Pet Shop Boys Community

Let's face it, Neil's voice has deteriorated massively recently. That is always going to hurt the new recordings, unfortunately.

Anyway, the new single sounds like a B-side from the Please or Actually eras. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, but it does definitely sound "under-produced" or "like a demo" as others describe it.

drunk14 wrote: Wed 03 Apr 2024, 12:19 pm It's dire. One of their weakest singles ever. It sounds like an average b-side. Cannot believe it was accepted by Parlophone experts.

At this point in their career and considering their return to Parlophone, its highly doubtful that the label can reject the boys choice of singles

You're a dancing star/More power than a Tsar is a great rhyming couplet.

minimal wrote: Wed 03 Apr 2024, 1:22 pm

tottenhammattspurs wrote: Wed 03 Apr 2024, 1:19 pm Does anybody on here actually like anything they do anymore? I’m all for opinions but Jesus wept all people do on here is moan! Christ on a pushbike, we’ve already had six new songs, we’ve got another eight to look forward to, four new rerecordings and five remixes! What other band going for 40 years offers you that!

New Order!

Kidding - they do need 10+ years for it.

m+

Even by their own standards New Order's (new) output has gone down the dumper since Hooky left - we've had one album (which was decent) and a stand alone single (Be a Rebel) which was pretty forgettable. I'm a huge NO fan but I didn't go to the effort to buy the new single. I'd be all over a full album though.

As for PSB, I'm always here for it, and I think we're spoiled - we have had some monolithic tracks over the years, so anything that doesn't meet that standard we seem to automatically relegate to the proverbial dumper. I've learned not to pass along on anything and give it due time to percolate in my head for a while before passing full judgment - getting back to NO that's what happened to me with "Waiting for the Sirens Call" - first listen I thought it was a dreadful album, but allowed myself to properly listen to it, bounce it around my head a bit, and started to pull in threads akin to the heady days of "Technique". Never looked back - "..Sirens Call" is a belter of an album.

Give it a go with PSB then come back and tell us what you think...

Kaputnik wrote: Wed 03 Apr 2024, 1:39 pm

tottenhammattspurs wrote: Wed 03 Apr 2024, 1:19 pm Does anybody on here actually like anything they do anymore? I’m all for opinions but Jesus wept all people do on here is moan! Christ on a pushbike, we’ve already had six new songs, we’ve got another eight to look forward to, four new rerecordings and five remixes! What other band going for 40 years offers you that!

I've been a member of some groups on Reddit, Telegram, and various other platforms and people seem generally excited and happy, even when they don't love the songs. I was equally excited to join this sub in February but it's hideous. I've never known a fan community like it. I did get one win, over some smug idiot telling me I was a dummy for thinking they could schedule a release for the same time as a radio play, but they seem to have scuttled off now and I won't hold my breath for an apology. But I was probably a dick to them as well and that's just part of fan groups. But the constant whining and being down on everything PSB do, release or think (always with the "we don't have to love everything" disclaimer that doesn't explain why they actually hate everything) is grating and makes this place stand out as a toxic waste dump

ALL OF THIS!

"Dancing Star", not as good as I had hoped, Neils vocals seem very strained and forced, almost like he is inhaling helium! I do like the feel of the track, but the structure seems all over the place, it is way too short and the way it ends is very odd.

"Dancing Star" (Solumun Extended Remix) is decent and the arrangement is better, nothing groundbreaking though.

"Party In The Blitz" (Superchumbo Remix), didn't like the original version of this track, sadly this remix does nothing to improve on the original.

"Dancing Star" (Solomun Remix) is poor not as good as the extended remix, that never ending lead synth sound really does your head in, awful.

Not heard the B Sides yet....

Overall a very lackluster release, a bit nervous about the album now

tottenhammattspurs wrote: Wed 03 Apr 2024, 1:19 pm Does anybody on here actually like anything they do anymore? I’m all for opinions but Jesus wept all people do on here is moan! Christ on a pushbike, we’ve already had six new songs, we’ve got another eight to look forward to, four new rerecordings and five remixes! What other band going for 40 years offers you that!

Couldn’t agree more ! Why hang around, if all you do is complain, spend your time doing something else, baffles me.

[/quote]

Even by their own standards New Order's (new) output has gone down the dumper since Hooky left - we've had one album (which was decent) and a stand alone single (Be a Rebel) which was pretty forgettable. I'm a huge NO fan but I didn't go to the effort to buy the new single. I'd be all over a full album though.

As for PSB, I'm always here for it, and I think we're spoiled - we have had some monolithic tracks over the years, so anything that doesn't meet that standard we seem to automatically relegate to the proverbial dumper. I've learned not to pass along on anything and give it due time to percolate in my head for a while before passing full judgment - getting back to NO that's what happened to me with "Waiting for the Sirens Call" - first listen I thought it was a dreadful album, but allowed myself to properly listen to it, bounce it around my head a bit, and started to pull in threads akin to the heady days of "Technique". Never looked back - "..Sirens Call" is a belter of an album.

Give it a go with PSB then come back and tell us what you think...
[/quote]

Not to veer off too far off topic but felt that Music Complete was easily their best album since Technique.

As for the new single, it's good, not great. Very, very retro sound...feels like a please era b-side. Regarding the two new b-sides, nothing that blows me away like Decide or No Boundaries did from Hotspot but both are still enjoyable. If Jesus Had a Sister being the better of the two for my ears.

Dancing Star is very reminiscent of A New Life, at least in the beat + bass-line part, it gives of the same vibe.

Firstly, I love it! It’s fantastic! Rarely do I get goosebumps this early in the morning or feel like dancing around my apartment!

Secondly… have you noticed that the brief intro and outro sounds - waves and birds at the beach - sound eerily similar to the same intro sounds for Go West? Could Neil and Chris be commenting on Nureyev’s post-defection immersion in Western life and culture, ultimately passing from AIDS, which we know Go West is built around? Just a thought.

Well, the song is set in Amalfi..
But seagulls don’t quite summon the spirit of the Mediterranean…more ‘sand in the sandwiches, wasps in the tea’…

I think there are two ways to consume Pet Shop Boys in 2024, 40 years after their emergence. You can forensically dissect every syllable and octave looking for self-prescribed flaws, or you can thrill to the life-affirming flashes of magic and humanity still present after all these years. In essence, you can look in the mirror each morning and lament the fact you no longer look like you once did, or you can admire the handsome thing, hewn of experience, looking back at you.

Dancing star is unashamedly self-referential, winking and nodding at those-who-know with its pastiche of Please and echo of Go West in the lapping waves of sun-kissed shores that introduce another daring bound for freedom.

I’ve always enjoyed their cold-eyed character studies, and this one has a knowing glint as it infectiously captures the brio, elan and transgressing ambition of our subject.

In my book (a hefty tome), the “streets of London” verse is amongst the very best in their entire catalogue. It bottles the spirit of the time and effortlessly decants the sensation and impact of excessive celebrity. There’s a mastery here that perhaps bumps incongruously against a slightly clunky opening stanza. But that’s looking in the mirror searching for wrinkles again….

This song is, essentially, a celebration of human derring-do, of “jumping the barrier”, of… arriving. In this sense, the use of an accompaniment that evokes the Please era mirrors the moment Pet Shop Boys themselves arrived.

The remixes take this celebration of human achievement to its logical conclusion, upping the tempo so that a song about dancing over obstacles and beating the system finds its rightful place on the dancefloor.

I’m off to emote over the b-sides now…

Drico.

EP up on Apple.

Love the ‘b-sides’

‘If Jesus had a sister’ is very ‘My October Symphony’

I like the new single - very Please sounding - don’t instantly love it. It’s in the grower column. But all I’ve heard so far makes it very positive for the new album.

Sense of Time is the single

Dancing Star is the b-side


They got it backwards.

Wow, Sense of time is great!
Dancing star is quite the banger too. If Jesus had a sister... doesn't do much for me.