nickname wrote:PSB had more creative impulse when they were successful.
Nowadays, they think they don't need to put so much effort because they are not going to sell many records anyway. For me, it's a real fact.
No, that's your subjective opinion. I agree though; apart from recording two new albums and writing a score for the Turing project, they really are slacking.
You're subscribing to the Masterton Aesthetic Theory in which the only forms of creativity to be celebrated are those which appeal to the masses. Masterton is very much the anti-Adorno; he's probably just moved on from Dan Brown to 50 Shades of Grey and is already starting to grow moist at the thought of this year's Christmas number one by Artist X. Whatever it is.
I don't think I'm being subjective saying the last albums are not better than Very but on the other hand Actually and Introspective are better than Very. You can't compare the old tracks of the 80's like Suburbia, It's a sin, Always On My Mind, Left To My Own Devices, etc or some tracks of the 90's like Go West, Shameless, Se a vida é, New York City Boy with the PSB tracks of '00 and '10. The quality of the songs have been decreasing.
Talking about albums, I really believe the last one is the best album since Very but Very and the previous albums are another world and most of people even the PSB fans think the best from PSB came from the 80's and a bith from the 90's with Very.
nickname, you really do talk a lot of crap. Yes, the early stuff is certainly their most iconic and the early albums have less filler (as they were the songs they'd accrued over several years) but they've been consistently writing brilliant songs for three decades.
Patrick Bateman wrote: nickname, you really do talk a lot of crap.
I think the same, reading some of your posts.
Patrick Bateman wrote: Yes, the early stuff is certainly their most iconic and the early albums have less filler (as they were the songs they'd accrued over several years) but they've been consistently writing brilliant songs for three decades.
The thing is the old ones are more brilliant than the new ones. Apart from that, I'm agree with you so it means you talk a lot of crap too.
There are brilliant songs on Nightlife, Fundamental, Yes and Elysium. The difference is that no-one outside the fanbase will ever get to hear them.
Jealousy, for example is a brilliant song that people outside the fanbase would have heard over the last twenty years. The Way It Used To Be is, arguably, better than Jealousy but no-one outside the PSB base will ever get to hear it.
tottenhammattspurs wrote:There are brilliant songs on Nightlife, Fundamental, Yes and Elysium. The difference is that no-one outside the fanbase will ever get to hear them.
Jealousy, for example is a brilliant song that people outside the fanbase would have heard over the last twenty years. The Way It Used To Be is, arguably, better than Jealousy but no-one outside the PSB base will ever get to hear it.
But isn't that kind of commercial decline inevitable?
As Drico points out, Leaving wouldn't be out of place on Discography - it's that good - but few outside the fanbase, other than some Radio 2 listeners, will ever hear it. That's not a reflection on the quality of the song, it's just the commercial decline that comes with being a pop duo that's been around for 30 years.
tottenhammattspurs wrote:There are brilliant songs on Nightlife, Fundamental, Yes and Elysium. The difference is that no-one outside the fanbase will ever get to hear them.
Jealousy, for example is a brilliant song that people outside the fanbase would have heard over the last twenty years. The Way It Used To Be is, arguably, better than Jealousy but no-one outside the PSB base will ever get to hear it.
But isn't that kind of commercial decline inevitable?
As Drico points out, Leaving wouldn't be out of place on Discography - it's that good - but few outside the fanbase, other than some Radio 2 listeners, will ever hear it. That's not a reflection on the quality of the song, it's just the commercial decline that comes with being a pop duo that's been around for 30 years.
Exactly. The quality hasn't declined by any stretch, and if anything , has increased. It's just a pity they are only selling 10,000 units rther than 250,000, but 30 years in the business and its 9,999 more units than some other "80s" acts.
Appropriately enough the next single is not so much inspired by the 1980s, but performed by one of the acts whose work from that decade informs and influences the production of both the Lady Gaga and La Roux singles. Fresh from their "outstanding contribution" gongs at last months Brit awards, the Pet Shop Boys arrive at Number 14 with brand new single 'Love Etc.', their highest charting single for three years and a release which means they can boast a hitmaking career spanning an impressive 23 years.
Now assessing any new work by Tennant and Lowe in chart terms is actually something of a minefield, for had a certain other set of 80s veterans not set the standard a few years earlier, our benchmark for chart uselessness might well have been called "Pet Shop Boys Syndrome". Here's the problem: it doesn't matter how much work they put into their new album, how much press they do to promote it or how well received it is critically. This new single and new album 'Yes' (released this week) will sell to absolutely nobody outside their long-term hard core of fans. This blunt statement isn't just based on the perfunctory in and out performance of just about every single they have released in the last ten years, but the utterly dismal sales performance of their albums. Of all the records they have released since 1999, Greatest Hits collection 'Pop Art' is the only one that can boast a shelf life beyond a month.
Just check out the stats. 1999's 'Nightlife' spent two weeks on the album chart, 2002's 'Release' just one. Their 2006 offering 'Fundamental' may have been hailed as an impressive return to form when first released but it too just had a four week chart run before vanishing forever. It saddens me to see it, as the Pet Shop Boys were my favourite group growing up and I avidly collected every single one of their releases during the 80s and 90s. I don't point this out from the position of someone who dislikes their music but the sad truth is that the cultural and creative contribution of their music these days is almost precisely zero. 'Love Etc.' may well be one of the most fun, pop-focused and commercially appealing records they have made in a long time, but I can almost guarantee that you won't find it on the Top 75 within a fortnight and whilst 'Yes' may well have a Top 10 debut on the album chart next week, you won't find it in the shops by Easter. That my friends is Depeche Mode syndrome, and you have to wonder why they continue to bother.
Yeah James, why did they continue to bother eh? What was the point in them (and Depeche Mode) even getting out of bed?
They had made the same comment for Flamboyant as well (I do not remember if the author was James or someone else). When Flamboyant hit number 12, the columnist asked: "Why were they trying in the first place?"
I guess they love to repeat it every decade for no logical reason whatsoever.
By the way, Go West is number one, or at least, in top three, in, of all places, El Salvador for weeks, lol. Is there any member from El Salvador who can tell us the reason?
The chart barely changes from week to week these days. Hasn't he got something better to do? If only Mrs Masterton had got little James in to train spotting or stamp collecting or even lepidopterology, he could have led a more fulfilling life. She would weep if she knew he was still blogging about the pop charts years after anyone knew what was number one, the poor bastard. He's 52 years old.
