35 years of Behaviour. 22nd October.

[Skybluearmy87]

Behaviour is the best piece of contemporary music in the history of the world. A work of art that can only be compared to the great masterpieces like Beethoven's Symphony 9 in D minor or Bach's Mass in B minor.
It's perfection. It redefines perfection.
Personally, it literally saved my life and helped me go safe through really awful teen years.

I so get what you mean about saving your life , it’s been the soundtrack to my life ,coming out , my heartbreaks , the deaths of loved ones , holiday's etc this masterpiece has been there the whole time , it’s like a best friend always there to relax and put you in a better place

[PopArt]

I was 10 years old. It was my first term at boarding school. And on the first day if half term I went to WH Smith and bought Behaviour. They had it at Number 1 and I remember this entire row of Behaviour cassettes.

I instantly loved the album. It’s always been my favourite PSB album. Not for the last time, it felt like PSB had created an album that reflected what I was going through in my life. This must be the place… basically captured my feelings about boarding school. The album was like a warm, comforting blanket through bleak times.

[Straight_Talker]

I was 10 years old. It was my first term at boarding school. And on the first day if half term I went to WH Smith and bought Behaviour. They had it at Number 1 and I remember this entire row of Behaviour cassettes.

I instantly loved the album. It’s always been my favourite PSB album. Not for the last time, it felt like PSB had created an album that reflected what I was going through in my life. This must be the place… basically captured my feelings about boarding school. The album was like a warm, comforting blanket through bleak times.

I love this

[markus]

I used to play the video game Monkey island and have Behaviour on in the background on repeat. After reading the rave reviews (by respectable journalists) I decided I wouldn't give up until I also understood its greatness. It did grow on me eventually. So Hard and Being Boring were easy to like but the rest took a while. Now when I play My October Symphony I just go mmm...

[Drico One]

I don't know if Behaviour is their best album, but it's definitely the one record of theirs that distilled their essence so perfectly and spoke to me so directly as to become a personal artefact of my youth. When I look at the cover now, 35 years later, I am immediately extradited to my formative years. When I play it now, I reconnect to my past self...

I was 18 when Behaviour was released. I think that serendipitous accident significantly influenced my connection with this record. By 1990, Pet Shop Boys were, perhaps unconsciously, appealing more to older teenagers and young adults. I was precisely their target audience. Undoubtedly, I looked to Pet Shop Boys for stompers, thrills, and a knowing playfulness. Stompers were at a premium on Behaviour, but there were thrills aplenty for the assiduous, impressionable listener.

This is a subtle, intimate, conspiratorial collection of perfectly-balanced songsmithery. Playing this was to commune with a higher pop power, to enter a world of wit, self-awareness, wisdom, and possibility. To me, this album is a time capsule, a portal to the adolescent preoccupations of my past when I was on the very cusp of adulthood, with all the change, confusion, hopes, fears, and dreams that precarious staging post in life entails.

Please, Actually, Introspective, and Very all had bigger hits. Later albums had more effervescence. Behaviour, however, is the most coherent artistic statement in their catalogue - and perhaps their purest. It's possibly the first album for which they weren't consciously trying to write hit singles - not because they didn't want hits, but probably because they thought whatever they did would be successful regardless. That cocktail of complacency and certainty allowed for a purely artistic expression, the conditions for which would not be in place again while they remained commercially relevant.

Listen again to this record and you are struck by the musicality on display, a flick of guitar here, a dab of electronica there, a string quartet suddenly appearing from Bolshevik Russia... all set to a reflective, autumnal thrum of gently falling golden leaves that acts as a metaphor for their commercial sunset. Something was ending. For them - and me. Of course, the seasons compose a cycle, so there are obvious beginnings here too. And, of course, at 18, everything is beginning...

This album planted the seeds of artistic sustainability. Without Behaviour, I'm not sure I would have stayed with them on their journey. It revealed an artistic depth and unleashed a compelling, magnetic draw that sustained my interest when the superficial trappings of pop "relevance" receded...

Another striking attribute of Behaviour is its balance, opened by Being boring, closed by Jealousy, and helmed in midstream by its thematically-critical bipartite heart: Only the wind and My October symphony. The sinister bombast of So hard mirrors that of This must be the place I waited years to leave. The romantic sincerity of To face the truth is similarly reflected by that of Nervously - a masterpiece of ambiguity. Irony is on holiday from this sometimes dark, but always intimate, night of the soul as Neil whispers his mannered observations, anxieties, advice, and memories over an emotionally-resonant soundscape.

So, for me, Behaviour is simultaneously the diary about to be written and the cache of old photos; a story about to be told and one narrated by a man who was already half-way through his and willing to pass on his experiences to somebody who might benefit from them. Behaviour is the moment where Neil descends from Mount Pop and issues his ten commandments: Thou shall not forget those you love. Honour your youth and your true self. Thou shall not release charity records...

For these reasons, it stands alone.

Drico.

[Sithblade]

1990 was the time when A-ha with East of the Sun, West of the Moon... took a more reflective, melancholy mood on their albums.

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Crying In The Rain is a really outstanding cover. I have not heard much else from that album (also Early Morning) but that song was a staple in my playlist in early 90s.

There are some lovely songs on that A-ha album: Slender Frame, Waiting for Her ...

Yes, I was going to reply with those, as well as the album title track.

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[herts101]

Been a while since I’ve listened to Behaviour in full. Thought an early walk through the breaking dawn of Valencia would be a good opportunity.

Wow what an album. This must be the place, Nervously, End of the world really hit hard. And I’m 52 … how could I have resisted those lyrics and synths as a 17 year old buying it on the day of release!

No wonder I’ve bought every other album since on release day.


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[OakeyDokey]

I was 10 years old. It was my first term at boarding school. And on the first day if half term I went to WH Smith and bought Behaviour..... This must be the place… basically captured my feelings about boarding school. The album was like a warm, comforting blanket through bleak times.

Ah, when a month is a lifetime, aged ten.
This must be the place I've waited weeks to leave.

[OakeyDokey]

My god 35 years ago , I remember getting the cd and tape , and playing it non stop , laying in my bedroom floor in the dark with speakers from my hinari disc deck either side , feeling every beat , it’s a stunning beautiful cd , funny the only song I never liked was so hard , it didn’t fit right on the cd with me , it has to be my most played cd ever , in fact it’s up there with George Michaels older as my favourite cd ever , pure class

I bought it on cassette from Our Price as a 15 year old, then walked to the barbers for a haircut I had booked. The barber saw the Our Price bag, and asked what I had bought. I showed him, and he put it on the stereo in the shop. I remember him saying it sounded really different from their previous songs during 'Being boring'.

I was disappointed initially. That changed quickly. It will always be my favourite PSB album, and also my favourite album of all time.

Were you happy with the haircut? Hope it wasn't a mullet...

[Gabby]

My god 35 years ago , I remember getting the cd and tape , and playing it non stop , laying in my bedroom floor in the dark with speakers from my hinari disc deck either side , feeling every beat , it’s a stunning beautiful cd , funny the only song I never liked was so hard , it didn’t fit right on the cd with me , it has to be my most played cd ever , in fact it’s up there with George Michaels older as my favourite cd ever , pure class

I bought it on cassette from Our Price as a 15 year old, then walked to the barbers for a haircut I had booked. The barber saw the Our Price bag, and asked what I had bought. I showed him, and he put it on the stereo in the shop. I remember him saying it sounded really different from their previous songs during 'Being boring'.

I was disappointed initially. That changed quickly. It will always be my favourite PSB album, and also my favourite album of all time.

Were you happy with the haircut? Hope it wasn't a mullet...

Mullets are back. There's a kid next door to us with one and yes, it looks as terrible as you imagine.

[dbaseboy]

Remember Bob Harris playing it one night on BBC Radio (1 or 2) and getting goosebumps especially to This must be the place I waited years to leave. Remember thinking what a beautiful, melancholy yet very grown up album it was compared to the poptastic electronics that came before. Still think they missed a trick leaving Miserablism off. That would’ve been a fantastic single.

[PSBForTheMasses]

I used to read this page at the time as it has very interesting comments etc. and was famous for the fact that it was dedicated to one single track. I am glad that it is still online.

https://10yearsofbeingboring.com/

[Ramzy]

I was late to the party - I bought Behaviour on cassette, second hand, from the local market in Bristol in 1998 or 1999 when I was about 10. Like some have said here, I too was initially a little disappointed, having already fallen in love with the other (then) five extant PSB albums. Already knowing the singles having bought Discography a little before that, I found the album versions of Being Boring and Jealousy slightly weak (I still feel this way about the latter, but I've learnt to appreciate the long Being Boring intro, even if I secretly still prefer the 7" edit). I also remember finding To Face The Truth slightly embarrassing - such an unashamed love song from a band I had in truth thought to be cooler than that.

Today, that song is one of my favourites and I love the album in the way we reserve for the music we knew as kids. The triple punch of So Hard, Nervously and The End Of The World is my favourite section of the record. I'm still not sure I'd have included Seriously on that tracklist myself, but it's a bit of levity without being Winner, so for that I accept it. It was my favourite song on the record the first time I heard it, because apparently I was (even more) stupid when I was younger.

[New Devon Boy]

I remember my dad buying it for me on the Monday it came out, and then listening to it straight after school.

And I hated it! After what seemed like a long wait after Introspective I love So Hard, but was then dumbfounded by Being Boring.

Took me probably about 12 months to get into it, and it’s remained one of my favourites since.

Loved the mix of Only the wind they played on the Nightlife tour. Wish it was available as a download!

[Pod]

Behaviour defined my late teens and will always be my favourite PSB album. I bought it in Andy’s Records (remember them?) on the day of release - it was playing in the store as I walked in - only the wind I think was the track playing.

Heady, halcyon days.