Pet Shop Boys Community

NotInvisible wrote: Tue 13 Jan 2026, 6:36 am Alternative beats most groups' Greatest Hits collections into a cocked hat.

Patrick Bateman wrote: Tue 13 Jan 2026, 5:37 pm It makes sense that Alternative is so good. It showcases the best period of their career, utilises many tracks that had been written before they were successful and precedes having to fill multiple formats. Like the rest of their output, their b-sides became more patchy as time went on.

markus wrote: Thu 15 Jan 2026, 4:52 amBy embracing those darker undercurrents, there was no real way back to writing a song like “Suburbia.”

markus wrote: Tue 13 Jan 2026, 2:26 am As a teenager, I used to lie in bed at night listening to Alternative on my (very expensive) Sennheiser headphones. It’s amazing how the album just keeps getting better the further it goes. When “Decadence” came on, I got shivers — talk about an elevated state.
What’s also striking is how CD2 works almost like a perfectly sequenced playlist, even though the tracks are simply in chronological order. What other band hides some of their very best songs like Easter eggs on a b-sides collection like this?

negative_0ne wrote: Sat 17 Jan 2026, 4:46 pm

markus wrote: Tue 13 Jan 2026, 2:26 am As a teenager, I used to lie in bed at night listening to Alternative on my (very expensive) Sennheiser headphones. It’s amazing how the album just keeps getting better the further it goes. When “Decadence” came on, I got shivers — talk about an elevated state.
What’s also striking is how CD2 works almost like a perfectly sequenced playlist, even though the tracks are simply in chronological order. What other band hides some of their very best songs like Easter eggs on a b-sides collection like this?

i like alternative also.. lots of great tracks in there

but other bands have great b-sides compilations and tracks also;
[not all are on compilations, mostly box sets]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
abc - tons of variety
big country - at least 100+
blancmange - strange but interesting
erasure - can be hit and miss though
flock of seagulls
go west
heaven 17
new order
simple minds
underworld
u2

bands that have a lot - but most are too experimental
tears for fears
ultravox

later
| || | |
ne gative 1

NotInvisible wrote: Thu 15 Jan 2026, 7:19 pm

markus wrote: Thu 15 Jan 2026, 4:52 amBy embracing those darker undercurrents, there was no real way back to writing a song like “Suburbia.”

Suburbia is one of their darkest songs…

markus wrote: Thu 15 Jan 2026, 4:52 am This might be something you’re not supposed to say on this forum, but I’ve always felt that Alternative is far superior to Discography.

I only heard “West End Girls” properly for the first time in 1992, when I bought Discography mainly for “Where the Streets Have No Name”, which was on MTV constantly while I was doing my work experience at an electronics shop. “West End girls” was still undeniably cool, but songs like “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” and “Rent” already sounded hopelessly 80s to me — slick, perfectly crafted hit singles, yet also rather formulaic and stiff.
PSB were smart enough to understand that you don’t expose your soul on Top of the Pops if you’re aiming for mainstream success, especially if there are a few skeletons in the closet. That strategy clearly worked. But real art, for me, needs darkness, ambiguity, and abstraction.

When they crossed over from pop to art, they opened a Pandora’s box. By embracing those darker undercurrents, there was no real way back to writing a song like “Suburbia.” From that point on, the trajectory changed permanently.
In fact, they’ve managed to survive for over 30 years precisely by being alternative and obscure. I’m not sure they would have lasted otherwise.

Patrick Bateman wrote: Sun 18 Jan 2026, 9:52 am

markus wrote: Thu 15 Jan 2026, 4:52 am This might be something you’re not supposed to say on this forum, but I’ve always felt that Alternative is far superior to Discography.

I only heard “West End Girls” properly for the first time in 1992, when I bought Discography mainly for “Where the Streets Have No Name”, which was on MTV constantly while I was doing my work experience at an electronics shop. “West End girls” was still undeniably cool, but songs like “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” and “Rent” already sounded hopelessly 80s to me — slick, perfectly crafted hit singles, yet also rather formulaic and stiff.
PSB were smart enough to understand that you don’t expose your soul on Top of the Pops if you’re aiming for mainstream success, especially if there are a few skeletons in the closet. That strategy clearly worked. But real art, for me, needs darkness, ambiguity, and abstraction.

When they crossed over from pop to art, they opened a Pandora’s box. By embracing those darker undercurrents, there was no real way back to writing a song like “Suburbia.” From that point on, the trajectory changed permanently.
In fact, they’ve managed to survive for over 30 years precisely by being alternative and obscure. I’m not sure they would have lasted otherwise.

I mean it's obviously your opinion but Rent sounds 'formulaic and stiff'? Really? I don't think you can delineate the singles as pop and the b-sides as art either. Alternative is full of amazing pop songs - it's hardly Metal Machine Music.

markus wrote: Sun 18 Jan 2026, 12:14 pm
Not to my teenage ears they weren’t. Rent sounded ultra-commercial, just like Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) — which even admits what it is in the title.
CD1 of Alternative is full of experimental synth work, and the lyrics are often so outlandish that the average listener wouldn’t be able to relate to much of it at all.

My point is that they either became oblivious to the fact that they were always too obscure beneath the surface for the hit charts, or they simply didn’t care. Because after the release of Alternative, they suddenly released a single like Somewhere, to everyone’s shock. Earlier, a song like that would likely have been relegated to the same fate as Shameless or If Love Were All.

In trying to figure out why they stopped having hits, the answer lies in what their true passion was all along: expressing what they wanted artistically, freely and without limitations — to the point where they lost touch with what was commercially viable.

markus wrote: Sat 17 Jan 2026, 5:37 pm

negative_0ne wrote: Sat 17 Jan 2026, 4:46 pm

markus wrote: Tue 13 Jan 2026, 2:26 am As a teenager, I used to lie in bed at night listening to Alternative on my (very expensive) Sennheiser headphones. It’s amazing how the album just keeps getting better the further it goes. When “Decadence” came on, I got shivers — talk about an elevated state.
What’s also striking is how CD2 works almost like a perfectly sequenced playlist, even though the tracks are simply in chronological order. What other band hides some of their very best songs like Easter eggs on a b-sides collection like this?

i like alternative also.. lots of great tracks in there

but other bands have great b-sides compilations and tracks also;
[not all are on compilations, mostly box sets]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
abc - tons of variety
big country - at least 100+
blancmange - strange but interesting
erasure - can be hit and miss though
flock of seagulls
go west
heaven 17
new order
simple minds
underworld
u2

bands that have a lot - but most are too experimental
tears for fears
ultravox

later
| || | |
ne gative 1

Thanks, buddy. I had no idea those bands deserved a deeper look. Dubstar and Saint Etienne are the only ones I’ve known who, like PSB, take pride in maintaining a certain level of quality. Most artists have no integrity whatsoever. They probably don’t even like their own music—just the performing, the fame, and the money.

markus wrote: Sun 18 Jan 2026, 12:14 pmCD1 of Alternative is full of experimental synth work

My point is that they either became oblivious to the fact that they were always too obscure beneath the surface for the hit charts, or they simply didn’t care. Because after the release of Alternative, they suddenly released a single like Somewhere, to everyone’s shock. Earlier, a song like that would likely have been relegated to the same fate as Shameless or If Love Were All.

In trying to figure out why they stopped having hits, the answer lies in what their true passion was all along: expressing what they wanted artistically, freely and without limitations — to the point where they lost touch with what was commercially viable.

Patrick Bateman wrote: Sun 18 Jan 2026, 12:33 pmOf course, if you're releasing garbage like Absolutely Fabulous, then you have also lost the plot to an extent too.