Smash - The Singles 1985 - 2020

[telys]

As I said before, it's crap that they don't release all their singles. SMASH with a 5-disc edition for the fans. And this constant retconning of their early history, as if eveything started with West End girls success in 1985. It's fake.

And btw their imperial phase lasted until 1993 when they failed choosing right songs for singles off Very after Go West, and failed to use Relentless as a guick follow up. How could they have gotten away with Being Boring, pointy hats and Streets and Go West if they hadn't been in an imperial phase. Early '86 to late '93, "pretty standard" to quote Dr Evil.

[NotInvisible]

And this constant retconning of their early history, as if eveything started with West End girls success in 1985. It's fake.

I don't think it's a retcon or fake. They've always been up front about their sessions with Bobby O but those were niche releases with rights entanglements. Starting with their debut album seems fair to me. You wouldn't define Lily Allen's career by her MySpace music or The Killers from their first circulating demo cassette etc.

[Old Soak]

Axis is the perfect example. Apparently they don't count that as a single, even if it had proper artwork, a digital release, a 12", a remix and even a video (one of their best of the last decade IMO) and it launched an album campaign and a tour announcement. Also it's the only PSB song post Yes that I have enjoyed in a club. For me Axis is as much as a single as Say it to me or I don't wanna. Or even more, as it was released for actual promotion, not just a cash-in decision.

I don't count Axis as a proper single either. I can't really take issue with their selections (aside from the omission of How can you expect to be taken seriously?). A fourth disc of "quasi singles" would be welcome, but even on my own makeshift playlists I've never thought of Axis as a single. I don't think having a video or a 12" is really the defining factor.

Personally I think a 4CD version including ALL singles would have been better. Integral, Burning The Heather, Axis, Ab Fab, Hello Spaceboy, the CBS versions et al - the lot to demonstrate the sheer quality, heft and variety of their catalogue would have taken up 4 CD's. How many artists could fill that many? It would be an imperial statement for sure.

[Wish]

Looks like there will be Japanese edition also.
https://www.juno.co.uk/products/pet-sho ... 944526-01/
https://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artist_Pet-Sho ... /#audition

It says Import on Japanese site. So probably it will be European edition + OBI strip, like they did with JP edition of Discovery DVD+2CD.

[TallThinMan]

And btw their imperial phase lasted until 1993 when they failed choosing right songs for singles off Very after Go West, and failed to use Relentless as a guick follow up. How could they have gotten away with Being Boring, pointy hats and Streets and Go West if they hadn't been in an imperial phase. Early '86 to late '93, "pretty standard" to quote Dr Evil.

No, their imperial phase lasted until 1988 when Domino Dancing failed to reach number one in the U.K. Neil has talked about this numerous times over the years.

[NotInvisible]

No, their imperial phase lasted until 1988 when Domino Dancing failed to reach number one in the U.K. Neil has talked about this numerous times over the years.

Yeah, there's a difference between a group being in its imperial phase and being incredibly popular. The imperial phase is when you can do no wrong, you're basically shitting gold. You can remain popular long after.

[tottenhammattspurs]

And btw their imperial phase lasted until 1993 when they failed choosing right songs for singles off Very after Go West, and failed to use Relentless as a guick follow up. How could they have gotten away with Being Boring, pointy hats and Streets and Go West if they hadn't been in an imperial phase. Early '86 to late '93, "pretty standard" to quote Dr Evil.

No, their imperial phase lasted until 1988 when Domino Dancing failed to reach number one in the U.K. Neil has talked about this numerous times over the years.

A groups second single from an album scraping to number 20, and the need to quickly record a Hi-NRG cover really hammers home the fact that the imperial phase had well and truly ended two years earlier.

[telys]

And btw their imperial phase lasted until 1993 when they failed choosing right songs for singles off Very after Go West, and failed to use Relentless as a guick follow up. How could they have gotten away with Being Boring, pointy hats and Streets and Go West if they hadn't been in an imperial phase. Early '86 to late '93, "pretty standard" to quote Dr Evil.

No, their imperial phase lasted until 1988 when Domino Dancing failed to reach number one in the U.K. Neil has talked about this numerous times over the years.

A groups second single from an album scraping to number 20, and the need to quickly record a Hi-NRG cover really hammers home the fact that the imperial phase had well and truly ended two years earlier.

But Neil is dead wrong, he lacks the ability to analyse his band's own career and shouldn't have monopoly on writing its history. Lot of his interviews in the 90's especially is just a collection of word sallads about pop and rock without any significance whatsover. If the imperial phase ended with Domino dancing it means that there is no imperial phase because it would basically only mean Actually and PSB didn't know that Actually would be a huge success. ICHH the film was a fiasco btw but to be able to release that, a 6-track remix album, BB, a U2 cover and Go West, wear pointy hats etc.. and still be nr 1... that is imperial. They had it up until Liberation, perhaps the worst song (if one could say that) on Very.

[Disco.]

Well, Introspective is their best selling album, but Very is up there, so in that context you have a point.

[TallThinMan]

But Neil is dead wrong, he lacks the ability to analyse his band's own career and shouldn't have monopoly on writing its history. Lot of his interviews in the 90's especially is just a collection of word sallads about pop and rock without any significance whatsover. If the imperial phase ended with Domino dancing it means that there is no imperial phase because it would basically only mean Actually and PSB didn't know that Actually would be a huge success. ICHH the film was a fiasco btw but to be able to release that, a 6-track remix album, BB, a U2 cover and Go West, wear pointy hats etc.. and still be nr 1... that is imperial. They had it up until Liberation, perhaps the worst song (if one could say that) on Very.

You know that Neil himself coined the term “Imperial phase” whilst he was a music journalist, right? Therefore I think he gets a pass on applying it to his own group’s career. They weren’t still number one whilst doing the U2 cover, wearing pointy hats and releasing Go West. That’s the point. By the time of Go West, five and a half years had elapsed since their final UK number one single.

[Nickname]

For me, the Imperial Phrase ends up with Very. At that time, Pet Shop Boys were still being very famous. Very was Number 1 in UK and Go West was Number 1 in a lot of countries. By the way, Very was released like a big blockbuster with that lego's package and 5/6 music video. Emi put a lot of effort on it.

I remember trying to find the album Very on a music show of one of the biggest supermarkets on my town. I went to a place where I could find all the albums of Pet Shop Boys except Very. I was frustrated because I thought they didn't have it but when I went to the corner I found there around 30 copies of Very and a lot of advertising posters. I could watch all the videos from Very on TV on a high rotation (Go West specially), except Absolutely Fabolous.

And they made a mistake with Shameless, there was a hit there. Not as much as Go West but a good one. I think it could have been a Top 3 like first single of Very in UK easily. Can you forgive her? is not that good.

[telys]

But Neil is dead wrong, he lacks the ability to analyse his band's own career and shouldn't have monopoly on writing its history. Lot of his interviews in the 90's especially is just a collection of word sallads about pop and rock without any significance whatsover. If the imperial phase ended with Domino dancing it means that there is no imperial phase because it would basically only mean Actually and PSB didn't know that Actually would be a huge success. ICHH the film was a fiasco btw but to be able to release that, a 6-track remix album, BB, a U2 cover and Go West, wear pointy hats etc.. and still be nr 1... that is imperial. They had it up until Liberation, perhaps the worst song (if one could say that) on Very.

You know that Neil himself coined the term “Imperial phase” whilst he was a music journalist, right? Therefore I think he gets a pass on applying it to his own group’s career.

Bullshit. Neil doesn't have a clue. You know, we don't normally leave it up to the famous person him/herself to write his/her history. Neither does coining a term give you perpetual right to its definition when applied to yourself. He might have felt it was all over with Domino dancing but that was his feeling and its connection to reality was not very stroing.
Doing the 1989 tour, sponsoring a football team and doing the Performance tour are all examples of imperialism as well as a Liza M album, Dusty album, writing a song for Patsy all in a brief period of 2-3 years. Joining a supergroup, writing a song for a famous footballer are other examples. Doing a GH is yet another.

[TallThinMan]

Bullshit. Neil doesn't have a clue. You know, we don't normally leave it up to the famous person him/herself to write his/her history. Neither does coining a term give you perpetual right to its definition when applied to yourself. He might have felt it was all over with Domino dancing but that was his feeling and its connection to reality was not very stroing.
Doing the 1989 tour, sponsoring a football team and doing the Performance tour are all examples of imperialism as well as a Liza M album, Dusty album, writing a song for Patsy all in a brief period of 2-3 years. Joining a supergroup, writing a song for a famous footballer are other examples. Doing a GH is yet another.

I’m sure that briefly sponsoring the football team that Peter Andreas’s kid brother played in and Chris’s side project collaboration with Ian Wright that even Ian Wright seems to have forgotten about are right up there with the achievement of three of the singles from the Actually era topping the UK singles chart, including the converted Christmas number one spot.

[NotInvisible]

But Neil is dead wrong

Nope. You want to call a five-year span of work that includes zero number one singles as an imperial phase - a span in which PSB have singles missing the Top 10 and even the Top 20. To say nothing of their film bombing etc. They were still incredibly successful, but incredible success doesn't equal an imperial phase.

Doing the 1989 tour, sponsoring a football team and doing the Performance tour are all examples of imperialism as well as a Liza M album, Dusty album, writing a song for Patsy all in a brief period of 2-3 years. Joining a supergroup, writing a song for a famous footballer are other examples. Doing a GH is yet another.

Literally none of these are examples of an artist in their imperial phase.

[Patrick Bateman]

Nope. You want to call a five-year span of work that includes zero number one singles as an imperial phase - a span in which PSB have singles missing the Top 10 and even the Top 20. To say nothing of their film bombing etc. They were still incredibly successful, but incredible success doesn't equal an imperial phase.

To be pedantic, the film bombed during their imperial phase.