I’ll let my iTunes speak for itself. These figures represent 6 days of listening (apart from Winner and Invisible of course).

(i.e. It’s an utter triumph)

Someone has put together snippets from the tracks we haven’t yet heard from forthcoming Pet Shop Boys’ album, Elysium.

Producer Andrew Dawson (Kanye West, Drake, fun.) has sprinkled some proper magic dust and the album sounds like Behaviour Part II i.e. superb.

‘Memory of the Future’ sounds particularly epic.

*phew*

I think the director wanted to make a short film about a transgendered person in a women’s Roller Derby which just happened to be the length of the Pet Shop Boys new single. It’s a good short film, but not a very good Pet Shop Boys video.

sorry but i don’t see how some people get jobs. If whoever classes themselves as a director having put out that effort, there is hope for everyone. There is nothing good about it at all. Nothing fits. Nothing makes sense. I can’t believe EMI have accepted that.

People expect to see some fit rollergirls and instead we get this?! No real action, no real bruises, just some roller girls pussyfooting around each other and a ropey transvestite in the middle. Not to mention you can barely hear the song. Okay, I give up

I may have to pull a StevePSB and distance myself from the boys unless I get too emotionally upset in a very whateverman way about the dilution of the back catalogue.

Just saw this Winner video – it made me physically ill.

Reactions from the Pet Shop Boys Community.

Nonsense. It’s superb.

Enjoy.

 

 

EDIT: Video produced by London agency Surrender Monkeys, who did a rather disturbing (but clever) video for the Kooks and also this bit of World Cup virality.

1. The Piper’s Song (Dublin Aunts Remix)- Gypsy & The Cat

I first rattled on about these chaps back in July last year. Since then, they’ve released one fantastic album, generated ‘buzz’ and are currently supporting Kylie on tour! Here is one of the standout tracks on Gilgamesh remixed by Melbourne outfit, the misleadingly-titled Dublin Aunts.

Gypsy & The Cat Official Site

Dublin Aunts on Facebook

2. The Brother (Uphill Racer Remix)- Susanne Sundfør

I think I heard the haunting original version of this on Dermot O’Leary’s Radio 2 show a few months ago. It froze me to the spot. For some perverse reason it’s not available in the UK to download (yet?) but she’s had a remix competition and here is the winner.

Susanne Sundfør Official Site

Uphill Racer Official Site

3. Colour Of A Man (Pet Shop Boys Remix) - The Hidden Cameras

One of the best live acts I’ve ever seen remixed by, well, you know how I feel about PSB. That said, I do think that PSB make for slightly anaemic remixes and this is a bit wispy. The thinness allows the poppy hooks of the track to emerge a little more clearly than the original version which is a tad cluttered takes a while to reveal itself.

The Hidden Cameras Official Site

Pet Shop Boys Official Site

The ballet is a 15th century invention which has meant very little to me other than strange stirrings as a youth when some tights-wearing dancer threatened to take someone’s eye out with his manbits as he leapt about to Tchaikovsky. To paraphrase Moz, I had to say that ballet said nothing to me about my life so I settled for the cheap pop thrills that later lead to more complex pop thrills. Dance does not figure.

Pet Shop Boys are no strangers to either cheap or complex pop thrills which is why they continue to reward attention some 25 years after West End Girls hit no. 1. As pop’s brainy elder statesmen, they’ve been sticking their fingers into all sorts of cultural pies with varying results. Their core characteristics remain consistent throughout: electronic dance pop with aspiration: “Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat”.

Their clumsy musical Closer to Heaven was a rare stinker but their 2004 soundtrack to 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin was rather better executed and received. Still, I learned of their foray into the ballet with a mixture of apathy and dread. I booked tickets anyway. Sadler’s Wells is a delightful place and a mere 15 mins walk. What the hell.

I need not mention that I am an avid fan of the PSB. A friend described me as follows in an email this morning: “I suspect that if they sat there throwing toddlers at a cheese grate you would still love it, you PSB whore you.” I agree (but then again what artist could fail to impress with such a routine?)

The Most Incredible Thing is a piece based on a late short story by Hans Christian Anderson, scored by Tennant & Lowe with choreography by Javier De Frutos (who said in a post show Q&A last night that it was the first time he had worked with composers who were not dead).

The thing works very very well. PSB play to their strengths – pulsing beats, synths and proper melodic hooks. The choreography (not that I know anything about it) seemed emotional and often mesmerising. The special effects (most notably the astonishing clock sequence in Act II) were beautiful and, yes, incredible. It wasn’t all perfect: at times I had no idea what was going on (and I had read the story), there is no need for two intervals, and the ending was a little anticlimactic.

So, I was exhilarated by a ballet after all these years. How did that happen? My theory is that at least part of it wasn’t alien allowing me to more easily appreciate the unfamiliar. After 25 years of PSB soundtracking my life, the 4/4 electronics are signifiers I don’t need to work hard on to understand (unlike, say, classical music). I could pay more attention to the dance; I had an ‘in’.

The previous show I saw at Sadler’s Wells was Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna. Rufus would be up there with PSB as one of my more cherished artists and I think he is ridiculously talented, but his opera wasn’t great. Unlike PSB, Rufus seemed to sacrifice his stellar abilities as a producer of huge, melodic ‘Baroque’ pop and instead wrote a fiddly, stilted ‘traditional’ opera. (Quite how he could write an opera about a fading diva and not include at least four outrageously epic arias is beyond me.)

Pet Shop Boys remembered their core competencies of dance and ambition and have opened a very enjoyable gateway the ballet for anyone else who needs an introduction. It’s sold out at Sadler’s Wells but I suspect it will be back.

(Oh and while there’s no ‘hamster-stuffed-down-tights’ bouncing about, there are plenty of attractive men – and women- with tight clothing should you need further enticing).

The Most Incredible Thing runs at Sadlers Wells until 26th March and is sold out.

The music is available for download or in a very handsomely-bound double CD with booklet.

Ultimate Pet Shop Boys is in the shops and while it’s certainly an all killer-no filler synopsis of their impressive chart career since 1985, there’s so much more to explore. Inspired by ChartRigger’s alternative list of non-singles, Keith (Trunk Guy) invited me to join him in selecting our favourite album and bonus tracks. And there’s a Spotify list of most of ‘em too.

Over to Keith:

As you can see from what follows; we didn’t manage just 20 tracks, nor did we manage to agree on our opinions of the songs we shortlisted.

I think this is testament of the music, musicality, style, lyrics and musicianship of Neil and Chris that they can create such a huge volume of work. I also find it interesting that we can create such a list of released songs that most people would not have heard of.

Ultimate is a great body of work for those who are aware of popular singles but I hope our list gives an insight into other great work produced by Neil and Chris.

I hope you find our list fun and informative, it’s purely our creation – feel free to drop us a line if you have a different opinion or other suggestions!

The List

Kings Cross

Enda: Bizarrely this predates the Kings Cross fire. When I started working backwards from Very, this track immediately grabbed me with its soaring, melancholic arrangement. There was no one else in pop (I felt) with such ambition and such style.

Keith: Sad, atmospheric, historical and captures just the right spirit – I remember growing up around all the unrest in the 80’s and remember when the Kings Cross tube disaster happened (which my hubby could have been involved in if he was a couple minutes later) – this is just a fantastic capture of a particular moment in time.

Two divided by zero

Keith: Any track that features my favourite toy (Speak and Spell) has to feature – it’s also a great story which I am sure is relevant to a lot of people – wanting to run away, saying goodbye to what they know and starting their lives anew.  It’s kind of what I did as I came out and moved away from home.

Enda: I’m ambivalent about this one. But I’m pretty ambivalent about their first two albums in general. That said, I enjoyed hearing this and some other overlooked tracks on the Pandemonium tour.

Miserablism

Keith: Contains the best pop lyric ever:

Just for the sake of it
Make sure you’re always frowning.
It shows the world, that you’ve got substance and depth

Wonderfully witty and very observant track that I feel no one else could write or sing without people taking them seriously.

Enda: This was a dig at Morrissey, wasn’t it?

Your funny uncle

Keith:  Observing the funeral of a young man through the eyes of his friends and his older uncle. Classic PSB storyline and very emotional for a track that is only 2:18.”

Enda: Stately and poignant. A beautiful track.

Former enfant terrible

Keith:  On first listen I hated this but it grew on me and I am sure it’s Neil’s wonderful lyrics – no one else could come up with a song like this – it’s such a great capture of today’s culture and how celebs fall from grace and the lengths they have to go to to get back into the public eye – a great representation of the Big Brother generation.”

Enda: While I don’t hate this, I haven’t moved on to your level of acceptance as yet. That said, it’s very recent so it may take a while to absorb. I can say that the lyrics are clever (as ever), a tad bitchy (which doesn’t always suit them) and perhaps lacking something melodically. It’s The sound of the atom splitting part 2 methinks.

Violence (Hacienda version)

Keith: Original version used to pass me by but this version is superb – poignant and well written – a classic!

Enda: One that’s grown on me a lot over the years. It’s subtly insidious, nagging away at your brain before you realise it’s taken up residence from within and is claiming squatters rights.

Hey headmaster

Keith:  A great autobiographical song that perfectly documents the life of a school headmaster, wanting to teach children who don’t want to learn.  Wanting to expand and use his knowledge but being restricted by the career he has chosen.  It was also featured in the play for the History Boys and fits the story perfectly.

Enda: Love it. A snapshot of what it might be like for the dedicated teacher who has his (gay) private life forcibly kept apart from his profession. In Ireland, the Catholic Church run most schools and managed to get an exemption from our otherwise robust equality laws so that gay teachers could be fired for not upholding the ‘ethos’ of the institution. What a crock.

We all feel better in the dark

Keith:  The perfect antidote to Being boring (not that it needs one).  The two tracks combined make the best single A and B side ever.

Enda: I really like the Balearic mix of this. At my fantasy Ibiza beach party, I’d squeeze that into my set somewhere.

We came from outer space

Keith:  I hate Very but love Relentless and this is the one track that is always in my head!

Enda: Relentless holds up very well for an album of ‘throwaway’ instrumentals. I like it when they let loose and experiment (which is perhaps why I’ve chosen so many non-album tracks).

The view from your balcony

Keith:  The depiction of London, the story of the council estate and living in the City; not as romantic as my original thoughts but this captures the spirit of London and what you find when you get here.

Enda: When I first started dating my Londoner and visiting London, this got some additional resonance. I tend to forget that even though neither Neil nor Chris are Londoners, Pet Shop Boys are a very London act.

The Sodom and Gomorrah Show

Keith: Another great story of the nation and the obsession with celebs and television – It SHOULD have been a single but Parlophone were too scared to release it – it would have done better than I’m With Stupid I am sure.  The fairground freaks me out and I love the line in the background at the end: “Sun Sex Sin Death and Destruction”.

Enda: A great lost single for sure. They do this quite often lately – Did you see me coming rather than Pandemonium?

Hedonism

Keith:  Ha ha ha!  Chaos!  Noise!  Abandon!  A great short piece which captured the spirit of Closer to Heaven (the play) in 2:48 – could have had so many remixes

Enda: Next!

Shameless

Keith:  PSB like to write about celebs and new money and this was the precursor to tracks like Sodom, Flamboyant etc but this is the best.

Enda: I loved this when I discovered it on Alternative, but the musical killed it for me. I’m not one for musicals and Closer To Heaven just didn’t work for me at all. It also shows their kinda bitchy streak (How can you expect to be taken seriously, Yesterday when I was mad etc) which I think is a waste of their talent.

Legacy

Keith:  Long and full of nonsense lyrics yet as ever Neil and Chris make it work – I love it.

Enda: I applaud the ambition and the daring of including this on such a poppy album, but I’m not sure it works.

In the night

Keith:  This defines a generation – a Britain (or world) obsessed with fashion labels and it became a parody of itself as it was used as the theme tune for “The Clothes Show” which I loved to watch as a kid (how did I now know I was gay then!?).

Enda: Thankfully, this did become the single and hit it deserved to be. ” (EDIT: As outoutout correctly points out in the comments, In the night was never a single. I was thinking of Paninaro!)

Shopping

Keith:  Any song where you get to sing is brilliant – and the mix with Minimal at the last tour was classic.  I think this and Opportunities is the tracks used more in VT on TV.

Enda: At the time, the satire was lost on me, but now this is one of the relatively few early PSB tracks I go back to. And yes, the mix with Minimal was inspired!

Hit and miss

Enda: PSB are a remarkable b-side act. This track is from the astonishingly good run of extra tracks from the Bilingual era. Quite why they would choose the pretty weak Electricity or Happiness is an option for the album instead of almost any of the extra tracks is beyond me. Hit and miss is the usual grown up, wistful, Happy-Sad PSB tracks. (EDIT: Happiness is an option is of course on Nightlife. Thanks again outoutout!)

Keith: Don’t hate it.  Don’t like it.

Fugitive

Enda: When PSB choose the right producers, they make their best work. This track with Richard X is contemporary, smart and muscular. Controversial subject matter too (Suicide bombers? Forbidden lovers? Both?). I do like it when they make good on the Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat stuff.”

Keith: Very uplifting and a great party track – hmm maybe I should consider this one…  It does give you the energy to proceed, to look at your life, to seize the moment.  Good choice.

The boy who couldn’t keep his clothes on

Enda: Another Bilingual era track. I was hanging around with a Latin American set at the time and the PSB foray into all things Latin was welcomed, it was also seen with something of a raised eyebrow. My Mexican Ex wasn’t entirely pleased when I Ô’performed’ the “Yo Louis…’ bit! ‘All yo’ posse gonna know tomorrow!”

Keith: When growing up I used to dance and I was regional/UK champ for a while (something until now I have kept under my hat).  I didn’t go clubbing until around the time I came out and this just captures the energy of clubbing and nights out.  It’s also very relevant to me as a straight friend of mine always used to take his top off (he didn’t have the best body), his girlfriend always used to tell him off.  I like the humour of this.”

It couldn’t happen here

Enda: Yep, this and Kings Cross are cut of the same cloth but this is even more dramatic. The film was, em, special and I think I even managed an whole 10 minutes of it.

Keith:  This moves me as much as King’s Cross and really hits of the drama and the emotion of the storyline.  It also reminds me of the film (which was terrible).  This is on my ‘melancholy” playlist!”

Always

Enda: I’m astonished at Keith’s appraisal as I find this poignant, delicate and yet another great example of how PSB make superb grown up pop. It’s amazing how they can go from cringe-inducing (The night I fell in love) to this sublime track. It’s also amazing how they chose the former for Release over this, but anyway…

Keith:  No sorry – hate this – it’s a real low point for me on Release.  Sorry Enda – sticking by my views on this one I am afraid!

My October symphony

Keith:  My autumnal song – a song that documents the perfect English year, captured with the spirit of government and our very English need to stop ourselves from having any fun.  Humorous, truthful and very insightful track.

Enda: This was something of a slow burner for me. While Behaviour overall is one of their strongest albums, I felt this lacked a little in the production. I’ve since realised that I am a fool who should not be given any credence about anything. Gorgeous.

A little black dress

Enda: Unreleased (as yet) and with a great rocky T Rex sample. I particularly love the humourous lyrics:

Pessimism
Is another word for depressed
For which post-feminism
Prescribes you a little black dress

A perfect track for when you metaphorically (or otherwise) feel like sporting a little black dress.

Keith: Do. Not. Like!

The resurrectionist

Enda: Whenever friends dismiss PSB as 80s has-beens, I attempt to describe this track. It’s from the Fundamental era; it’s a extra track; it was inspired by … Oh I can’t explain it, let Uber fan Dr Wayne Studer do it instead:”

It was inspired, according to Neil, by Sarah Wise’s 2004 book The Italian Boy: Murder and Graverobbing in 1830s London, itself based on an actual historical criminal case. The song takes its title from a darkly humorous nickname given to nineteenth-century graverobbers who supplied medical schools with cadavers: ‘resurrectionists’.

Over to you, Erasure…

Keith:  This is a song only Neil Tennant could write.  It does capture the spirit of Victorian Britain wonderfully and I do like the geographical nature of the song (especially as I work around most of the places). I simply don’t feel it ends well – I know that’s the point but it annoys me.”

No time for tears

Keith:  I honestly have forgotten about this song – it makes no impression on me whatsoever.

Enda: Another classy, elegiac PSB track and the only real pop song as such on the Battleship Potempkin soundtrack. I believe this was considered as a potential single back in the day. It would have flopped, but it’s still lovely.

Young offender

Enda: This takes Very into ‘almost classic’ territory. The scenario of older man with younger lover set to an intense thumping electronic loop. The Jam & Spoon remix builds greater tension, released with the beautifully sad instrumental synth strings that repeat to fade…

Keith:  A classic and probably one of the best songs on Very (my least favourite album believe it or not) – lots of energy which captures the character perfectly but I does tend to just loop a lot – jury is out on this one.”

Try it (I’m in live with a married man)

Keith:  Brilliant song – one I shouldn’t sing but can sing as I am a married man married to a man! Typical PSB humour here.”

Enda: Hmm, it works on so many levels… This is so PSB that I didn’t realise it was a cover of a 1983 Bobby O track. The original was sung by a woman. The boys didn’t change any pronouns. The brats…”

The calm before the storm

Enda: Yet another nugget from the Bilingual era. Very English, very pastoral. ”

Keith:  Nope – sorry another one that passed me by (and also passed by my iTunes collection obviously!)

Birthday boy

Keith:  Another low point on Release for me – is it about Jesus?  It just drags it’s knuckles… Sorry!

Enda: It’s about Jesus but also other ‘martyrs’ such as Stephen Lawrence and Mathew Shepherd, both high profile victims of hate crime. It does plod somewhat, but – irony alert – it gives Neil’s vocal range a good stretch. I do like how it fades away with a sample from one of my favourite carols, In the Bleak Midwinter.

The way it used to be

Keith:  Most of Yes is brilliant and so is this – fantastic lyrics, great melody, wonderful story but it’s over shadowed by other work on Yes.

Enda: It is indeed brilliant etc but the other way round on the overshadowing – this track overshadows everything else on Yes. Modern, sophisticated, smart; this reminds me of particularly good late-Abba meet particularly good early New Order. Demonstrating yet again that the right collaborators can bring the best out of them, at a stroke, this went into my Top 3 PSB tracks ever.

Positive role model

Keith : Brilliant – Barry White and the Pet Shop Boys – all summed up by a troubled teenager coming to terms with his sexuality – this SO should have been a single and a club hit.

Enda: We agree completely on this. Disco 3 is a fantastic collection looking back. This would have been Top 10, no?

(Hang on I said I liked it, doesn’t mean I like Disco 3!  – Keith)

Radiophonic

Enda: Spacey synthy goodness. Turn it up loud as the loudness will mask the fairly ordinary structure of the track. After all, it can’t always be clever clogs references; sometimes they just aim for your feet.

Keith:  No no no – I LOVE Nightlife but this always sounds like a filler – it also makes me feel like a track cut from Bilingual.”

Bright young things

Keith:  Hmmm Don’t like the beginning of the track and it just, to me, seems positively angry – Neil doing hard dance in this format doesn’t seem to work.

Enda: Actually, I’ve gone off this again. (Must I be consistent? )

(LOL – Keith!)

A new life

Enda: Ah, the b side to What have I done to deserve this? I remember buying this as a ‘cassingle’ and playing it over and over. Despite the production being rather of its time, there exists a deceptively strong track underneath.

Keith:  I always skip this track but when I do play it I listen to it completely – not sure what to make of it to be honest.

For your own good

Keith:  Brilliant concert opener – I remember seeing this tour a couple times and this matched with the 3D spinning heads was awesome – it really puts you in the mood to party and sets the tone for Nightlife.

Enda: Agreed. A absolute belter of an album opener produced by Rollo. Epic, anthemic stadium house. It suited them entirely.

Up and down

Keith:  I think this is one of the most energetic songs that have written in a while and think it should have featured on Yes.

Enda: Faint whiff of filler about this one for me! (How very dare you! – Keith)

And finally:

Decadence

Keith: We both forgot this one and we nearly regretted not including it – stunning song, brilliant lyrics and quite emotive – a true classic.

• Check out Keith’s blog.
• Ultimate Pet Shop Boys is out now in standard and deluxe formats. [iTunes] [Amazon] [Spotify]
• They play a gig for Mencap’s Big Noise on 8 December in the HMV Hammersmith Apollo, London.

It’s gig time and tomorrow night I see the Pets for the fourth time live in concert.

The first time was in 1999 in The Point in Dublin (now reborn as the O2 incidentally) avec the Mexican Ex (henceforth known as t’ExMex). It wasn’t a sellout and they barely filled half the venue. Oopsies! They were pretty good though.

The second time was in London at the Astoria (RIP) for their Release tour. Again with t’ExMex. Amazingly that was my first ever visit to London, where I now live! ‘Acoustic’ and great atmosphere.

Fast forward to 2007 and a Hallowe’en gig back in Dublin. Are we not jolly. Gig was great but a slight bit lifeless at times. Still, we looked utterly deranged in our outfits, no?

And now it’s time to see them in the monster venue of the o2. 16,000 sellout it appears. Who would have thought, eh?

I’ve heard no reports of the gigs so far, but the vids on YouTube at least look impressive. The Boys themselves are a bit grouchy about people making shaky video recordings on phones and Flips (hee hee), but we shall forgive them as they are getting on and no doubt a bit precious. (They have embraced Twitter though, which is pretty impressive.)

So, just to annoy them, here’s The Way It Used To Be and Jealousy from Moscow.

2002

PSB: “We hope you like our new direction! Guitars!”

Parlophone: “Love it! What do you want as first single?” {Please say Home and Dry}

PSB: “Home and Dry”

Parl: “Yay! This is why we love you guys; you still have your finger on the pulse. And for the video…?”

PSB: “About that...”

2006

PSB: “Hi guys! Album time again. This time, we think that…”

Parl: “You think nothing. This time we talk, you listen. No rats, no poncy boring youths being androgenous. This time the first single will be ‘I’m With Stupid’ and you shall make a proper video with the Little Britain guys because the punters love them. Not rats.”

PSB: “Um, ok. But we choose the second single.”

Parl: “Fine, but you will have a budget of about £65 for the video (no rats)”

2008

PSB: “Hi guys! We’ve gone all pop again. AND it’s our turn to choose first single and the video!”

Parl: “Shit. OK, but we get to choose the second single and remember not to spend too much money on the video. And no frigging rats.”

PSB: “Deal! Oh, and we’ll put Did You See Me Coming? on the b side and give it away for free with the Mail on Sunday”

Parl: “Um…. are you sure….?” [whispers to marketing people] We can still put that out as a single again anyway, right?”

Marketing: “Oh yeah, nobody buys PSB singles except the fans and they’ll buy ANYTHING”

PSB: “What are you talking about over there?”

Parl & Marketing: “Nothing! Love the new specs!”

Did You See Me Coming? is out on 1 June as the 2nd single from Yes. (Despite the fact that it was a b-side to Love Etc, an album track and included on the 2.5 million copies of the PSB CD given away for free with the Mail on Sunday. I’m sure there is logic in this somewhere.)

And the HD version of the video is on YouTube. There were quite a few leaks (all plugged) so EMI must have decided to release the clip a day early.

With PopArt back in the UK Albums Chart at 19, the Brits, and now this, it looks like PSB might enjoy another successful chart run.

Is this their post-post Imperial phase?

10 years ago on this forum, I suggested that the PSBs were beyond pop and were artists in the most sincere sense of the word. Tonight showcased that in a way that their live shows often do, but this time to a mass audience who never really understood. How gratifying to imagine the heathens finding the whole experience weirdly arcane. The audience at Earl’s Court betrayed all of the body language redolent of the fanbase during Performance in 1991: slack-jawed bemusement. What *are* we watching?  From Drico on Pet Shop Boys Community Message Board

 

See previous post. Especially No. 5. 

They rocked. And didn’t the new tracks, Love Etc and All Over The World, sound pretty good too?

(iTunes has 30-second snippets of the new album available now)