Seriously, is there anything better than the Pet Shop Boys?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (380 of them)

They were still great on "Very", but their output has been somewhat more patchy after that. Lots of great stuff on "Nightlife", though, which I consider their most underrated album.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 14 June 2005 23:35 (nineteen years ago) link

wow, i had no idea....i always had to defend my love for psb. can we talk about the voice? its so smooth, queer and nasal yet strong and sexy - hot!! I esp. love it when he says "Phan Tum UV Thuh AAH PUH RA" on "Theatre" and the voices at the end that go crazy. Also Love "Go West" - again that voice and that ridiculous anthemic disco beat they apply to everything.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Tuesday, 14 June 2005 23:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Very, I remember hearing but once but not keeping.

Sounded so clunky I remember though. It was like they ran out of gracefulness in musical and lyrical ideas really suddenly. Which was about the only thing that really saved them when paired with the thin and near-formulaic programming they had in their music.

― little meh, Tuesday, 14 June 2005 23:44 (nineteen years ago) link

that ridiculous ~~anthemic~~ 80's disco beat they apply to everything always smacked of laziness and a too-rigid & limited musical scope to me... took them a long, long time before it got to be a bad thing though.

― little meh, Tuesday, 14 June 2005 23:48 (nineteen years ago) link

wow, i had no idea....i always had to defend my love for psb.

Lest anyone forget that the negative effects of rockism are REAL!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 14 June 2005 23:57 (nineteen years ago) link

"One And One Make Five" is their most underappreciated song.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 00:00 (nineteen years ago) link

the rockism at home was really bad. i'm glad i have a name for it ....now i begin my recovery (seriously)

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 00:06 (nineteen years ago) link

wow, i had no idea....i always had to defend my love for psb.

I had no idea either. Never understood what people liked about them.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 00:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Interesting, J-rock! You and I have many similar tastes but I can sorta sense why they might not have been your thing. Can you tease it out a bit?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 00:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I dunno. It's kinda hard to put my finger on, and I haven't listened them in years, but Neil Tennant's voice never did anything for me and their sound didn't seem to ever vary much. A lot of their material struck me as being rather formulaic. I used to get rather annoyed when people would discuss them in the same breath as New Order or Depeche Mode, but I've relaxed a bit since then. Having said that, I did always enjoy their cover of "Always on my mind".

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 02:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Bud Powell is probably better than the Pet Shop Boys. Charlie Parker was probably just a little bit better than the Pet Shop Boys. Just a little bit, of course, it was a tough battle, but I think, in the end, that the yardbird wins this one...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 03:03 (nineteen years ago) link

James Brown? the Hi Rhythm section? Zig and George? it's tough, but ... in the end, I think the African-American geniuses take this one, sorry...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 03:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I checked the magic 8-ball, and ... looks like Led Zep and Morbid Angel come up on top as well.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 03:06 (nineteen years ago) link

party pooper

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 03:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm just answering the question! I'm allowed to, right? If the thread said, "let us praise the Pet Shop Boys", I would admit that I like a single here and there. Or I wouldn't say anything at all. But the thread asked a question, and I answered. And while I'm here I'll put in a word for the dear departed Oscar Brown, Jr. -- I think this great man, who just passed away, did a lot to enrich a lot of lives, even if yr avg anglophile fucknut doesn't care who he is, and so he should probably be celebrated a little bit too. Not as much as the Pet Shop Boys of course, but a little bit.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 03:34 (nineteen years ago) link

or sorry, i thought this was a nancyboy disco beat lovefest.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 03:45 (nineteen years ago) link

"Young Offender" is the best song on Very.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:02 (nineteen years ago) link

I have a t-shirt that says:

Pet Shop Boys >>> Morbid Angel

x-post

― tipustiger, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:11 (nineteen years ago) link

In response to the original question:

pre-1996 PSBs: probably not
post-1996 PSBs: plenty

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:12 (nineteen years ago) link

I would put ABBA above them, I think. But nobody else.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Not even Teddybears shtml?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Not even, alas.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Adam otm. everyone otm. except Stormy, who can keep flying the stars and stripes against the anglophile fucknuts and the UN bases in the hills.

I love the PSBs. I actually am a huge fan of "One and One Make Five", love the way the "people must be jumping" works as both Todd Terry style cheesey chorus line and actually part of the song too.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:28 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm glad I missed Dan Perry's lastest opinion-as-fact outburst over the jolly little number 'Domino Dancing'!

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Predictably, I would put The Cure and Prince above them. Also Severed Heads and Orbital. I think they're tied with My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, The Prodigy and A Tribe Called Quest.

(PS "Domino Dancing" is fucking awful and you are all worse people for supporting it ok thx XOXOXOXO MWAH)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:31 (nineteen years ago) link

The love Dan wants is of a different kind.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:33 (nineteen years ago) link

"West End Girls" I agree is probably their best, and yeah how many times can you play it without it seeming old. I go crazy for it whoever plays it at our clubnight (often me but I've passed the virus on), a really great "last tune", and brilliant to dance to. There's a Bobby O remix from the early 90s (I think) that's really good aswell, my friend has the vinyl.

I don't really know where to start discussing the PSB, so many good songs, I like about 5 times more PSB songs than any other act.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:39 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought the Bobby O version was the original? I get the song's complicated history confused.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:46 (nineteen years ago) link

Alternative is easily one of my ten favorite albums. There is so much brilliance encapsulated there, it's scary.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:49 (nineteen years ago) link

There's a Bobby O remix from the early 90s (I think) that's really good aswell

Bobby O apparently wrote W.E.G. and then the PSBs 'stole' it.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:50 (nineteen years ago) link

I used to get rather annoyed when people would discuss them in the same breath as New Order or Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode = music for teenagers
PSB = music for adults

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Oddly, I think Alex is OTM even though I strenuously disagree with him. I'm not quite sure how that works yet but I'm sure I'll figure out a way.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Well, the crucial flaw in my statement is that I failed to address where New Order falls in this particular equation....partly because I don't think they fit in either camp.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:55 (nineteen years ago) link

The closest I can get is Depeche Mode is more visceral and PSB is more cerebral but that doesn't really hold up well, either.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:57 (nineteen years ago) link

Incidentally, while it sounds like a put-down, calling Depeche Mode "music for teenagers" wasn't meant to sound as dismissive as it does. It just strikes me that their particular sound/aesthetic appeals more to the maudlin teen smitten by unrequited love, while there is a world-weary sophistication to the music of the PSB that I think your average teen would not immediately warm to.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 12:57 (nineteen years ago) link

Depeche Mode/New Order less pop really, surely? see Tennant's quote about playfulness/seriousness on the other thread.

As far as I understand, Bobby O went back and did another mix in the early 90s. So sez my friend anyway.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Depeche Mode less pop than PSB??

B-b-b-but Depeche Mode is all pop, surely, no?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:04 (nineteen years ago) link

(despite Dave Gahan's "rock" wannabe preenings)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Depeche Mode is for teenagers because their lyrics are silly and overwrought.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Depeche are a bit moodier. They're also a bit less cool - the PSBs could be ridiculous but they always knew exactly how and why they were being ridiculous. Depeche's ridiculousness was less intentional, born out of over-ambition (and hence more admirable and endearing maybe).

I've really come round to DM's singles though, at least up until they went rock, a ridiculosity too far.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:04 (nineteen years ago) link

(I'm kinda imagining how Stormy squares Dan's musical knowledge and abilities with his love of PSB. It must cause Stormy distress, the poor chap.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:05 (nineteen years ago) link

What makes PSB effortlessly cooler than Depeche Mode is that they SIMPLY DON'T CARE what you think of them or whether or not they appear "cool".

Depeche Mode, on the other hand (whom I love, I should point out), take VERY CAREFUL AND STUDIED MEASURES to appear conventionally cool at virtually every turn.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:06 (nineteen years ago) link

...these days, at least.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:07 (nineteen years ago) link

wow I agree with Dan! about "One and One Make Five", I didn't notice it hadn't been mentioned when I commented on it!

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Depeche Mode, on the other hand (whom I love, I should point out), take VERY CAREFUL AND STUDIED MEASURES to appear conventionally cool at virtually every turn.

That may not have been the rule circa this photo....

http://est.hu/imgup/regi/est/konnyu/interju/2003-01/a_depeche_mode-tol_a_yazoo-n_at_az_erasure-ig_3.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:11 (nineteen years ago) link

The PSBs are enormously self-aware, though, all their interviews and liner notes show them to be incredibly self-conscious about pop and the biz and their place in it. I don't think you can start a career as a Top 10 pop star in yr mid-30s without an amazingly high degree of awareness and nous. So I'd say they think a LOT about what and which people think of them and whether they're cool. They do, however, know that being 'conventionally cool' would never have worked for them.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:12 (nineteen years ago) link

(I'm kinda imagining how Stormy squares Dan's musical knowledge and abilities with his love of PSB. It must cause Stormy distress, the poor chap.)

I think that, much like I don't give a flying fuck what music Stormy likes, he doesn't give a flying fuck what music I like.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah I think part of the beauty of the PSB is the way they create a sort of allied opposition to say, manufactured pop, by accepting so many of the fundamentals which make the latter attractive, but deciding to control their own image as best they can. Of course this is so much better than denying image exists like so so many other "alternative" bands.

I still can't get my head around Depeche Mode as more pop than PSB, Depeche Mode are alot darker and more serious, to me, I think that's why they've always had a more public level of credibility.

I mean, outside of this thread, in the real world, there are so many people who think the PSBs are just an embarassing blip from the 80s and early 90s? I don't mean total ignorami either, isn't that kind of a recieved wisdom among alot of music fans?

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:19 (nineteen years ago) link

No, well not in the UK, they're quite well respected, there are plenty of people who don't like them but that's not the same thing.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I think that holds less true outside a loosely critical or obsessive world, though, Tom. If I ask people at work about the PSBs they'd see them as equivalent to Erasure or someone, rather than serious respectable acts such as U2.

― jim (jim5et), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 280 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.