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

and I don't think "pop" is or ever was an outdated sound, their music is no less weakened by time than that of the house music guys of the era, indeed stands up alot more than most.

regardless of where they performed, I simply don't hear the PSBs as music of any era (except perhaps the very late stuff) as failed attempts at house. They are a pop act, they never wanted to become fully house, what would have been the point? Would have been just jumping on a bandwagon.

Is there even one house track on their "Back To Mine"?

Not to say they didn't like house music, of course they did, but what you like and even what you perform at does not equate to wanting to be that sound. They are the essence of pop, a concept which has infinite possibilities, far beyond those of actual genres like house.

And I say this as a house fan/DJ. I only play one PSBs record ever, when I DJ, "Some Speculation", but I don't choose not to play the others because I think "these are crap house tracks", I don't play them because they are NOT house, the PSBs never could be anonymous enough to make house music and that is no failure in my eyes, for a band with several albums and that kind of career. Far far far from it.

"Always On My Mind " (#8)
"Domino Dancing" (#5)
"Left To My Own Devices" (#8)
"So Hard" (#4)
"How Can You Expect..." (#19)
"Where The Streets Have No Name" (#4)
"Can You Forgive Her" (#1)
"Go West" (#1)
"Absolutely Fabulous" (#7)
"I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing" (#2)
"Paninaro 95" (#4)
"Yesterday When I Was Mad" (#4)
"Before" (#1)
"Somewhere" (#19)
"To Step Aside" (#1)
"Break For Love" (#1)
"I Don't Know What You Want..." (#2)
"New York City Boy" (#1)
"Sexy Northerner" (#15)

1. Discoteca
2. Single
3. Up Against It
4. It Always Comes As A Surprise
5. Hit and Miss
6. Before
7. Se A Vida E
8. The Survivors
9. Red letter day
10. Betrayed
11. To Step Aside
12. Saturday Night Forever

"Chris: This is where we invented left-field New York Deep House music."

They might post-rationalise a distaste for house, but in being cut off from the great youth movement of their time the PSBs were caught like the rat pack in the mid 50s surveying rock n roll. It was a moment of crisis. I am not devaluing what they did after 87 but it was a key moment for them.

I think this is true, but I don't think it was because the PSB cared less about having a dance floor hit. (For example, they've continued to use trendy remixers that they suspect will be the next big thing.) Rather I think it's mostly because the nature of dance music in the UK changed in the early 90s, becoming more of an specialized industry that could be a little snobby about "pop" acts and their "extended remixes," as well as a more segmented one (thus house became more distinguished from hi-nrg and the latter consigned to G.A.Y., etc).

YES, I TOTALLY REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I HEARD THAT SONG ON THE RADIO. I REJOICED - IT WAS LIKE "FINALLY, THEY ARE PLAYING MY KIND OF MUSIC ON MAINSTREAM RADIO!!!"

I was not a hipster in 1986 (I was in jr. high) but my initial reaction was that I liked "West End Girls" but liked "Suburbia" and "Opportunities" even more.

They've been working with Trevor Horn again. And they've said the new stuff is more "electronic and quite epic".

By the early-mid 90s, they had very much moved away from the pop spotlight, at least the teen audience one. They still had Top 20 hits, but they were more fan-bought rather than long-staying top 10 blockbusters, with the odd novelty-led exception like 'Go West'.

But....where they liked by the enlightened pop connoisseurs in the 80s? You know, the type who flock this place ;) Or perhaps those kind of people didnt exist then?

http://www.ondarock.it/photo/Popgroup.gif

vs.

http://bobdylan.50g.com/the_band.jpg

what's stunning Dan is how your opinion of PSB stuff is so spot on with mine, and yet wrt NewOrder we're at odds about half the time. odds in a good way of course.

is ILM still defined as the board that likes MBV and PSBs? or is it now pavement?

Conversely, the slamming bombast of "Opportunites" clicked with me from the get-go and the wistful charms of "Love Comes Quickly" made me a complete believer.

I remember one of my mates (a fellow American--I woould never really use "mate," obviously), a pen-pal really, who I discussed music with a lot, liking the Pet Shop Boys a lot in the 80s; and he was a bit of an "enlightened pop listener" or whatever the phrase was above. I honestly can't remember what they sound like, but I don't think they'd be my type of music anyway, especially now. Sorry about the syntax.

see: Steely Dan

Just for Dan, what do we all think of the Swe-pop cover of "Domino Dancing" done by PSB cover band "West End Girls"

Forthcoming singles by them will be "The Sound of the Atom Splitting" and "How I Learned To Hate Rock'n'Roll". No, I just made that up.

MP3 is here:
http://home.iprimus.com.au/edwardo/nodelete/domino.zip