Very the best album of all time?

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Very · #46 Post by **Very** » Mon 12 Sep 2005, 5:55 pm

jamie1978 wrote:
amandote wrote:
Footsteps is great.
Jamie, we're so different
All I can say, is thank God you dont work in A&R for Parlophone.

Janet Street-Porter · Mon 12 Sep 2005, 7:20 pm

Behaviour and Very are their strongest albums; Behaviour is the most complete from the opening wah wahs on Being boring to the orchestral flourishes at the end of Jealousy. It is very much one movement of autumnal beauty.

Very Relentless is their pop masterpiece; a kaleidoscope of colour and irresistible melodies.

The albums which followed are all patchy; Bilingual is the best but Metamorphosis for one is appalling; Nightlife suffers from Closer to Heavenitis and Release is simply not Pet Shop Boys enough.

Pani · #48 Post by **Pani** » Mon 12 Sep 2005, 8:42 pm

One of the crowd wrote:I voted for Disco 2

Hey, why not choosing another 4 'greatest albums'?
Like 'Please', 'Nightlife', 'Very - Relentless' (2 in 1!),
'Bilingual' ...

Darkmoon · #49 Post by **Darkmoon** » Mon 12 Sep 2005, 10:23 pm

'Very' I find to be way too 'busy'.
'Behaviour is a subtler album. I must admit, when I first heard it, I had to get used to their 'new' sound. But after listening to it a couple of times I could relate to it. It really grew on me, and it is still the album I play the most! From the first listen I already heard 'To face the truth' and 'The end of the world' would be my favorites. Today, I still think 'To face the truth' is one of their best tracks EVER. The arrangement is amazing; listen to it a few times!

'Very' was okay, but I don't know, as much as I *love* pop-music, it was too shallow or perhaps too forgettable for me, a few exceptions aside, (I still don't understand why they didn't release 'One in a million' right after 'Go west').
Overall, the production of the entire album sounds a little too simple for me. 'Behaviour' was more subtle and 'more seriously worked out' in my opinion... I'm still waiting for Behaviour II and III like with the 'Disco' albums

glennjridge · #50 Post by **glennjridge** » Mon 12 Sep 2005, 11:53 pm

very for me is special as thats the first CD of theirs I bought(well in tape form)about 2 years after it came out.I had seen the video for liberation somewhere and that was the start of my PSB fandom.

that CD just summed up everything I like about the PSB. bright upbeat pretty electronic songs with strings.

Eldritch · #51 Post by **Eldritch** » Tue 13 Sep 2005, 7:18 am

Janet Street-Porter wrote:Nightlife suffers from Closer to Heavenitis.

So true. They really shot themselves in the forr by writing Nightlife and CTF in tandem. With the confusion as to which track is going to end where, Nightlife ended up as two thirds of a classic album with some serious quality control problems on the last third and b-sides.

Normally you can fix the leaks on any PSB album by replacing some tracks with b-sides of the same era, but even that won't work with Nightlife. Ghost Of Myself could and should have been on the album, but other than that the b-sides were forgettable at best.

Shopper · #52 Post by **Shopper** » Thu 15 Sep 2005, 9:26 am

why cant we just vote for the brilliant 'Introspective'...cross votes will only negate the overall count..its like the oscars

Dreamcatcher2003 · Thu 15 Sep 2005, 10:47 am

Grover wrote:
Zeus On The Loose wrote:Behaviour is not generally regarded as their best album, it's just a big favourite among the current fanbase on the internet, the majority of which became PSB fans in the 90's. It was generally considered a disappointment at the time and tons of people stopped liking PSB because of it, then briefly came back with Very and totally lost hope after it.

Their best album objectively is Actually, though my fave is Please.
I am not part of that majority. I became a fan in the eigthies and at the time I -indeed- was rather dissapointed by Behaviour. I guess the more I grew up, the more I could appreciate an album like Behaviour. I am more a 80's kind of PSB fan I guess. Almost everything they did in the 80's was just great. At least, for me. And indeed... when the first single of 'Very' was released (Can you forgive her?) I thought....'yes!!! finally some single that is typical (or should i say : 'very'....) PSB! Can you forgive her? is just brilliant. Music-wise, lyrics-wise and video-wise.

I certainly did not loose hope after it. In my view 'Very' is overrated. 'Actually', for example is a much better (meaing: i like it much better) album indeed. When I first heard 'Billigual' in the record shop... I listened to the total album in one go. It thought is was fantastic. This album sounded good from the beginning... whereas some other albums.... had to grew on me. I still believe 'Billigual' is a fantastic album. I can't believe so many fans dish it. I lost some hope when Nightlife came out. I thought this was the very first album that somehow did not sound like PSB. Even 'Release' is more PSB then Nightlife. I am not kidding. But.... I think the PSB produced some of their best music during the Release era. You just listen to their B-sides from that era and you'll know what I mean. Warm, beautiful, full of emotion. Yes, I certainly didn't lost my hopes then.

Quite agreed. For most of 80s fans, Bilingual appears to be much better than Very or Behaviour thanks to its sarcastic urban anxiety sound and cold music- for 80s fans Very sometimes appears to be a parody of PSB itself- except for Young Offender and the suberp Can you forgive her?...with that overly excited or saccharine happiness or irritating backvocals to keep PSB updated -listen to the Theater with all those silly "yeahs" in the background- women backvocals with full of "yeahs" were very popular those days it just didn't fit PSB.

And I don't wanna talk about Behaviour- if any band would have ever wanted to self-destroy itself, there had never been a better way to release something like Behaviour after the glamorous, brain-knocking three albums. I guess Neil and Chris immediately knew where they went wrong and try to take back things with Very but it was too late- yeah the Very sold well, produced a huge global hit but it did never have the lingering effect of previous efforts and majority of Very-lovers moved on very quickly.

jamie1978 · #54 Post by **jamie1978** » Thu 15 Sep 2005, 1:31 pm

Very was the first PSB album I bought, around Xmas 93 when 'I wouldn't normally...' was getting heavy airplay.

I was hugely dissapointed. Can you forgive her? was brilliant, 'I wouldnt normally' was radically different to the version I knew and loved, and many of the tracks sounded pale and washed out. In fact, the only songs on the album I really liked were Can you forgive her? and Yesterday, when I was mad.

It grew on me over time, but I still dislike 'A different point of view', 'One and one make five' and 'One in a million' to the point that I cannot listen to them.

I don't believe I am alone in thinking that despite the three very strong lead singles from Very, it was a real dissapointment to many casual fans or new buyers at the time. Myself included.

But, by then of course, I had caught the Pet Shop Boys 'virus', as as we are all aware, its an incurable disease.

#55 Post by **StevePSB** » Thu 15 Sep 2005, 2:16 pm

I wasn't very impressed with Behaviour when it first came out, but the more I listened to it the more I liked it. It was a departure and took some getting used to, but I now think it is their best album by a huge margin. Nothing at all to do with forcing myself to like it.

Very, whilst good isn't my favourite as it is musically (if not necessarily lyrically) a bit too lightweight and 'pop' to be at the top of my list. It's probably about half way in my rankings, although I never really think too much about charting their albums in my own personal list.

StevePSB

Eldritch · #56 Post by **Eldritch** » Thu 15 Sep 2005, 6:30 pm

jamie1978 wrote:Very was the first PSB album I bought, around Xmas 93 when 'I wouldn't normally...' was getting heavy airplay.

I was hugely dissapointed. Can you forgive her? was brilliant, 'I wouldnt normally' was radically different to the version I knew and loved, and many of the tracks sounded pale and washed out. In fact, the only songs on the album I really liked were Can you forgive her? and Yesterday, when I was mad.

It grew on me over time, but I still dislike 'A different point of view', 'One and one make five' and 'One in a million' to the point that I cannot listen to them.

I don't believe I am alone in thinking that despite the three very strong lead singles from Very, it was a real dissapointment to many casual fans or new buyers at the time. Myself included.

But, by then of course, I had caught the Pet Shop Boys 'virus', as as we are all aware, its an incurable disease.

Well, I was well into PSB in 1993, but still Very seemed like a dream come true. Still I think the first 7 songs and the way they flow together match any 7 songs on any album I own. It still sounds like a perfect pop album to me and their career highlight. 1 And 1 Makes 5 plus 1 In A 1 000 000 are mediocre in a generic way, but other than that, the album is sheer class. If they had replaced the former with Too Many People and the latter with Shameless (both songs are very similar in mood and tempo to their counterparts), the end result would have been flawless in my books.

BlueSwan · #57 Post by **BlueSwan** » Thu 15 Sep 2005, 6:37 pm

The Theatre
Can You Forgive Her
Dreaming Of The Queen
Liberation
One In A Million
Yesterday, When I Was Mad
Go West

Those are all superb songs. The rest are so-so to me.

Eldritch · #58 Post by **Eldritch** » Thu 15 Sep 2005, 6:41 pm

Dreamcatcher2003 wrote:with that overly excited or saccharine happiness or irritating backvocals to keep PSB updated -listen to the Theater with all those silly "yeahs" in the background- women backvocals with full of "yeahs" were very popular those days it just didn't fit PSB.
.

But what did the peeps in the Metallica forum think of those "yeahs"?

Janet Street-Porter · Thu 15 Sep 2005, 6:43 pm

Eldritch wrote:Well, I was well into PSB in 1993, but still Very seemed like a dream come true. Still I think the first 7 songs and the way they flow together match any 7 songs on any album I own. It still sounds like a perfect pop album to me and their career highlight. 1 And 1 Makes 5 plus 1 In A 1 000 000 are mediocre in a generic way, but other than that, the album is sheer class. If they had replaced the former with Too Many People and the latter with Shameless (both songs are very similar in mood and tempo to their counterparts), the end result would have been flawless in my books.

Exactly. Very Relentless is my favourite PSB package ever; it was so perfect right down to Postscript after Go West. I agree with you about the possible inclusion of Shameless and Too Many People but these are minor quibbles. I think we got so used to their brilliance that we were actually spoilt and the post-Very era was bound to disappoint.

Eldritch · #60 Post by **Eldritch** » Thu 15 Sep 2005, 6:51 pm

Janet Street-Porter wrote:these are minor quibbles.

True. It's not even looking at the gift horse at the mouth; it's more like checking its pedicure and complaining about its elocution skills.

As for the post-Very era: it's also the question of N & C knowing that Very was perfect in a way and therefore trying to do something different with Bilingual. Which was commendable in itself but partly misguided in practise (read: Electricity, Metamorphosis et al).