Pet Shop Boys Community

My favorite "era" is Behaviour/Performance with Very a very close second place. The early albums are all brilliant of course, and the last 10 years have produced some of my favorite PSB tracks here and there. But in general I think that je ne sais quois has been missing since 1996.

Fundamental and its b sides have changed all that. Easily their best album in 10 years and quite possibly the new Behaviour. Time will tell, but if you'd asked me even a year ago whether PSB would ever write lyrics on a par with '85 to '95 I would have guessed no.

I'm delighted to be proven wrong.

Lush wrote:

BlueSwan wrote: That's hardly a fact. Especially since Please is their best album.

I thought your favorite was "Introspective"??

Sometimes it's "Introspective", sometimes it's "Please". Those two are definitely my two favourite PSB albums and have been so just about always.

Anyways, it's way too early for me to tell how Fundamental rates compared to other albums. Suffice it to say that IMO it's the first PSB album without a weak track since "Actually", and that I absolutely love it.

"Hit Music"? "Shopping"?

I agree though that the standard is very high on Fundamental. The jury is still out on "Numb", but other than that I like every song on there.

I feel a poll coming up: Which PSB album has the strongest "weakest track".

BlueSwan wrote: I feel a poll coming up: Which PSB album has the strongest "weakest track".

A good question. Here's my list:

1. Very (One In A Million)
2. Actually (Hit Music)
3. Behaviour (...Seriously?)
4. Introspective (It's Alright)
5. Please (...Live Together?)
6. Release (E-Mail)
7. Fundamental (Numb)
8. Nightlife (New York City Boy)
9. Bilingual (Saturday Night Forever/Metamorphosis)

BlueSwan wrote:"Hit Music"? "Shopping"?

Agree! Although I still find "Electricity" to be the worst album track of all time IMO.

I'm going to steal your poll idea for worst track though (actually, not steal as such as I already wanted to do something about the worst track )

Eldritch wrote:

BlueSwan wrote: I feel a poll coming up: Which PSB album has the strongest "weakest track".

A good question. Here's my list:

1. Very (One In A Million)
2. Actually (Hit Music)
3. Behaviour (...Seriously?)
4. Introspective (It's Alright)
5. Please (...Live Together?)
6. Release (E-Mail)
7. Fundamental (Numb)
8. Nightlife (New York City Boy)
9. Bilingual (Saturday Night Forever/Metamorphosis)

I'd go with this except your choice for Introspective as Always on My Mind/In My House which is far worse than It's Alright in my opinion.

synthpopfan wrote:

ArseSpanker wrote:Fundamental is clearly the best thing they've done since the highly underrated 'Nightlife'...".

I loved both Release and Nightlife. And yes, Nightlife was very underrated and Release is better than most people think. Hell, I really enjoy Bilingual!

Not that I'm telling anyone off here, but the key to appreciating the albums, I feel, is to listen to them 'for what they are' and not 'how you think they should sound'.

I think Release is a tremendous album - whether most agree or not.

My $1.47

I agree with every word you say. I think it's their power to do something else every once in a while. and I think most of the fans think they should always sound like very/behaviour... Release is definitely a great album.

Don Juan wrote:

synthpopfan wrote:

ArseSpanker wrote:Fundamental is clearly the best thing they've done since the highly underrated 'Nightlife'...".

I loved both Release and Nightlife. And yes, Nightlife was very underrated and Release is better than most people think. Hell, I really enjoy Bilingual!

Not that I'm telling anyone off here, but the key to appreciating the albums, I feel, is to listen to them 'for what they are' and not 'how you think they should sound'.

I think Release is a tremendous album - whether most agree or not.

My $1.47

I agree with every word you say. I think it's their power to do something else every once in a while. and I think most of the fans think they should always sound like very/behaviour... Release is definitely a great album.

I agree with every word you both said

no, far from it. better than disco 2 tho.

BlueSwan wrote:"Hit Music"? "Shopping"?

...are both great album tracks in my opinion. While they are not that strong individually, they both fit into the album extremely well.

I'm very disappointed. Where are all the over the top disco stompers, I didn't hear any. Plus if I hadn't have known before hand Trevor Horn was at the helm I'd never have guessed.

Very/Fundamental
Bilingual
Behaviour
Actually
Introspective
Release
Please
Nightlife
Disco 2
Disco 3
Disco

I'd like to point out, that while I often slag off Bilingual, I still think it's a great album. It's just compared to the utter genius that blesses most of PSB's output, that it pales.

The Fundamental testicles are bulging, on the verge of exploding. How they long to blow their massive load all over us and how I wait in anticipation to feel their hot man liquid in my eyes.

Only a couple of weeks left!