The greatest Pet Shop Boys ballad?

Message

LoveComesQuickly · Sat 03 Jun 2006, 8:38 pm

Currently, I am in love with Liberation - an incredibly sweet and tender song, it hymns the pure delight of new intimacy. It's one of the few free from angst of one sort or another, and I think perhaps it meant a lot to Neil. The choice of the word "suddenly" in the lyrics is a mark of purest genius in my opinion.

gomorrah · #32 Post by **gomorrah** » Sat 03 Jun 2006, 11:30 pm

check my sig

(It always comes as a surprise)

I think Liberation and Miracles are great ballads as well.

E-Mail Vampire · #33 Post by **E-Mail Vampire** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 7:15 am

For me it is It Always Comes As A Surprise is their best ballad imo but Footsteps, Drunk, To Speak Is A Sin and Liberation are all very close imo.

DavidG · #34 Post by **DavidG** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 8:45 am

Nervously
Jealousy
So sorry I said
Your funny uncle
I made my excuses and left

Hillbilly · #35 Post by **Hillbilly** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 8:45 am

Many of the songs you've already mentioned are great and beautiful ones, but no one has yet mentioned...

Dreaming of the Queen

One of my favourite PSB melancholy songs.

GalataPSB · #36 Post by **GalataPSB** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 9:05 am

YFU
immeal
Do i have to
hey heamaster
Up against it
Footsteps
King`s cross
It Couldn't Happen Here

dutchie · #37 Post by **dutchie** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 1:32 pm

Hillbilly wrote:Many of the songs you've already mentioned are great and beautiful ones, but no one has yet mentioned...

Dreaming of the Queen

One of my favourite PSB melancholy songs.

Well now, if it's melancholy songs we're talking about, then I'm with you. Dreaming of the Queen is one of their all time greatest.

But it's not a ballad.

Henrik Powers · #38 Post by **Henrik Powers** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 1:44 pm

Love comes quickly/King's Cross/I Made My Excuses And Left

CroMagnon · #39 Post by **CroMagnon** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 2:20 pm

I've always interpreted ballad to mean "a slow song about romantic love", so I'll stick with that definitiion and give:

To face the truth
Love is a catastrophe
IMMEAL
Do I have to?
Nervously

as personal favourites.

I wouldn't classify King's Cross / Luna Park as ballads.

PSBehaviour · #40 Post by **PSBehaviour** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 3:08 pm

A ballad is a story in a song, usually a narrative song or poem. It is a rhythmic saga of a past affair, which may be heroic, romantic or satirical, political (affected by the previous three types mentioned, refers to either glorifying the exploits or causes of a particular leader or group, and is typical of totalitarian political systems), almost inevitably catastrophic, which is related in the third person, usually with foreshortened alternating four- and three-stress lines ('ballad meter') and simple repeating rhymes, and often with a refrain. If it is based on political or religious themes, a ballad may then be a version of a hymn. Ballads should not be confused with the ballade, a 14th and 15th century French verse form.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad

CroMagnon · #41 Post by **CroMagnon** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 4:02 pm

Anyone care to apply this definition to the PSB back catalogue and definitively list what is and isn't a ballad?

Thought not . . . . .

ArseSpanker · #42 Post by **ArseSpanker** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 4:16 pm

gomorrah wrote:check my sig

I did. Then i checked E-Mail Vampires signiture and clicked on a link only to find...

A petition to the BBC to release more series of Birds of a Feather on DVD!?!?!

Seriously, I ask myself, who the f*** are you people?!?! Don't you know there's a war going on?

rab b · #43 Post by **rab b** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 5:58 pm

Jealousy or Vampires for me

Propertius · #44 Post by **Propertius** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 6:13 pm

Jealousy

dutchie · #45 Post by **dutchie** » Sun 04 Jun 2006, 6:18 pm

How about if we just say "slow song." My favorite PSB "slow song" is...