Jase on Pet Shop Boys

Nightlife

The Boys turn in another good performace with Nightlife. While the songs are a bit slower (à la Behaviour) and the lyrics seem less thoughtful, the album's songs are catchy little pop tunes. Nightlife starts out with straight-ahead dance tunes and turns into more showy songs, especially "In Denial", a duet with Kylie Minogue. My favorites here are "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" and "The Only One".

This one wins the award for longest song title. "I Don't Know..." is another dance/show tune mix that works a little bit better as a pop song. The chorus is infectuous, and if you can remember the song's title, then you can sing along. "Silver Age" is a slow song, reminiscent of "The Calm Before the Storm". "Screaming" is, of course, the song from the Psycho soundtrack, although this version is slightly (almost undetectably) different. This CD is enhanced with a video of the single.

This companion disc is a perfect example of why singles should only be marketed on one disc. The remixes aren't really worthy of the cost of a separate disc, although the Morales Mix isn't bad. "Je t'aime... moi non plus" (which means "I love you... me neither" in French) is a remake of a Serge Gainsbourg song. It's an embarrassing track that could best be described as phone sex in a disco. (Not that I have ever experienced that!)

"You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk"

OK, so the lyrics for "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" sound a lot like a cheesy country music song. The rhymes sound like Neil used a rhyming dictionary to come up with them. But this song is catchy and easily gets stuck in your head. "Lies" is a mostly-instrumental track with Chris providing some vocals. "Sail Away" is a somewhat showy Noel Coward cover. This single includes an enhanced section with a video and a few photos from the concert tour.

Essential

In truth, I just have a copy of this disc on CD-R. It's an OK compilation, but there's nothing really all that exciting here, except for the original version of "Opportunities".

"Somewhere"

Hmm... the sleeve says "Album Version" for "Somewhere" and "A Red Letter Day", but "Somewhere" isn't on any album, and it's a different version of "A Red Letter Day" than the one on Bilingual. I guess this is another case of the American record company screwing things up. (But at least they're not trying to market two separate single packages.)

"Somewhere" is one of those interesting singles from the Boys. It's from the musical West Side Story and was co-written by Stephen Sondheim (who wrote "Losing My Mind"). The music is a furious dance track, but the vocal style is very showtune-ish. It works, though. I think it's a great, catchy song. "Delusions of Grandeur" is a good b-side, too.

Although I don't usually care too much for remixes, I really do like this single. "Single-Bilingual" is, of course, the single version of the album track "Single". It isn't much different from the album version, except that it doesn't fade in from the end of "Discoteca". It still ends with the refrain of "Discoteca". The new version of "Discoteca" is very cool; it's a bit faster than the album version. The final mix of "Discoteca" begs the question, "How much latitude should the remixers have when they name the remix?"

This double a-side features two forgettable remixes and two b-sides. "The Calm Before the Storm" is showtune-ish, while "Betrayed" is a slow PSB dance track. They're not as good as the album tracks, but they're not bad, either.

Disco 2

If you buy this album, chances are you'll only get the first disc. This version was a limited edition that came with a second disc. After I bought it, I was glad that I picked up the limited edition version, because the first disc is pretty lame.

Disco 2 is a a megamix. That is, every track runs together, creating a 45 minute continuous program. I guess if I were a DJ I might think that it was cool, but I doubt it. If I were a DJ, I could put together a megamix like this myself. Remixes tend not to be very interesting, and there are no exceptions here. The only standout here is "Absolutely Fabulous", an instumental that they released as a single in Europe only for charity. Unfortunately, the track runs into the others so that it doesn't sound good when played independently.

I thought the second disc was fantastic when I bought it. The first three tracks are on Alternative, though, so I don't listen to it as much now. The single version of "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" is very good, and since it isn't on the American single (as if that makes any sense) I am still glad to have this disc.

I'm not sure if "Absolutely Fabulous" is an official PSB release. The single only says that the song is produced by Pet Shop Boys; it doesn't say that they perform the song. ("Pet Shop Boys" doesn't even appear on the case spine.) In any case, this incredibly infectuous mostly-instrumental track was released to support the Comic Relief charity. Neil sings "we're absolutely fabulous" (and that's it) while samples from the BBC sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous" play in the background. The single and the "Our Tribe" mix by Rollo are very cool.

PS - I've actually seen a few episodes of this show on the American cable channel Comedy Central. I have seen the one where most of the samples come from. The (loose) plot revolves around the daughter (sorry, I don't know the characters' names) preparing for a school project.

Very

While this album is generally uneven, it's a great Pet Shop Boys release. "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" is my favorite PSB song ever. It has a very groovy 70s rhythm that gets under your skin. Like Bilingual, Very is filled with great tracks that make you want to stand and shake your booty. Another favorite here is "One in a Million".

The mixes on this single are mostly forgettable. I was annoyed that the b-side "Hey, Headmaster" wasn't included here, as it was on the European issue. The new mix of "I Want to Wake Up" by Johnny Marr is very cool though.

Discography

The subtitle to this album is "The Complete Singles Collection". Hmm... wasn't "How Can You Expect to be Taken Seriously?" a single? Oh well.

This compilation is good for both Pet Shop Boys fans and casual listeners alike. Fans like it for the single (read: short) versions of the singles on Introspective and two new songs: "DJ Culture" and "Was It Worth It?". The casual listener appreciates a good collection of Pet Shop Boys songs. As a PSB fan, it is amusing to listen to this compilation, however. Sometimes I can't figure out why some songs were released as singles. "Left to My Own Devices", "Being Boring", and "DJ Culture" are pretty mediocre songs; with so many other good tracks, I scratch my head trying to figure out why these songs were tapped as singles. Oh well. It's still a great résumé of their music.

Behaviour

The Boys teamed up with Harold Faltermeyer (who did "Axel F" for Beverly Hills Cop and the music for Fletch) to produce this album. The outcome is... well... kind of boring. I like a lot of the songs on this album, especially "The End of the World", "To Face the Truth", and "Nervously". But the album is pretty slow; I like to listen to it when I want to mellow out. Johnny Marr plays guitar on a few tracks on this album.

This was my first PSB CD single. I bought it in anticipation of the release of Behaviour. "So Hard" is a fairly good song, but nothing to get excited about. "It Must Be Obvious" is a pretty good b-side, too, but not one of their best. Included here is the long version of "Paninaro" that shows up on Disco.

This song was only released as a single in the U.S., but it showed up on the "Where the Streets Have No Name" single in Europe. The American sleeve features the same picture of Neil as on the sleeve for "Where the Streets Have No Name". Anyway, the album version of "How Can You Expect to be Taken Seriously?" sounds pretty cheesy. The "Perfect Attitude" version sounds much better. The extra tracks on this single are nothing exceptional, either.

Introspective

This dance album was released after a few non-album singles had been released in Europe. All the versions here are long extended mixes. I remember being annoyed when Introspective came out that I couldn't buy a domestic single of "Always on My Mind" in the U.S. The "medley" version here turns dumb when it rolls into the "In My House" part. This isn't a bad collection of songs, but Discography offers superior (shorter) versions of most of these songs.

Disco

I hardly ever listen to this one. This is a remix album that came out a little while after Please. Shorter versions of "In the Night" and "Paninaro" are on Alternative, and the remix of "Opportunities" here is really lame. "The Full Horror" version of "Suburbia" is good, though.

Here's a disc I put together with my CD recorder of some loose PSB tracks, especially b-sides from the Bilingual singles. (Maybe I should have called it Alternative 2.) My favorites here are "Hit and Miss" and "Absolutely Fabulous".

This video is a compilation of songs from Very, plus a low-budget vid for "Absolutely Fabulous". The Very videos are all visually themed similar to the album cover insert. In fact, all of the singles derive their covers from their respective videos (except "Can You Forgive Her?"). The videos are cartoon-ish productions prepared by a computer. It's visually entertaining, but can get a bit old toward the end.

This was an early collection of videos that came out about the same time as Disco. Interestingly enough, most of the videos still look pretty good. I still think the video for "West End Girls" is cool, with Neil wandering around with an overcoat and Chris following right behind. The first video version of "Opportunities" is for the original recording of the song. The second is for the version found on Please. The second video version is kind of corny. My favorite video here is for "Love Comes Quickly".