Melody Maker review of Bilingual from 1996

[Patrick Bateman]

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[petshopgrrl]

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Nice! "I Will Survive" with the Chord of Mourning, as sung by a 46-year-old* Englishman with a stiff upper lip? (*steeples fingers*) Go on, I'm interested, I've heard Go West and Try It...

Curious take by the MM - I love Bilingual but there aren't many who would call it their finest album over "achingly autumnal" Behaviour or "bright-orange midlife crisis" Very!

* Actually, this is wrong, isn't it? At the time of the review, Neil would only have been 42.

[Patrick Bateman]

Yeah, think I stopped reading the Maker around the time Kurt Cobain died, so I was surprised how ridiculously positive the review was. I think the reviewer sees it as a response to the gloom of AIDS and Behaviour, but surely dressing in bright orange jumpsuits and dunce caps scratched that itch.

[minimal]

I’ve never understood the low ranking of Bilingual especially coming from the fan base.

In terms of its sound it’s a bit of a mess like an unmade bed, but that’s charming.

It’s got great cover artwork, the choice of singles is okay, the videos are still great to watch.

Some nice low-key promotional “shots”.

More importantly, it’s got great songs and massive b-sides.

IMHO, it’s one of their finest. Got not much to complain.

m+

[jasonjohn]

That review is quite deep! You can tell they understand PSB because they drop the "the" when referring to them.

Wasn't sure if they even liked the album until the last paragraph lol

[PSBForTheMasses]

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Curious take by the MM - I love Bilingual but there aren't many who would call it their finest album over "achingly autumnal" Behaviour or "bright-orange midlife crisis" Very!

That could be me...I think Bilingual is very underrated. I never liked the very subdued, simple sound of Behaviour; after the holy trinity "Please, Actually, Introspective", it was like a bucket of icy water splashed at your face when you least expected it. Still it features a top-five PSB song for me, "This Must be the Place..." so I do not like saying bad things about it.

And Very was too happy, too joyous, too "very". Yes, it features one of the best "sad" songs in their catalogue: Young Offender but it was like a middle -aged man trying to impress 18-years-old teenages.

Anyway, Bilingual is the fourth best PSB album for me, tied with Electric, slightly above Nonetheless.

[petshopgrrl]

In terms of its sound it’s a bit of a mess like an unmade bed, but that’s charming.

Ha, I see what you did there!

Bilingual holds a special place in my heart because the Single song and video put PSB back on my radar and the remix album showed me that I needed to pay close attention. That video is still my favorite.