Pet Shop Boys 2025 top 20

[Patrick Bateman]

Imagine if no one was allowed to mature and grow.

Quelle surprise, here comes their defence lawyer.

Compare what is in this thread with what they were doing from 1986-1993. Hymn? A sequel of sorts to Closer to Heaven? A Primal Scream remix? That's diminishing returns, not growth.

[Drico One]

Very nice thread, whatever the odd naysayer might suggest.

Now on to the actual content. My overriding feeling is that I am torn between the rich variety of their current lives and a sense that not much of what they currently do captivates me.

It's simultaneously wonderful to see them explore the varied nooks and crannies of their artistry and rather easy to be unmoved by it all. Then again, why should everything they do move anybody but themselves?

I'll always love them and will champion their post-imperial output until I'm deep in the ground, but the last half-decade or so has been largely underwhelming for me. That, however, could very well say more about me than them.

Long may they reign.

Drico.

[Dog]

2. Battleship Potemkin Centenary Edition

To mark the centenary of Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, a newly restored version of the 1925 silent classic - featuring the celebrated 2004 Tennant / Lowe score - returned to cinemas in August. While the score premiered live in Trafalgar Square and has been performed at a handful of special events since, this centenary release marked the first official release of the film with the Pet Shop Boys score, and the first time they have been released together in any home‑entertainment format.

A special event at BFI Southbank on 5 September paired It Couldn’t Happen Here (1988), screened in memory of its late director Jack Bond, with a Q&A with Neil hosted by Paul Tickell, followed by a screening of Battleship Potemkin. The same day saw the release of the BFI’s two‑disc Blu‑ray and CD edition, featuring the restored film, the full score, extra features and an illustrated booklet. Parlophone simultaneously issued the remastered score on CD and, for the first time, on double vinyl.

Eisenstein’s film - long established as a cornerstone of world cinema - remains astonishing in its compositional precision and political force. Its depiction of the 1905 naval mutiny, culminating in the still‑shocking Odessa Steps sequence, has influenced generations of filmmakers. Pet Shop Boys’ score, first unveiled in 2004 with the Dresdner Sinfoniker, blends electronic pulse with orchestral sweep to create a contemporary counterpart to Eisenstein’s montage. Subsequent performances have been rare but notable, including events in Germany, Spain, and a 2006 staging at the Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend, as well as the first UK cinema screening with the recorded score at BFI Southbank during Yoko Ono’s 2013 Meltdown Festival.

The Blu‑ray edition included several special features: Hochhaussinfonie (a 2017 multimedia collaboration between the Dresdner Sinfoniker and Pet Shop Boys), highlights from the original Trafalgar Square performance, the 2025 trailer, and an illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Chris Heath and Sarah Cleary, alongside archival pieces by Neil and Michael Brooke.

Yet again, Pet Shop Boys took the opportunity to tie up loose ends in their expansive catalogue, and these centenary activities shone a welcome spotlight on one of the most impressive and experimental works in their creative canon.

[Dog]

1. Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live

Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live continued into 2025 as a remarkably durable celebration of Pet Shop Boys’ catalogue, evolving subtly as it moved through another summer of European festivals and UK outdoor shows. Now four years into its run, the production remained visually striking and musically uplifting, but 2025 brought a handful of changes that refreshed the show for returning audiences.

One of the most visible developments was the introduction of a new drummer. At the Seville performance, Neil and Chris unveiled Bubba McCarthy, who joined the touring band following Afrika Green’s departure to pursue her studies.
The setlist also continued to shift. The Pop Kids was added, bringing a burst of Super‑era euphoria into the mid‑section of the show, complete with brilliant Funko Pop visuals. In contrast, Go West - long a staple of any live PSB show - was removed due to the same ongoing rights complications that have frustratingly delayed the commercial release of the Copenhagen concert film.

2025 also delivered one of the tour’s most memorable guest appearances. At the Sandringham concert, Jake Shears joined Neil and Chris onstage for Dreamland, injecting a burst of theatrical energy and giving the show a celebratory, one‑off feel.

Across the summer, Dreamworld continued to anchor major festival line‑ups in Spain, Portugal and Italy, while the UK shows - including Cardiff Castle, Hardwick Festival and Warwick Castle - reaffirmed the production’s ability to scale from intimate theatres to vast outdoor spaces without losing its clarity or emotional punch. The staging remained consistent with previous years: the streetlight props, the tuning‑fork headpieces, the rising screen reveal of the band, and the carefully sequenced costume changes that punctuate the show’s narrative flow.

More than five years after its originally planned 2020 launch, Dreamworld in 2025 felt like a true living, breathing retrospective - continually adjusted, completely enthralling, and still capable of drawing huge, multigenerational audiences wherever it plays.

[NotInvisible]

Imagine if no one was allowed to mature and grow.

Quelle surprise, here comes their defence lawyer.

I’m not defending them, I’m criticizing the silly assumption that they should have been frozen in aspic decades ago based on a throwaway comment. That’s such a juvenile perspective in my opinion.

Compare what is in this thread with what they were doing from 1986-1993. Hymn? A sequel of sorts to Closer to Heaven? A Primal Scream remix? That's diminishing returns, not growth.

It was a busier year than 1992, yes. I’m not sure how you get “diminishing returns” from “new music” but you’ve got to be you.

[markus]

It’s been a great year for me as a fan anyway. I’ve found myself spontaneously adding song after song on Spotify mostly from the last few years. Chasing a certain feeling, a flow of the best of the best, I don’t go back to the imperial phase — I want to hear songs like Secret of Happiness and You Are the One again and again.

Not bad at all for a band after 40 years.

[TallThinMan]

I’ve been slowly working my way through all their albums in sequence. I’m up to ‘Fundamental’. All of the post ‘Very’ albums are better than I remember and dare I say that ‘Release’ in particular is massively underrated.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

varied nooks and crannies of their artistry

That's a fair summary of PSB 2025.

Like you, it didn't really move me. I hope we move away from the teapots and skateboards era towards the formative steps of a new studio album. Album campaigns, along with all the associated singles, film clips, remixes, physical releases etc. are very much the skeleton that holds the overall Pet Shop Boys fan experience together. Nooks and crannies don't really cut it long-term, although I doff my cap to Dog for this interesting collation of miscellanea... much of which was so easy to ignore at the time.

Retro.

[NotInvisible]

I guess it’s easy to forget that Nonetheless only came out last year (depending on one’s time zone).

[Dog]

For a “quiet” year between albums, the range and volume of creative activity in 2025 was unusually high. Whether every item moves you personally is another matter entirely, and that’s fine - I feel the same. But I’d refute that this was about “repackaging” or “random tat”.

PSB now operate on multiple cultural fronts at once: pop, classical, political, theatrical, archival. It’s never been as simple as releasing an album every few years, and it certainly isn’t now.

My purpose in putting this thread together wasn’t to claim 2025 was some new imperial phase, or to shut down discussion. It was to document what they actually did - and to show that growth doesn’t look like it did in 1986-1993. Why would it? The manifesto of their thirties isn’t the manifesto of their sixties or seventies. Bowie didn’t stay as Ziggy; Kate Bush didn’t remake Hounds of Love. Longevity requires reinvention, and reinvention often looks quieter, stranger or more fragmented. 2025 wasn’t a 1986, or a 1987, or a 1993. It wasn’t even a 2024. But I’m sure it easily holds its own alongside the likes of 1992 - another non-album year.

And Drico’s right: not everything they do will captivate everyone, nor should it. They’re following their own curiosity now, not chasing charts or cultural dominance. Some years will resonate more than others. But the variety itself is a sign of life, not decline.

Thanks to everything who’s read along. Whatever your take on the year - thrilling, frustrating, surprising, underwhelming - I hope everyone here has a very happy New Year. Here’s to whatever PSB bring us in 2026!

[psbnyc]

A wonderful read, Dog - really enjoyed that. So much happening in the PSB world and I’m forever grateful to them for continuing to surprise us. Here’s to another great PSB year - happy new year to everybody and in particular to the Podcast Boys - looking forward to more of your wonderful podcasts

[leesmapman]

This looks like a great tradition to continue

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[dylanww73]

This looks like a great tradition to continue

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-A528B met Tapatalk

I agree - thanks, and well done Dog.

#PrayForDopeFiend

[stussyboy]

Great read Chris! The fact that we get this ‘volume’ of quality content from a group in their 40th year is truly staggering

[jasonjohn]

Thanks Dog

btw in this modern age or printing and machinery its super easy for people/companies to produce "custom" short-run items.. so people upset about tea sets probably shouldn't worry - it's hardly any distraction for them at all.