Yes, Pet Shop Boys. (the first forum review) UPDATED

[Undertaker]

Agree with Glenn here.

Whats also great about PSB fans' opinions of songs, albums, video's etc is that if someone thinks it's shite, they will say. Likewise if it's good. Some fans on forums obsess over everything their favourite artist does. Never daring to criticise in any way. You get an honest opinion on a PSB forum.

[Patrick Bateman]

Some fans on forums obsess over everything their favourite artist does. Never daring to criticise in anyway. You get an honest opinion on a PSB forum.

My friend Dave Vespillo wonders how Erasure's remixed version of Always is being received on the Erasure forum. Unfortunately since he was banned from there, his life has descended into chaos and he's currently sharing a cell with Boy George.

[Undertaker]

Some fans on forums obsess over everything their favourite artist does. Never daring to criticise in anyway. You get an honest opinion on a PSB forum.

My friend Dave Vespillo wonders how Erasure's remixed version of Always is being received on the Erasure forum. Unfortunately since he was banned from there, his life has descended into chaos and he's currently sharing a cell with Boy George.

Some people think it's no different and a waste of time, which is fair point but were immidiatly sent to solitary confinement and some think it's the greatest song from the past 50 years, claiming that it would be a huge single and all the clubs will be playing the remixed album in the biggest clubs in Liverpool.

Always is a nice song but i can't fathom out what the score is with the 2009 mix. It sounds o.k but to the casual listener, they will hear no different. Yet the MHC effort, which is a complete overhaul, is garbage but an overhaul is supposed to be the idea behind a remix. Maybe some songs should just be left alone.

[Ghost within this house]

lyrics to LOVE, ETC. (as fas I can tell)

you need more
you need more
you need more
you need more

well it's tough getting on in the world
when the sun doesn't shine
and a boy needs a girl

its about getting out of a rut
you need luck
but you're stuck and you don't know how...

OH!

(don't have to be)
a big bucks hollywood star
(don't have to drive)
a super car to go far
(don't have to live)
a life of power and wealth
(don't have to be)
beautiful but it helps
(don't have to buy)
a house in beverly hills
(don't have to have)
your daddy paying the bills
(don't have to live)
a life of power and wealth
(don't have to be)
beautiful but it helps

you need more...
than a big blank check to be a lover, or
a gulf stream jet to fly you door to door
somewhere chic on another shore
you need more
you need more
you need more
you need more
you need more
you need more
you need love.

you need love.

you need love.

too much of anything is never enough
too much of everything is never enough

well it's tough getting on in the world
when the sun doesn't shine
and a boy needs a girl

its about getting out of a rut
you need luck
but you're stuck and you don't know how...

OH!

(don't have to be)
a big bucks hollywood star
(don't have to drive)
a super car to get far
(don't have to wear)
a smile much colder than ice
(don't have to be)
beautiful, but its nice

you need more
than the...????? hangin' on the wall
a chauffeur driven limousine encore
to drive your wife and lover to a ??? ball
you need more
you need more
you need more
you need more
you need more
you need more
you need love.

i believe that we can achieve the love that we need
i believe...
call me naive, but love is for free

(don't have to be)
a big bucks hollywood star
(don't have to drive)
a super car to go far
(don't have to live)
a life of power and wealth
(don't have to be)
beautiful but it helps

beautiful but it helps
beautiful but it helps

Is this going to be the 'Love in the Credit Crunch' official theme tune? Featuring in a montage sequence during 'Place in the Sun' or somesuch...

[Boring]

Is there anyone else who has heard the album?

[Undertaker]

Eldritch has. A poster who isn't about much of late. His review is by far the most informative. You can find it on Zeus' forum. It's a pretty good read but he doesn't have an orgasm over it. So there will be a few on here that are getting the noose ready, even though they haven't heard it.

[cupidius]

Eldritch has. A poster who isn't about much of late. His review is by far the most informative. You can find it on Zeus' forum. It's a pretty good read but he doesn't have an orgasm over it. So there will be a few on here that are getting the noose ready, even though they haven't heard it.

could you please share this one with us. i'm not going to be a member of this zeus forum as i'm not a thinking man. thanks and cheers.

[Undertaker]

I doubt Eldritch will have any objections, and reviews on here end up on the other PSB forum, so here it is, courtesy of Eldritch.

So: two hours ago I got access to the album stream and have listened to it twice now.

1. Love Etc. – The comparisons to Tubthumbing are not totally off the mark, but thankfully exaggarated. Overall, this is a great song and a good choice for a single: it's repetitive and insistent, but with an undercurrent sadness, with a great recurring keyboard hook. It's something of a curve ball, almost a novelty single, but it has a freshness that's sadly missing in big chunks of the album.

2. All Over The World – Now, I don't really go for this "This is a song about boys and girls" guff and the title is tragically banal. They are too old for textbook nonsense like this, they should leave it for the likes of Take That, but the song manages to win me over. I don't mind the Tchaikovsky bit which fits rather seamlessly with the song. And the song has a get-out clause embedded in the c-part: "it's superficial and true / easy and predictable / exciting and new / to say ’I want you'" Good but not great.

3. Beautiful People – The sixties pastiche, with a rhythm section that could have been lifted wholesale from a Duffy album, and sweeping strings. Once again, the actual tune is better than I previously feared, but the lyrical sentiment can't help coming across like Common People lite. Some inspired use of harmonica though.

4. Did You See Me Coming? – Sadly does not live up to its title. It starts with some acoustic guitar, but soon a stomping disco beat steps in. And then it cuts straight in to the chorus, which is very disappointing. This sounds like a lesser S/A/W single and frankly more like a b-side.

5. Vulnerable – familiar mid-tempo PSB ground but with an Eighties moody Europop undercurrent. The rather high BPM count and a Neil's ballady vocals create the usual interesting contrast, but it' s nothing that we haven't heard before. Like the previous track, this starts with a rather disappointing chorus, and then moves by in a efficient manner. The back ground is littered with the usual early PSB noises (think King's Cross), but they can't help that underline the workman likeness of the actual song. Even more worryingly: five songs into the album and I have to still to quotable lyrical couplet, which might also be due to the rather dire listening circumstances. Mediocre by their standards.

6. More Than A Dream – another depressing title disguising a good song (see also 2 and 3). It starts like a bass-heavy hip hop stomper, but once more the usual hi-nrgy rhythms sweep in and whisk the song to an okay chorus with semi-falsetto vocals. This is something like Yes's answer to Closer To Heaven.

7. Building A Wall – A low point. The vocal interplay between Neil and Chris does not convince and the actual chorus is no great shakes either. Thematically this is a welcome detour onto a more political territory, but the point has already been made here and it has been with a far more convincing musical background.

8. King Of Rome – The one that could have been on Behavior. The familiar airily pattering electronic backing track, with Neil singing about history in the context of relationships, or relationships in context of history, which ever way you prefer it. A definite grower.

9. Pandemonium – The best of the production line uptempo pop stompers here (Love Etc. is too original to fit that description). A brassy synth-line, a very Girls Aloud rhythm track with a hint of neo-Motown in Neil's vocal melody. Also a good "woo-hoo-hoo" backing vocal hook in the chorus. Like most of the album, it also effortlessly glides from one part of the song to another, all due to Xenomania's rather seamless sense of dynamics.

10. The Way It Used To Be – Could well be the best song here. A sleek rhythm track that has Marr's guitars embedded into it and a downbeat melody that sounds somehow French, like cruising through Paris in the rain. But drab lyrics once again: "I need more than memories / a human touch to make them real". It seems that Neil has lapsed into the Nightlife mode of lyric writing once again on this album, wading in cliches that he should be juggling instead of just using like every other far less talented and ambitious song writer. But still, a very good song, and the one that's the closest to a PSB classic.

11. Legacy – They have stolen a leaf from the Killers's book by ending the album with a self-consciously epic song sadly lacking in structure and tune. Like Goodnight, Travel Well the song makes the listener sit up, thinking that this will be good, but then get frustrated when there isn't a proper hook to be found. It's like something from Battleship Potemkin mixed with It Couldn't Happen Here after a melody bypass. This one is probably a grower, but like Goodnight, Travel Well, not nearly as good as it wants to be. See also: Darkest Star from Depeche Mode's Playing The Angel.

So if I sound a bit disappointed, well, I am slightly. Fundamental had its faults, but on the initial first three listens (I listened to it for the third time while typing this) I miss the depth and the drama of that album. Frankly I don't think there is anything as good on this one as I Made My Excuses or The Resurrectionist. I would have also preffered a darker electro feel that was prominent in some of the Fundamental era: on this one they clearly borrow from Xenomania's trademark sound blended in with nods to their own early albums and Italo-disco. It's almost like they put too much weight on the criticisms of Fundamental being too ballad-heavy and this time gone out of their way to make a streamlined pop album, while losing some of their strengths in the process.
So instead a retread of Very, I think this is like a more consistent Nightlife: it's more unified in sound, the highs are lower and the lows are higher, but there is some kind of forced superficiality on it. The first three songs exceeded my expectations but after that the midsection of the album disappoints; then it picks up for the tracks 8-10 but only to end up with an overcooked dessert.

I will probably leave it at three listens, let the impressions sink in, and return to it when I have a proper copy in my hands

[Patrick Bateman]

I'm rather excited by the somewhat lukewarm reviews for Yes because it sounds like the album is out-and-out pop rather than clever/ironic/political/etc. Even the title suggests unabashed populism.

[kimphilby]

Am i the only one starting to wonder (from reviews only, not heard it) that if the winds blowing in the right direction, Love Etc is sounding a bit like it could be a Proper Hit?

[cutie_kyle]

I'm rather excited by the somewhat lukewarm reviews for Yes because it sounds like the album is out-and-out pop rather than clever/ironic/political/etc. Even the title suggests unabashed populism.

They have said before they react against previous albums. This could be a reaction against the intellectual, political pop of Fundamental to a bright and optimistic sound. Bring it on!

[Debussy]

This incessant lingering, as most of us hold our breath hoping for 'Yes' to cross the line in first position, is not quite tantalising. One one hand, I read the reviews and lower my expectations as each seems to veer well from the 5 stars we all want - but then, I also read comparisons to songs which others hate (Boy Strange) and I'm encourgaged because I want to be surprised.
Time will tell...its still almost two months away.

Oh and top work on keeping the leaks at bay PSB.

[Patrick Bateman]

Oh and top work on keeping the leaks at bay PSB.

Yes, I might actually hear Love etc. for the first time when the Brucester plays it. Is it 1988?

[glennjridge]

I'm all about a upbeat pop CD. if only.

the only thing I always take issue with is when someone has to go and bring up the dreaded, "PSB are too old to do this kind of music/title lyric stuff.
voice over music really is agelsss. its only image that screws everything up only because everyone is so age conscious.

I'd love for them to do really poppy young sounding music. if heard on the radio, I dont think hardly any young person who loves it and wanted to buy it it would be an issue at all, until .....some jaded writer for some magazine felt it neccesary to inform everyone the PSB are old.

[Deschanel]

One very great thing about PSB is that even if the album tracks might disappoint, there is always some fantastic remix that blows me away and makes me change my mind. That will be the one I have on repeat, enjoying for days and weeks. Then I come around to really loving the album track it came from.

This has happened again and again. Certainly with Fundamental, a time-release CD if ever there was.
I may have found most of it gloomy and a downer at first, but it certainly grew on me, and I see how hasty I was judging it. Maybe this is the mark of very good artists..it's not instantly accessible, then disposable.

And then there are the b-sides and marvellous freaksongs that appear from left field, like Fugitive, while the album is still a going concern. So..never dull. Is it March yet?