now would be very frustrating. I wasn't nuts about It's Alright when Introspective came out but they didn't write it, so I didn't mind as much. I like the single version quite a bit but though. While the lyrics are upbeat, I still find it to be a perfect moody pop song. To Face the Truth is a guilty pleasure of mine but I can totally see how it would be loathed! I love Miserablism but like a lot of my favorite bands, I'm glad the PSBs kept a few gems aside to use as b-sides.
I had pretty much written off the Pet Shop Boys after Fundamental came out. I really thought they were done. Although, after hearing all the glowing reviews of Fundamental, I've ripped the CD and put it on my music server so I'm going to give it another go soon. Same with Disco 3 which I honestly never gave a chance because I was still soured by Disco 2. So, I really didn't care when I heard about the Yes release. A few months later I saw some of the very positive reviews on the forum and picked it up and was completely blown away. For me, it's easily the best thing they did since Behaviour. My favorites tracks are: Love etc., All Over the World, More Than a Dream, Pandemonium and The Way It Used to Be. I also loved the cover art and bonus disc. Those dubs are fantastic! They make me wonder about the instrumental versions on the Vinyl Factory edition. I read that they're not straight up instrumentals. By the way, since there's some Duran crossover here, the VF deluxe edition of All You Need Is Now is gorgeous. I finally broke down and bought it a while back and it was worth the price of admission in my opinion. Anyone know if Xenomania are worth exploring? I hadn't heard of them until Yes and still don't know any of their material but I thought they meshed incredibly well with the PSBs on the album.
"What Have I Done To Deserve This" wasn't a cover - it was written by The Boys and Allee Willis, who among other things wrote "September" for Earth, Wind & Fire and the Friends theme "I'll Be There For You". She's also directed videos and even designed set pieces for Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Very glad you rediscovered or just discovered it. I'm really enjoying it during my revisit for the thread. Out of curiosity I was wondering if the participants wouldn't mind ranking the PSB albums. It's purely subjective of course but it would be interesting to see what people thought and if their sentiments have changed over time. I know mine have while having my renaissance with their material. Here goes mine. Actually Very Please Behaviour Fundamental Electric Yes Introspective Elysium Release Bilingual Nightlife
As you said, this is tough because our tastes change over time. Plus it's like picking a favorite child. But at the moment, here's what I'd say: Very Actually Behaviour Fundamental Please Bilingual Introspective Elysium Yes Nightlife Electric Release Interesting that we share the same Top 5, @Havoc, albeit in a different order!
I ordered a sealed copy of the PopArt DVD for $13, it's region 0, but it's PAL, so I'll probably have to do a bit of tinkering for it to play here in America Seems Introspective isn't very high on your guys lists, that's probably my favorite really (out of the ones I listened to) and the one I'm currently obsessed with
Nah, I hit up E-bay for the 'International DJ' version of 'It's Alright', and stuff isn't that expensive at all, compared to me hunting down 80's releases by much less popular bands. I ended up grabbing five things, including the 10 inch West End Girls I didn't know was a unique mix, and a picture sleeve version of the 2nd 'Opportunities' 12 Inch. (I've only got the clear vinyl version that came in a White Sleeve with a red Pet Shop Boys logo which is boring to look at unless you remove it from its sleeve). Now I'm considering investigating the Very Releases, but I imagine they'd be more expensive than the Imperial Phase stuff due to vinyl becoming more DJ than consumer focused. I have no idea exactly why I'm doing this. Reliving my teenage years I guess.
I assume that you (and most everyone else responding to this thread) knows about this PSB discography site, but in case not, here is the link. http://www.psb-discography.com/
Yes, and there is also a Canadian NTSC release of the CD/DVD Ultimate, which has most of their TOTP appearances as well as their amazing 2010 Glastonbury set. Highly recommended!
I would have to pay $10 more for that on Amazon, and I'm a cheap bastard. I guess licensing issues or something along those lines made a US release not possible? On my wishlist Edit: $28? ehh...
I do like Introspective, although I have a hard time with the fact that it consists of a lot of previously released material and cover versions, albeit in remixed form. It's hard for me to think of it as a full-fledged PSB album even though that's obviously how it was marketed. But for what it is, I like it a lot.
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/60130 Hmm, interesting. Looks like the audio tracks for the music videos have had some loudness war-ing done to them (they don't look horrible). Would anyone with the DVD want to do a quick rip of an audio track off the DVD and post the spectrogram, I'd be very interested.
Here's mine at the moment: Behaviour Actually Please Yes Introspective Elysium Very Electric Bilingual Nightlife Release TBD - Fundamental
Actually Please Behaviour Very Introspective Fundamental Nightlife Yes Electric Bilingual Elysium Release
