markus wrote: Mon 16 Feb 2026, 4:22 am
Would this song exist if it weren’t for Bilingual?
I know it feels more like a piss-take than a tribute — maybe even an anti-reaction to ’90s pop culture in the same way Bilingual was — but I’ve always thought it was a great track nonetheless. https://youtu.be/TpvF7Qq9svk?si=zUYVmPq353MgvF55�
U2's POP came out in the same era as Bilingual, in 1997, and was panned by many but it's one of my favourite U2 albums. Simply because they explore and therefore discover sounds, productions and melodies that wouldn't have been discovered if they had set out to make a simple rock album. The difference between Pop and the follow up, All That You Can't Leave Behind, is stark. The latter is a good album but not as great, and marvellously esoteric, as Pop. I feel the same way about Bilingual.
I just like “Discotheque.”
I’m inclined to think it was a response in a battle between the two bands — dressing up as the Village People and using the title from PSB’s opening song “Discoteca.” Blur and Oasis overshadowed their mockery and rivalry, the one between U2 and PSB. They were perhaps culturally relevant for the last time with Bilingual. PSB responded with “Disco Potential” later in 1997, and then they were done fighting
Xakrij wrote: Fri 13 Feb 2026, 10:06 pm
I attended a janky release party at a dive gay bar in Atlanta. I'll dig out and post a pic of the bootleg undershirt that was given away by the label reps.
This is my memory of the US release..
Bilingual undershirt.jpeg
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Xakrij wrote: Fri 13 Feb 2026, 10:06 pm
I attended a janky release party at a dive gay bar in Atlanta. I'll dig out and post a pic of the bootleg undershirt that was given away by the label reps.
Alright let me catch up
"The Survivors". Sweetness. Previously people (Dog or Drico?) commented how Nonetheless was drained by removing Chris' electric energy from the mixes. At the time I didn't agree exactly, but now I think I do. Tracks like Bullet and Schlager are so much more enjoyable in demo form to me. And I wonder what elements The Survivors demo might of contained that the album mix rounded out. I'm all for final productions adding strings and harmonies, but something about the album version is too well rounded to the point of making it innocuous.
"Before". Flows on well from The Survivors. I remember in a magazine, maybe Q, guest reviewers commenting how they thought this sounded a little creepy (but they were curious about Truck Driver, *shrug*). So I file this under Won't Make PSB Any New Friends, which was a cristisim of Performance. Although I certainly think Performance holds up terrifically, maybe not so much Before. At the same time, it's different, and I suspect they are always hoping to add new colours to their flag. Mission accomplished.
"To Step Aside". Probably their darkest album track to that point? Discoteca held the trophy for 30 minutes. Always thought the chanting put them in a Deep Forest rather than a cathedral. "Or will spring bring rain and summer burn?" is one of their loveliest pivots into a final chorus.
"Saturday Night Forever". To me, this is the first to file under "lounge closer", to be joined with Leopard and Legacy. These are easy sliders, to plateau out an album. The production is immediately dated to my ears, but the vibe is the key. The piano sprinkled through the track makes it, we can all put on our shirts and polish our shoes while humming along to this, ready for the night out.
But the big thing about Saturday, and tracks like Metamorphosis, is the conscious shift in outlook from Neil and Chris....
I sometimes think what we refer to the "Imperial Phase" and quality control, is partly them presenting a closed world. Hard to put into words, but every album up until Bilingual was largely talking inward, to an audience who were looking at the world through a window. Most of the concerns were introspective.
It always struck me as unnecessary for Neil to refer to Bilingual as their coming out album, since he literally marched into the sunset with a spandex army at the end of the last. BUT maybe Metamorphosis was as much about dropping a pretense as much as it was being openly gay? And Saturday night was until that point a rare album track about stepping out into a more sociable context. And this is exactly what they did ... Discovery was a very loose and sociable tour, they were no longer detached observers, they joined the fray.
Last edited by jasonjohn on Tue 17 Feb 2026, 6:27 am, edited 2 times in total.
jasonjohn wrote: Tue 17 Feb 2026, 12:51 amI sometimes think what we refer to the "Imperial Phase" and quality control, is partly them presenting a closed world. Hard to put into words, but every album up until Bilingual was largely talking inward, to an audience who were looking at the world through a window.
This is a good insight, but I think a key element of their imperial phase that can't be overlooked is that what the Pet Shop Boys were interested in writing and recording perfectly matched the pop zeitgeist of the time. I don't think this was entirely deliberate, and it explains many of their apparent fumbles for those who think it was a calculated career. They were very lucky for a very long time, although of course the songs helped.
markus wrote: Mon 16 Feb 2026, 9:49 pm
I’m inclined to think it was a response in a battle between the two bands — dressing up as the Village People and using the title from PSB’s opening song “Discoteca.” Blur and Oasis overshadowed their mockery and rivalry, the one between U2 and PSB. They were perhaps culturally relevant for the last time with Bilingual. PSB responded with “Disco Potential” later in 1997, and then they were done fighting
Well, not quite...
Bono and Neil's Row Ends with a Splash!
Spat ended in Elton's pool
Sunday People, April 21, 2002
Eamonn O'Hanlon
Bono has ended a simmering feud with the Pet Shop Boys over their cover version of one of U2's best-loved songs.
He was appalled after they turned the 1987 hit "Where The Streets Have No Name" into an instant camp classic by adding their own vocals and a pumping disco beat.
The Irish rockers issued a statement soon after the Pet Shop Boys version was released, declaring: "What have we done to deserve this?" But speaking about the spat for the first time this week, singer Neil Tennant insisted he had managed at long last to patch things up with Bono.
Peace was declared after a bizarre encounter at Elton John's mansion in the South of France, which ended with Bono and the English pop duo (sic) jumping into the swimming pool from a first floor balcony.
Asked about claims that Bono and Edge had been gunning for him, Tennant told music magazine Q: "I'd read things in the press.
"Anyway, we met Bono at Elton's and he was a bit funny at the beginning but he was really friendly. It all ended with a competition. He kept saying, 'It's rock versus pop.' At the end of the meal he jumped into Elton's swimming pool from the terrace and to his evident surprise I jumped in as well. So he said, 'OK. Rock one -- Pop one.' It ended as a draw -- quite rightly so."
markus wrote: Mon 16 Feb 2026, 9:49 pm
I’m inclined to think it was a response in a battle between the two bands — dressing up as the Village People and using the title from PSB’s opening song “Discoteca.” Blur and Oasis overshadowed their mockery and rivalry, the one between U2 and PSB. They were perhaps culturally relevant for the last time with Bilingual. PSB responded with “Disco Potential” later in 1997, and then they were done fighting
Well, not quite...
Bono and Neil's Row Ends with a Splash!
Spat ended in Elton's pool
Sunday People, April 21, 2002
Eamonn O'Hanlon
Bono has ended a simmering feud with the Pet Shop Boys over their cover version of one of U2's best-loved songs.
He was appalled after they turned the 1987 hit "Where The Streets Have No Name" into an instant camp classic by adding their own vocals and a pumping disco beat.
The Irish rockers issued a statement soon after the Pet Shop Boys version was released, declaring: "What have we done to deserve this?" But speaking about the spat for the first time this week, singer Neil Tennant insisted he had managed at long last to patch things up with Bono.
Peace was declared after a bizarre encounter at Elton John's mansion in the South of France, which ended with Bono and the English pop duo (sic) jumping into the swimming pool from a first floor balcony.
Asked about claims that Bono and Edge had been gunning for him, Tennant told music magazine Q: "I'd read things in the press.
"Anyway, we met Bono at Elton's and he was a bit funny at the beginning but he was really friendly. It all ended with a competition. He kept saying, 'It's rock versus pop.' At the end of the meal he jumped into Elton's swimming pool from the terrace and to his evident surprise I jumped in as well. So he said, 'OK. Rock one -- Pop one.' It ended as a draw -- quite rightly so."
Sounds like less rivalry, more admiration. So maybe this was their review of Bilingual:
You know you're chewing bubble gum
You know what that is
But you still want some
You just can't get enough of that lovey-dovey stuff.
Love, love, love...
Love To Step Aside (maybe their best song of the 91-00 era imo) and really dislike SNF. I was hoping SNF was going to be a proper dance banger when I read the small amount of press they did, but it is so lame disco-y thing which doesn't appeal to me at all. Listened back to it the other day and still don't like it. Though I replayed TSA about 4 times in a row. Such a good song.
The Yorkie ad set to music. I have to say it never did much for me. One of the weaker b-sides of a strong era, I found this utterly disposable. The malign influence of Britpop is felt here in the plodding muscularity of the rhythm. As a send-up of a certain type of "manliness" it works to some extent, but it's not witty enough to provoke mirth, and it all seems vaguely Tom of Finland by the end. "Rock" was being taken seriously at this point, and this seemed a little too comfortable with Oasis and the contemporaneous Britpopalypse which was as corrosive as it was misnamed.
Drico.
The pale kid that hides in the attic behind his PC...
