An evening with the Pet Shop Boys and album preview

[rashomon]

To the people who've heard the album: Is the song before New London Boy in the documentary Feel or Why am I dancing?

If it is the bit where you can hear Neil singing ‘I will never let you down’ … I’m pretty sure it is Feel

Hope others who attended can confirm though!

[Remark]

Neil sounded back to normal during the conversation. Any concerns about his voice should now be laid to rest.

I thought that too actually.

[james23_uk]

Agree with much that has been said already. My opinion is the first half of the album is right up there with some of the best PSB ever. Tracks 1, 2, and 3 are sensational. It lost it's way for me towards the end, particularly Secret and definitely Bullet did not hit me at all on first listen. But I thought Love Is The Law was a tremendous closer.

The strings are soaring throughout and really worked with the beats. Neil's voice was lost on quite a few of the tracks, but I'm hoping it was simply a case of the booming speakers and too much bass.

The production was terrific with some proper thought going into the intro and outro of most of the tracks. Plenty of atmosphere which is a big plus for me.

Three goosebump moments; the instrumental middle-section of Loneliness, the climax of Why Am I Dancing, and much of Love Is The Law.

Can't wait until Friday!

[jules]

For those who heard the album, can you say that most of the other songs are better than the first 2 singles ?

[james23_uk]

For those who heard the album, can you say that most of the other songs are better than the first 2 singles ?

Very difficult to rank the songs after just one listen, but an interesting exercise to return to and compare in a couple of weeks.

I would go with:

Why am I dancing 5/5
Love is the law 5/5
Feel 5/5
Loneliness 4/5
New london boy 4/5
A new bohemia 3/5
The schlager hit parade 3/5
Dancing star 3/5
The secret of happiness 2/5
Bullet for narcissus 1/5

[james23_uk]

To the people who've heard the album: Is the song before New London Boy in the documentary Feel or Why am I dancing?

Feel

[rashomon]

For those who heard the album, can you say that most of the other songs are better than the first 2 singles ?

Hmm tough one - here’s my initial ranking

A new bohemia 5/5
Feel 5/5
Why am I dancing 5/5
Dancing star 4/5
Loneliness 4/5
New London boy 4/5
Love is the law 4/5
Bullet for Narcissus 3/5
The schlager hit parade 3/5
The secret of happiness 2/5

[Neutron69]

A new bohemia 5/5
Feel 4/5
Why am I dancing 4/5
Dancing star 3/5
Loneliness 4/5
New London boy 5/5
Love is the law 4/5
Bullet for Narcissus 4/5
The schlager hit parade 4/5
The secret of happiness 4/5


Three words came to mind: lush, melodic, hooks

[Nickname]

A very tricky question (or questions) for the ones who have listened the album. Just for fun!

Would you say there is a song from the new album you could include in the Top 30 best PSB songs of all the time? (tell us the title or titles, if there are more than one)

Maybe in the Top 20? (which one?)

Let's go... is there a song you could include in the Top 10 of best PSB songs of all time?

I know you have listened the album once and it is a really hard question but well that's the idea.

[jules]

Interesting, a new bohemia is really appreciated.

I cannot wait to discover the full album.

[dbaseboy]

Acoustics were a bit too loud and basey and kind of drowned Neil’s vocals but, what an album. A return to f… [don’t say it]. Seriously, style wise “Between two islands” would fit nicely.

I do hope it was just the acoustics … what I could make out is that he is signing really well and it would be a shame if his vocals are buried back in the production.

Could hear elements Between two islands in The secret of my happiness for sure.

Was certainly the venue’s acoustics. For me this is more a laidback summertime album, if Behaviour is the Autumal (Fall) one. It’s not Actually. The comments so far are spot on. More laid back. Side A seemed more up, or at least had the ‘beats’. Side B had a couple that sounded like they’d used an old Bontempi lol, and more ‘lounge’ as others have said. TSOH will bring vibes of cruising through the South of France in the late 60’s. The end of LITL is amazing. Really had doubts on Ford but he’s pulled a blinder production wise.

[dbaseboy]

A very tricky question (or questions) for the ones who have listened the album. Just for fun!

Would you say there is a song from the new album you could include in the Top 30 best PSB songs of all the time? (tell us the title or titles, if there are more than one)

Maybe in the Top 20? (which one?)

Let's go... is there a song you could include in the Top 10 of best PSB songs of all time?

I know you have listened the album once and it is a really hard question but well that's the idea.

New London Boy definitely or Why am I dancing?

[Nickname]

A very tricky question (or questions) for the ones who have listened the album. Just for fun!

Would you say there is a song from the new album you could include in the Top 30 best PSB songs of all the time? (tell us the title or titles, if there are more than one)

Maybe in the Top 20? (which one?)

Let's go... is there a song you could include in the Top 10 of best PSB songs of all time?

I know you have listened the album once and it is a really hard question but well that's the idea.

New London Boy definitely or Why am I dancing?

So the 3 go to the Top 30 but do you think they could get Top 20 or even Top 10, at least one of them?

I know it's difficult to know and this is a tricky game but I think is fun. It's like looking for a future classic.

[daveid]

I've uploaded the audio from the stream. I assume this isn't copyrighted or whatever so I'm giving it to you all. Hopefully this doesn't cause any issues with the administrators given the event is now over and it's not music!...

https://tinyurl.com/yxx466yz

Thanks so much. Thoroughly enjoyed listening to that!

[petshopgrrl]

I've uploaded the audio from the stream. I assume this isn't copyrighted or whatever so I'm giving it to you all. Hopefully this doesn't cause any issues with the administrators given the event is now over and it's not music!...

https://tinyurl.com/yxx466yz

You're a champ, thanks very much!

This was such an engaging interview and I thought Alexis Petridis did a great job with the questions, not just asking the usual standard stuff (although the Q&A from the live audience seemed a little shambolic at the end - "YOU! Yes, YOU!" ) I've absorbed way more than my fair share of PSB interviews in the last few months and I feel like I got a lot of new perspective out of this. Neil was in full flight and Chris was suitably terse, although one time he really did seem to get animated was talking about the Glasto Disaster. I know some of you seem to think it was a wasted question but they gave a little more away about how they felt about it at the time and it just goes to show what a couple of pros they are.

I loved the bit about Chris totally not approving of being called an "archbishop of arch" by Mojo magazine (actually arch-archbishop, if I'm reading it right?) and blocking Mojo on PSB's Apple news feeds for it.

Also, I think that if they want to a) educate today's young'uns about Pop Done Properly and b) see Ms. Swift get that era-defining classic that they seem to think she lacks, maybe they should offer her a song or, at the very least, a remix.

And thanks for all the reviews - I'm really excited to hear the entire album now!