Pet Shop Boys Community

I think ''Behaviour'' is their darkest album

Since Nightlife is lyrically based at night, that must be their darkest album.

Fundamental is more like scary.

Fundamental - and not just because its cover is black. Either that or Behaviour, I can't make up my mind.

I'd say that when it comes to the greater themes of love and death it would have to be Billingual. The fact that the latin influenced and cover artwork are all supposed to be partytime music songs like Discoteca, Up Against It and Saturday Night Forever are devastating. The happiness element feels purposefully forced and the boys have admitted themselcves that Billingual is a sad album.

Fudamental isn't consistent enough to be dark nor is Nightlife. Behaviour comes a close second but for me the chord progressions juxtaposed with the drum programing and the lyrical content on Bilingual make this album for me what we might call 'dark.' Funamental is much to overstated to be dark, sure it has dark moments, but even with the subject matter songs such as Integral and I'm With Stupid are far too poppy and throwaway to be taken too seriously. Now if they'd have included Fugitive, this is one of their most darkest songs.

Fundamental

Syncratic wrote:I'd say that when it comes to the greater themes of love and death it would have to be Billingual. The fact that the latin influenced and cover artwork are all supposed to be partytime music songs like Discoteca, Up Against It and Saturday Night Forever are devastating. The happiness element feels purposefully forced and the boys have admitted themselcves that Billingual is a sad album.

Fudamental isn't consistent enough to be dark nor is Nightlife. Behaviour comes a close second but for me the chord progressions juxtaposed with the drum programing and the lyrical content on Bilingual make this album for me what we might call 'dark.' Funamental is much to overstated to be dark, sure it has dark moments, but even with the subject matter songs such as Integral and I'm With Stupid are far too poppy and throwaway to be taken too seriously. Now if they'd have included Fugitive, this is one of their most darkest songs.

But even I'm with Stupid has a hopeless air to it. It's hard to delineate between PSB albums in this respect because something as upbeat as Domino dancing is actually desperately sad too. It's ecstatic pathos.

I find Fundamental to be their darkest album because it moves beyond the personal tragedy of, for instance, Your funny uncle and abandons the hope of redemption implied in that song either at the funeral or beyond. It's a particularly godless album - god notwithstanding.....

yeah totally agree.although alot of their CD's have negative undertones fundamental feels like their darkest given the general subject matter.

The only thing dark are the album covers of Fundamental and Nightlife. But PSB's music has never been dark, they are not Depeche Mode or a band of that type.

It's gotta be Release.

The only album I listened to while stoned and it touched me.

Pet Shop Girl wrote:The only thing dark are the album covers of Fundamental and Nightlife. But PSB's music has never been dark, they are not Depeche Mode or a band of that type.

So you don't consider songs about fear, death, pushy politics, terrorists, vampires, stalking, people digging dead bodies up etc. to be dark?

Fundamental - both musically and visually.

Retro.

Relentless is quite dark musically.

Pet Shop Girl wrote:The only thing dark are the album covers of Fundamental and Nightlife. But PSB's music has never been dark, they are not Depeche Mode or a band of that type.

But this is too literal and basic. DM's darkness is often forced. I feel that they overstate the pain and the angst lyrically to the point of self-parody. I don't deny that Dave has been through some tough times and they have some devastating songs but the 'pain' and 'angst' model feels a bit self-indulgent in places.

Pet Shop Boys sometimes make Marylin Mason look like S Club 7....

Radiophonic wrote:Pet Shop Boys sometimes make Marylin Mason look like S Club 7....

I often find Marylin Manson ridiculous. I understand his liking for the obscure, but life is full of shades, not all black or white. But if black is all he wanted to show, he showed all in his first albums.

Having said that, he has some cool songs.