New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

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retrofuturist
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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#46 Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

That's the way lads, get it out of your system so you don't foul up your albums with this sort of thing.

Retro. :)
"Politics are too emotional now. Contemporary culture generally is too emotional, really... I'd rather people looked to the truth." (Neil Tennant)

Sammy Jenkis
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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#47 Post by Sammy Jenkis »

richwill wrote: Fri 18 Sep 2026, 7:52 pm
Sammy Jenkis wrote: Fri 18 Sep 2026, 5:31 pm Seems to me quite in keeping with the vibe of Agenda which I personally enjoy. On the topic of should N&C address the Gaza devastation and probable genocide, were there calls for them to address the 1970s Kibbutz movement when they wrote My October Symphony or The Oslo Accords when they recorded Go West? I think any pop-band with the gumption to tackle one autocrat should be celebrated, not castigated for failing to be some form of synthpop UN Security Council. There's been plenty of chatter this week about musicians attempting to be apolitical.
You absolutely have not grasped the scale of the Gazan genocide, to the extent that your post makes you appear to be some sort of psychopath.

Palestinian lives *matter*.
It is quite possible that I have not grasped the scale of the Gazan genocide because the slaughter of approximately 50,000 people and the forced displacement of around 1,500,000 Gazans is a colossal sum of human misery and suffering. I think it would be insulting to that vast suffering if I who am so far removed from it would claim to fully understand it. Palestinian lives do matter.

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Old Soak
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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#48 Post by Old Soak »

It is definitely B side or EP giveaway territory, and unusually direct and blunt. But then their political songs can be direct rather than layered like an onion. Stonking bassline; but the dichotomy between the serious subject matter and it's absurdist, comedic presentation is iron fist wrapped in velvet glove territory. So much more hard hitting that doing it seriously and pompously, I'm talking about you The Jam. The release date is clearly no coincidence. Didn't they say their next album would be a return to the political Fundamental style somewhere or have I conflated that with A Man From The Future, which has more subtle political undertones regarding Turing's treatment?
And at the end/ Your funny Uncle staring / At all your friends / With military bearing

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Patrick Bateman
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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#49 Post by Patrick Bateman »

canveyboy wrote: Fri 18 Sep 2026, 7:34 pm
Yeah..why does it matter that it’s not subtle? What’s wrong with being direct? Jeez..some ppl need to cheer up.. it’s just a funny little dig, mocking the absolute bell end that is Putin..in what is literally just a free online demo!! It’s not meant to be deep 🙄
It's lazy songwriting. Compare it with something like Don Juan, also about a dictator, where the lyric intrigues you rather than bores you. It’s a shame they have littered their later career with facile political sloganeering.

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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#50 Post by dbaseboy »

DopeFiend wrote: Fri 18 Sep 2026, 4:16 pm The word "shit" in a PSB song, that makes a first.
“Call me old fashioned” 😉

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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#51 Post by dbaseboy »

Don’t know what’s funnier; the song or the comments 😂

But credit to @tottenhammattspurs for:

“Came for the snare rolls, did not disappoint” 😂 👍

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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#52 Post by daveid »

When I saw the title I thought it was a new track from a revised production of My beautiful laundrette.

About as subtle as a flying kick to an elephant scrotum whilst it has its foot on the nuclear button.

File under: yet another song about an enemy the mainstream media has been banging on about for years and which is a safe non-career tarnishing subject.

Live-streamed genocide in Gaza with US and UK support - going there are we Boys?

Frankly embarrassing. I'd rather a song about passport control in Berlin.

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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#53 Post by NotInvisible »

Patrick Bateman wrote: Fri 18 Sep 2026, 11:02 pmIt's lazy songwriting. Compare it with something like Don Juan, also about a dictator, where the lyric intrigues you rather than bores you. It’s a shame they have littered their later career with facile political sloganeering.
It’s not lazy songwriting, it’s just songwriting you don’t like. Don Juan is of course a masterpiece, and they still do that kind of thing. But this is more in line with someone like Vonnegut, who would be right at home writing about the guy who did Hitler’s washing.

Some of you are whiny little bitches and it really shows. :)

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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#54 Post by Spittingcat »

Love the directness. And the cheek of it all.

Unsurprisingly that it’s upset the Pet Shop Bots.
Last edited by Spittingcat on Sat 19 Sep 2026, 12:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#55 Post by daveid »

NotInvisible wrote: Sat 19 Sep 2026, 12:36 am
Patrick Bateman wrote: Fri 18 Sep 2026, 11:02 pmIt's lazy songwriting. Compare it with something like Don Juan, also about a dictator, where the lyric intrigues you rather than bores you. It’s a shame they have littered their later career with facile political sloganeering.
It’s not lazy songwriting, it’s just songwriting you don’t like. Don Juan is of course a masterpiece, and they still do that kind of thing. But this is more in line with someone like Vonnegut, who would be right at home writing about the guy who did Hitler’s washing.

Some of you are whiny little bitches and it really shows. :)
Only some of us? ;)

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Patrick Bateman
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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#56 Post by Patrick Bateman »

Maybe Naked was about the fanbase.

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Gabby
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Re: New PSB song: A Top Secret Washing Machine

#57 Post by Gabby »

I quite like it. As Wayne astutely states, there's some depth here to the satire. Sure, the Boys can knock this out in their sleep but it's far from the worst thing they've ever done as some comments suggest.

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