Why all the PSB hatred here?

[Zeus On The Loose]

Without criticism this board might as well be the Erasure forum and as Neil never uses the internet because he's always doing something fabulous like Naked Twister with Janet and Elt, we can pretty much say anything and not hurt his feelings.

Personally I love their recent output and think the Potemkin score is a triumph. It was a fantastic evening in Trafalgar Square and I would urge all naysayers to see it before they slag it off. It's an event more than anything else which is why I was dismayed to hear Neil's comments about the songs appearing on the next album; they work in the context of Potemkin but as stand-alone pop songs, they'd be pretty bland and certainly not the electronic bons mots we've been expecting.

The Pokemon O.S.T may as well work within the context of the film but I like my music either exhilirating pop or interesting cutting edge or sexy electronic, which as a standalone piece of work, Pokemon is neither.

So, great for PSB for being given the chance to work on something that will look great on their C.V and which they enjoyed working on but thumbs down for (contrary to what Neil claimed in the BBC4 interview), compromising their pop sensibility yet again and coming up with a non-event of a mostly dance record with many unnecessary dramatic orchestra swirls, stabs and fills to make it sound all arty and important. They have came up with a pastiche of their idea of film music that's neither realy PSB or real film music. The PSB of Pokemon is not the PSB I like, sorry...

Neil claiming After All and No Time For Tears are among their best songs is an offense to the impressive bulk of pop masterpieces in their back catalogue and more evidence that they have ventured so much into showbiz self-indulgence that they have lost the plot completely.

May still enjoy it with the film but I doubt I'll ever play the CD again.

[Joemoz]

I don't think there's anything wrong with being critical - it only shows what great expectations we have from them. Whenever they actually do something that is really great, we are the first to applaud it (eg. Miracles and Flamboyant). The fact that we are able to discuss PSB music openly although we're all big fans is one of the great things about this place.

[Joemoz]

Without criticism this board might as well be the Erasure forum and as Neil never uses the internet because he's always doing something fabulous like Naked Twister with Janet and Elt, we can pretty much say anything and not hurt his feelings.

Personally I love their recent output and think the Potemkin score is a triumph. It was a fantastic evening in Trafalgar Square and I would urge all naysayers to see it before they slag it off. It's an event more than anything else .

I agree - that evening at Trafalgar it all made sense. As stand alone music it doesn't all work, which is why the CD of the soundtrack is bound to be an artistic disappointment.

[Suburban_Boy]

I'm all for criticism, in fact I think it's hugely important, but it appears that it's gone way beyond that lately.

Not sure why...

Poom and Things.

I agree, criticism is one thing, but it does seem to go much further on occasion. As long as people accept that just because they don't like something, it doesn't mean that everyone else has to follow suit.

Potemkin review from Attitude Magazine

The Pets have had some fascinating collaborators, but never an orchestra such as the Dresden Sinfonika - but then a soundtrack to a silent classic (Eisenstien's 1925 epic Battleship Potemkin) is not their idea of a usual night in the studio. It's a soundtrack alright - take Our Daily Bread, where Neil Tennant sings the first stanza of The Lord's Prayer over supper-club piano before breaking glass leads into an epic Drama In The Harbour, which sinks between jazzy trumpets, 'copter-blade ambience and Tennant's choral refrain. But as he notes in the press release, this is not background, but foreground music, brimming with detail, conjuring up all manner of moods to mirror the screen drama. Men And Maggots starts off like Kraftwerk before turning moody like Giorgio Moroder's Midnight Express soundtrack and then funky in a Shaft style. And The Squadron could easily be played at G.A.Y. With other hints of the Pet's usual preoccupations (you can just imagine Dusty singing over the 60s-tinged To The Shore), this is not an album to purchase out of PSB loyalty, but a brilliant expansion on everything that makes them great to begin with.


Lee

[Zeus On The Loose]

Erm, Midnight Express is by Vangelis, not Giorgio Moroder.

[jamie1978]

Lets be honest, most PSB output post-Very deserves healthy criticism.

I personally liken being a PSB fan to being a drug addict. You get constant public ridicule, indeed social exclusion in extreme cases, and whenever your expectations of a new 'fix' begin to build (ie a new album release) you often hit the biggest comedown known to man a few minutes later. Yet, despite this, you just can't kick the habit.

There have been a few highlights in the past 12 years (I personally rate Nightlife as their best album), but lets be honest, its mostly been a string of let-downs.

I like to think that, as fans, we can maintain an objective eye where possible. If something they do is utter toss, I'm not afraid to say so. On the contrary, where I love their work, I will be the first to offer praise.

There is nothing more boring on this forum than gushing, sychophantic fans who cannot see a single fault in what they do, and bite at the heels of anyone who dares to criticise them. We're grown-ups with opinions, lets act like it.

[psb-freak]

Sorry for simply not liking it ...

I for one cannot blame you for not liking Release. I prefer Disco 2.

... oh, I fogot about that one!

Release is great album. But Bilingual is the best. Disco 2 is my least favourite one.

[Zeus On The Loose]

There's something very ironic in reading Jamie's post and Le Freak's follow up straight after.

[Suburban_Boy]

Erm, Midnight Express is by Vangelis, not Giorgio Moroder.

According to the internet movie database and Amazon, the official soundtrack to Midnight Express was composed and produced by Georgio Moroder.

Lee

[Effen Vida]

It was indeed Mr. Moroder.

[Suburban_Boy]

Lets be honest, most PSB output post-Very deserves healthy criticism..

What's with all this 'let's be honest crap'. You have your opinion which you're perfectly entitled to, but please don't try to force your views onto other people.

We're grown-ups with opinions, lets act like it.

Exactly. When I read things like "..an offense to the impressive bulk of pop masterpieces in their back catalogue", I just have to laugh. I mean, come on!

Back to lurker mode for me I think.

Lee

[Zeus On The Loose]

Erm, Midnight Express is by Vangelis, not Giorgio Moroder.

According to the internet movie database and Amazon, the official soundtrack to Midnight Express was composed and produced by Georgio Moroder.

Lee

Was it? Mixed it up with Bladerunner. Good for Attitude, then.

[dVTB]

There's a difference in being critical and negativism. A discsussion forum is the place to discuss things, so it's OK to have criticism. However, some forum users spend most of their time over here to tell us again and again that PSB have lost it for 12 years now.

Sorry. I'm someone who loves PSB's output in the 90's; the whole decade. I find some of the songs on their first albums *weaker* than the songs on Release. Birthday Boy, I Didn't Get Where I Am Today, Flamboyant and After All are just a few examples of great recent PSB songs.

[Zeus On The Loose]

There's a difference in being critical and negativism. A discsussion forum is the place to discuss things, so it's OK to have criticism. However, some forum users spend most of their time over here to tell us again and again that PSB have lost it for 12 years now.

Sorry. I'm someone who loves PSB's output in the 90's; the whole decade. I find some of the songs on their first albums *weaker* than the songs on Release. Birthday Boy, I Didn't Get Where I Am Today, Flamboyant and After All are just a few examples of great recent PSB songs.

Yes, but then again you thought that it was a scandal that the Dutch entry in the Eurovision song contest didn't make the finals because that girl with the power ballad 'could SING'.

[jamie1978]

Lets be honest, most PSB output post-Very deserves healthy criticism..

What's with all this 'let's be honest crap'. You have your opinion which you're perfectly entitled to, but please don't try to force your views onto other people.

Lee

Right, okay, so you think that every post-Very PSB release does not deserve healthy criticism? That it should just be swallowed whole, without question or exception, and then universally praised from every rooftop.

Well, that is exactly that kind of fantasy land sychophantic bullshit I was talking about. Its boring and it has no place in the mind of anyone with more than a rudimentary grasp of reality or objectivity.