Pet Shop Boys Missteps

[markus]

Closer to heaven the musical:
Way too amateurish, and with a weird funky smell, it was never going anywhere near Broadway. Andrew Lloyd Webber should've had the last word. The bar needed to be where it was set with Mamma Mia, or then just scrape the whole idea.

I remember thinking at the time that it felt rather like watching a 6th form end of year play.

But I met Neil outside having pre show drinks, so that rather made the evening for me.

It was probably meant to be experienced properly drunk then.

[Patrick Bateman]

Ketamine probably helped.

[tottenhammattspurs]

Having sat on the end of the third row in the stalls, I was “treated” to a Gyrating Louie Spence for four whole Minutes.

[ludwig_iv]

[Side 2 of Please is actually quite weak IMO, with only "I want a lover" a track I truly value as top tier.

Sacrilege! I've never tried to rank sides of PSB albums but I'm almost certain Please side 2 would be in my top three or four.

I love the idea of this as a potential topic of discussion. Top ranked sides of albums.

[Ramzy]

I love the idea of this as a potential topic of discussion. Top ranked sides of albums.

Haha ok, let's do it. A couple of complications: Electric's scores are likely to be depressed by the fact it was on four sides instead of two (despite being shorter than at least four other two-sided PSB albums). And PSB themselves don't seem to be able to agree about whether God Willing is on side one or side two of Fundamental (it was on side one of the original LP, side two of the 2017 reissue).

[VRIDD]

VERY. I understand this may be a minority opinion, but I'm convinced that 1993 was their worst misstep

Let me explain. For the first time, they reached number one on the album charts, riding the success of Can You Forgive Her? and Go West, but then Very is followed by four singles that didn't even come close to matching the glories of the '80s or Go West. I am thinking of

• I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing

• Liberation

• Absolutely Fabulous

• Yesterday, When I Was Mad

And, indeed, none of them has been included in their neverending Greatest Hits Tour.

Nothing is worse than selling a lot of people an album that then disappoints them.

[Straight_Talker]

Hmmmmm

[Straight_Talker]

I love the idea of this as a potential topic of discussion. Top ranked sides of albums.

Haha ok, let's do it. A couple of complications: Electric's scores are likely to be depressed by the fact it was on four sides instead of two (despite being shorter than at least four other two-sided PSB albums). And PSB themselves don't seem to be able to agree about whether God Willing is on side one or side two of Fundamental (it was on side one of the original LP, side two of the 2017 reissue).

PLEASE: Side A
ACTUALLY: Side B
INTROSPECTIVE: Side A
BEHAVIOUR: Side B
VERY: Side A
BILINGUAL: Se a vida A
NIGHTLIFE: Side A
RELEASE: Side A
FUNDAMENTAL: Side B
YES: Side A
ELYSIUM: Side A
ELECTRIC: Side A
SUPER: Side B
HOTSPOT: Side A
NONETHELESS: Side A


Side A’s - 11
Side B’s - 4

[CroMagnon]

Sacrilege! I've never tried to rank sides of PSB albums but I'm almost certain Please side 2 would be in my top three or four.

That would be a good topic actually. I can't recall seeing a breakdown of people's best/worst sides of the albums. It would require some thought because even if you know which album is your favourite, it's difficult to choose between the sides...and maybe it's a different side. Behaviour's my favourite album but I could certainly make a strong case for side 2 of Actually or side 1 of Introspective or...

Side 2 of Please is indeed up there, despite having none of the singles on it, which is testament to their songwriting.

If Side 1 of Please included the single mix of Suburbia, it might beat Side 2 of Actually. The other contenders are Side 1 of Introspective, and Side 1 OR Side 2 of Behaviour (also my favourite album). I don't think I could seriously suggest any others.

[Dog]

For me, I think side two of Super is particularly strong. Undertow, Sad robot world, Say it to me and Burn is an amazing run of tracks.

[young.offender]

A big misstep for me is, that they didn‘t play GW with the original ending in their shows anymore.
Just listening to the Version from the Release concert.
It‘s so great and have a lot of energy

[NotInvisible]

VERY. I understand this may be a minority opinion, but I'm convinced that 1993 was their worst misstep

Let me explain. For the first time, they reached number one on the album charts, riding the success of Can You Forgive Her? and Go West, but then Very is followed by four singles that didn't even come close to matching the glories of the '80s or Go West. I am thinking of

• I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing

• Liberation

• Absolutely Fabulous

• Yesterday, When I Was Mad

And, indeed, none of them has been included in their neverending Greatest Hits Tour.

Nothing is worse than selling a lot of people an album that then disappoints them.

The fact that they were able to release an astonishing six singles off the back of the album, including three Top 10s and the rest Top 20, rather suggests that people were anything but disappointed with that era.

[Ramzy]

Yeah, the closest comparison is the Behaviour singles, which performed about the same overall. If Streets and Absolutely Fabulous are taken out of the equation as not actually being album tracks (and both of those doing very well as a result), you've got a run of post-LP singles peaking between 11 and 20 that presumably aren't selling to some who already own the album. That they could maintain that momentum long enough to get even Yesterday When I Was Mad relatively near the top 10 (and that Very saw a bump in sales each time, reentering the top 20 at least once) doesn't really support the idea that different singles would have done better, in my view.

[PSBForTheMasses]

No matter from which side I look at Elysium, I cannot find anything redeeming about it bar the superb Invisible, lol.

[Patrick Bateman]

No matter from which side I look at Elysium, I cannot find anything redeeming about it bar the superb Invisible, lol.

Leaving? Arguably as good as anything they released in the imperial era.