Pet Shop Boys Community

retrofuturist wrote: Tue 09 Jun 2020, 1:43 amFrankly, I thought each of those three albums were very good. I'm not sure what spacing them out further would have achieved, other than perhaps saving us from the diabolical Loveboat?

So what went wrong with Erasure? As synth-pop fell out of fashion, PSB albums still seemed like an event, even to an ever-diminishing constituency, while Erasure fell into irrelevance overnight - Loveboat charted at 45 in 2000. Perhaps it's because Vince is more representative of pure synth-pop, whereas PSB have always been more pop with synths. Once synth-pop was unfashionable, they were anachronistic.

Greetings,

Well, Always got to No. 1 so I don't think we can attribute much of it to I Say I Say I Say.

The self-titled album was a beautifully cohesive sonic adventure, but it was better enjoyed listened to as an album, rather than as a set of singles. "Album albums" aren't often commercially successful for pop acts, and some people probably lost interest at this point.

By Cowboy it had been a while, and whilst it was a good, cohesive collection of straight-forward pop tracks, "good" probably wasn't enough to raise their profile and get them back in the spotlight.

Retro.

retrofuturist wrote:Greetings,

Well, Always got to No. 1 so I don't think we can attribute much of it to I Say I Say I Say.

The self-titled album was a beautifully cohesive sonic adventure, but it was better enjoyed listened to as an album, rather than as a set of singles. "Album albums" aren't often commercially successful for pop acts, and some people probably lost interest at this point.

By Cowboy it had been a while, and whilst it was a good, cohesive collection of straight-forward pop tracks, "good" probably wasn't enough to raise their profile and get them back in the spotlight.

Retro.

Always got to No. 4. Abba-esque is their only No. 1 Single. They’ve had many No. 1 Albums though. I guess that’s where being so prolific at the height of their popularity worked to their advantage, and probably why they’ve had more No. 1 albums than PSB.


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retrofuturist wrote: Tue 09 Jun 2020, 12:59 pmWell, Always got to No. 4 so I don't think we can attribute much of it to I Say I Say I Say.

The self-titled album was a beautifully cohesive sonic adventure, but it was better enjoyed listened to as an album, rather than as a set of singles. "Album albums" aren't often commercially successful for pop acts, and some people probably lost interest at this point.

By Cowboy it had been a while, and whilst it was a good, cohesive collection of straight-forward pop tracks, "good" probably wasn't enough to raise their profile and get them back in the spotlight.

I do like Erasure and did buy their albums during their commercial peak so I suppose I'm partly culpable. I think they have always been somewhat unfairly overshadowed by PSB and there is certainly an element of critical bias towards PSB, as evidenced by the recent Guardian poll. That can't have helped - one knows that if PSB have a new album out, there'll be coverage in the media and it will seem like an event, even 30 years' after their commercial peak.

It's just curious how two of the biggest pop groups of the late 1980s/early 1990s have endured in different ways - and since PSB left Parlophone, it's not even an indie thing.

Greetings,

PopKid78 wrote: Tue 09 Jun 2020, 1:50 pm Always got to No. 4.

My mistake. I would have sworn that it did, but you are 100% correct. Nonetheless, Always (#4), Run To The Sun (#6) and I Love Saturday (#20) isn't a bad string of chart placings.

I knew that Breathe hit No. 4, so that at least in the 00s, we do have to concede that Erasure had a higher charting hit than our boys.

Patrick Bateman wrote: It's just curious how two of the biggest pop groups of the late 1980s/early 1990s have endured in different ways - and since PSB left Parlophone, it's not even an indie thing.

In terms of style and image, if could be that the more reserved and detached "English" nature of Pet Shop Boys has served them better as they age, whereas while Andy's flamboyant camp schtick is something he could get away with successfully as a comparatively thin young whippersnapper, it was always something that was always going be difficult to maintain as the decades passed.

Also, I don't recall seeing a film clip of Neil on the bog.

Retro.

retrofuturist wrote: Tue 09 Jun 2020, 11:22 pmI knew that Breathe hit No. 4, so that at least in the 00s, we do have to concede that Erasure had a higher charting hit than our boys.

From 1995-onwards:

Erasure 8 Top 20 singles, including 2 Top 10

PSB 16 Top 20 singles, including 7 Top 10

And both Erasure top ten singles were released in the first week of January. Of course both groups were firmly ensconsed as 'fan(atic) groups' by that stage with legions (or at least a trickle) of loyalists buying each release on the first week of release, prior to each single's inevitable plummet down the charts in the second week. It's a shame that downloads and then streaming brought an end to the ritual of seeing whether Erasure singles would chart at either 25 or 33 because Pughie had bought an extra copy or two for his pet hamster.

Every time a new Erasure album comes out I give it some time, but can't even manage a listen all the way through.
I love synth-pop, but it does need to progress and change with the times. We have Chvrches, M83, Hurts, even Hot Chip and dozens of others who very much fall into the synth-pop category, but sound modern, new and exciting, as PSB do when they bring out new material.

I watched a documentary where Vince Clarke was showing off his synthesisers. Though I really enjoyed it, my thought all the way through was, especially when he showed of the Serge Modular was, use a new sound.

Of course this is what Erasure fans want, that very distinctive sound. I do like them, and appreciate them, but it's just not for me.

Here's that doc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t1aO9fJGE8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S52xvoxqx10

So what went wrong with Erasure?

As noted, it's partly the ossification of their sound, partly they have found themselves in a musical "gay ghetto" in the way that Pet Shop Boys haven't, partly that West End Girls especially is a cultural touchstone in the way that A Little Respect comes closest too but isn't, partly the PSB's embrace of high and low culture, which means more column inches in more media.

But mostly it's the songs - or, more accurately, the absence of them.

OK, we're all a little biased here, but name something as good or as resonant from Erasure's catalogue of the past 15 years as Love Etc.? Or even The Pop Kids? Or Dreamland?

Not possible, and I like Erasure, I am in the process of buying all their 7” singles.

It's a shame their sound didn't ossify in the mid-90s when it was still good, rather than in the 00s after they (but I suspect mainly Andy) become inordinately influenced by the likes of Manhattan Clique.

I actually didn't really have any issues with Erasure up through Light at the End of the World (not a great album, but some great songs mixed in). I thought the covers album and country inspired album were a bit of a mis-step.

Violent Flame had some good tracks as did Snow Globe but World Be Gone was a big, big miss IMO. This single just feels very generic and I guess this is just the sound we should expect from them now. Beyond Andy's voice, there is nothing really left of the Erasure signature sound.

Patrick Bateman wrote: Tue 09 Jun 2020, 2:12 pm

retrofuturist wrote: Tue 09 Jun 2020, 12:59 pmWell, Always got to No. 4 so I don't think we can attribute much of it to I Say I Say I Say.

The self-titled album was a beautifully cohesive sonic adventure, but it was better enjoyed listened to as an album, rather than as a set of singles. "Album albums" aren't often commercially successful for pop acts, and some people probably lost interest at this point.

By Cowboy it had been a while, and whilst it was a good, cohesive collection of straight-forward pop tracks, "good" probably wasn't enough to raise their profile and get them back in the spotlight.

I do like Erasure and did buy their albums during their commercial peak so I suppose I'm partly culpable. I think they have always been somewhat unfairly overshadowed by PSB and there is certainly an element of critical bias towards PSB, as evidenced by the recent Guardian poll. That can't have helped - one knows that if PSB have a new album out, there'll be coverage in the media and it will seem like an event, even 30 years' after their commercial peak.

It's just curious how two of the biggest pop groups of the late 1980s/early 1990s have endured in different ways - and since PSB left Parlophone, it's not even an indie thing.

At one point, I was more into Erasure than PSB. One continued to evolve while the other kinda just sounded the same album after album, nothing groundbreaking.

I'm not sure if I agree to say the were unfairly overshadowed by PSB...the boys just make better music than erasure IMO.

The eponymous Erasure album is highly underrated in my opinion.

My interest in Erasure more or less begins and ends with "Pop!" and it is a good listen if you want the hits.

I took an interest early on because a girl I was sort of interested in was into them, but couldn't quite make the jump to loving them (or her). Then my ex-wife was quite into them too, but I guess a pattern starts emerging here... A more psychoanalytical person could associate Erasure with my failed relationships, but the difference is I still don't mind Erasure in small doses!

Their latest single isn't bad at all too, but as many have said, it does rather retread familiar territory.

For some reason I always felt Erasure carried a bit more street-cred than PSB back in the 80's - maybe it was the name - "Erasure" does sound a bit more "edgy" than "Pet Shop Boys" I reckon.