If You Don't Have It Yet, Get Actually WITH Further Listening!

The Good: An enduring pop album made even better through an extra disc filled with music!
The Bad: A bit repetitive in the content.
The Basics: A great value, if one can find it, the two-disc version of Actually has enough content to please anyone who likes pop-dance music!


When I started the painful process of culling my audio cassette collection and deciding what to buy as compact discs, I had very few albums that I figured I would want for the rest of my life in the medium which I had slowly been forced to accept. One of the few which was something of a no-brainer for me was Actually (click here for that review!). I had not known any of the music of the Pet Shop Boys when the album was originally released and my brother was a big fan (he would sing me their songs, expecting that I would suddenly recognize the songs, which in retrospect seems very funny to me). I was a bit cheesed, though when I bought Actually on c.d. because about a year after I did, I discovered the deluxe import version of Actually.

The two-disc version of Actually is actually a collector's dream. This version of Actually contains the original Actually as well as a disc of "Further Listening 1987 - 1988." Because I have already reviewed the original pop/techno/dance album, I shall only use this space to discuss the "Further Listening" disc. The reason for this is simple. Disc one is identical in every way to the original Actually. The only reason to buy this two-disc set is for the bonus album and the booklet with the extended liner notes on the original album and the b-side recordings found in this two-disc set. The two-disc treatment actually became common for Pet Shop Boys when they reissued their early albums on c.d.

With fourteen songs and over seventy-three minutes of music, the Actually: Further Listening 1987 - 1988 disc is a treasure trove of b-sides and remixes from the pop duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. The bonus tracks and b-sides on the bonus disc were generally written by the duo, save the cover song "Always On My Mind" which appears in three different versions on the "Further Listening" disc. Fans of Actually will be pleased by remixes of "I Want To Wake Up," "Heart" (two of them!), "One More Chance," "It's A Sin," "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" and "Rent" from the prime album. Most of the remixes include longer synth riffs and a greater sense of repetition. For example, the disco mix of "It's A Sin" has an extended opening of over two minutes before the singing starts!

In addition to figuring out just how the group wanted "Always On My Mind" - which would be released on their subsequent album - to sound, the band had songs which did not make the cut to appear on Actually. Those songs are now presented on "Further Listening 1987 - 1988" and those four songs - "You Know Where You Went Wrong," "A New Life," "I Want A Dog," and "Do I Have To?" were all written by Tennant and Lowe and they play the instruments and provide the programming for those songs as well. These four songs were also produced by the Pet Shop Boys. But they are the exceptions on the "Further Listening" disc; many of the remixes are the interpretations of the Actually songs in the hands of other producers.

That said, even the "Further Listening" disc is much of what one would expect of the Pet Shop Boys. The remix of "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" is very repetitive and includes more synths and drum loops before the meat of the song actually is realized. But songs like "I Want A Dog" are delightfully quirky pop music. While dog barks are used for percussion, the band sings "I want a dog, / A chihuahua / When I get back to my small flat / I want to hear somebody bark / Oh, (oh oh) you can get lonely / Don't want a cat, / Scratching its claws all over my / Habitat / Giving no love and getting fat" ("I Want A Dog"). The song is weird, somewhat funny, but also expresses a deeper human emotion in a way typical pop music does not, in this case how people deal with loneliness.

The Pet Shop Boys present their songs with surprisingly clear vocals. The men harmonize well on each and every song, though they also enhance their vocals with production elements. Tennant provides the lead vocals and he has a smooth, distinctive (if slightly nasal) voice which is a decent tenor voice. Tennant accents his vocals with reverb and other elements, but on things like the dub version of "Always On My Mind," he emotes perfectly, creating a poem that is sad, penitent and a real winner! Throughout, despite the production elements, Tennant's voice is clear and he makes his lyrics easily understood.

I suspect this is because he actually has something to say. While many pop-rock artists just sing about love and loss, the Pet Shop Boys manage to make songs that have more social messages and broader humanist themes. So, for example, with the lines "At night it hits me cold / There's so much more to life than I'll every know / I look around and I realize / It's time to make a move though you don't sympathize / Stars collect overhead / They look down over China and I might as well be dead / Cars pass on through the night / How do you get to heaven if you never try" ("A New Life"), the band tells a little musical storysong, which is certainly atypical for a pop-dance song.

And while there are a few slower songs, most of them are rich in production elements, driven by keyboards and synthesizers. Even "Rent (Seven-Inch Mix)" is heavily produced (I'd love to hear a very stark, acoustic version of that song!). But because the group is working at the cutting edge (at the time) of musical experimentation, they took some musical experiments which did not work at all. Chief among these is the "Extended Dance Mix" of "Always On My Mind" which guts the emotional intensity of the simple lyrics by adding heavy percussion and explosion sounds in the droll opening. That said, even that song uses samples well and the song follows the pattern the album has of being energetic. But instead of being noisy, each song is a legitimate musical composition with a melody, musical progressions and styles and most are very catchy.

This, though, can be annoying when the songs are irksome and the Pet Shop Boys do have a tendency toward repetition. So, on "You Know Where You Went Wrong," that title phrase is repeated at least twenty times (probably closer to fifty!) in the song which is just shy of six minutes. And for all of my times listening to "Further Listening," I still have not figured out what the slower, murkier "Do I Have To?" is about, but when I went a year without listening to the album, I could still conjure the tune in my head!

And that is the power of great, enduring music. Actually in its two-disc presentation revives a classic 1980s pop-dance album and offers all sorts of rare tracks that are hard to find which give the set added value and a richer sense of what could be done with the basic music created by the Pet Shop Boys. Anyone who likes dance music will find this is an amazing addition to their collection which has stood up for over twenty years and will no doubt still be enjoyable to listen to in another twenty!

The best track is "Always On My Mind (Dub Version), the low point is "Always On My Mind (Extended Dance Mix)."

For other Pet Shop Boys works, please check out my reviews of:
Disco
Behaviour
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Very
Disco 2
Bilingual
Se A Vida E (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Release
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Disco 4
Yes

8/10 (on its own), 10/10 as the complete Actually With Further Listening disc.

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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The Pet Shop Boys Add Some Musical Diversity To Release, Giving It An Epic Sound!

The Good: Good vocals, Decent instrumental accompaniment, Some great lyrics
The Bad: Frontloaded, VERY short.
The Basics: A generally fine album, the Pet Shop Boys mix things up on Release by playing with their instrumentation, leaving the listener wanting more!


I hate that Release is so short. I honestly do. I write that right up front because the album by the Pet Shop Boys is actually one of the most listenable albums the band ever produced and because the songs actually resonate exceptionally well. After weeks of listening to the music of the Pet Shop Boys, it is refreshing to hear the band finally come out and be deliciously open on one of their songs (“The Night I Fell In Love”) and if only they used the medium better, I could much more enthusiastically recommend Release. As it is, after the first half, the only song that stands out on the latter half of the album – and more for the lyrics than the music – is “The Night I Fell In Love.”

But what makes Release still a much stronger “recommend” than the number rating is that what is present is so very good. The band opens up musically and the mellow sound on Release illustrates pretty extraordinary growth for the group and it is enough to make the naysayers who say the Pet Shop Boys are a niche act rethink their position. Fleshed out musically, with astonishingly good lyrics and the usual crisp, clear voice of vocalist Neil Tennant, Release is a winner and one only wishes there were more of it as a result!

With only ten tracks occupying a paltry 45 minutes, Release is a terribly underwhelming use of the c.d. medium. At least, though, what is present is good and it is distinctly the work of the band the Pet Shop Boys. The duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe wrote all ten songs, Tennant provides all of the lead vocals and Chris Lowe actually breaks out on “Home And Dry” with additional vocals of his own. Tennant even plays guitar and keyboards on the album, while Chris Lowe does his usual job of keyboards and drum programming. Minimal as it is, the fact that Release is co-produced by the Pet Shop Boys makes it undeniable that this is the sound the band wanted at the time.

And outside “The Samurai In Autumn,” which is a pretty obvious and basic dance track, Release has a very different sound for the album. Instead of being fast dance tracks, most of the songs are pop ballads which actually use a much greater range of instrumentation than the standard synth and drum machine songs the Pet Shop Boys are most known for. Instead, many of the songs resonate with guitarwork. Yes, songs like “Love Is A Catastrophe” have amazing guitar parts (even if the opening is derivative of a classic rock song that I can't quite put my finger on right now) and the guitars actually accompany or overwhelm the keyboards very well. On tracks like “Birthday Boy” where the guitars are present, the guitar actually overwhelms the drum machines and this brings a fresh sound that eliminates the stale predictability of the drum programming.

Vocally, Release is very much a typical Pet Shop Boys album. Stripped back to Tennant (and Lowe on track one) singing, in contrast to Nightlife’s rich accompanying vocals, the album has a more intimate quality (even when there is an epic quality to the instrumental accompaniment, as on “Love Is A Catastrophe”). Tennant has amazing range and he whisper sings “The Night I Fell In Love” in his near-falsetto while going lower for “Here.” Release does not have Tennant illustrating his full lung capacity, but the register range he exhibits is pretty impressive. And all the while his vocals are clear and produced to be well before the instrumental accompaniment.

As always, the Pet Shop Boys seem to sing clearly because they do have something to say. In the case of Release, they have the pretty standard poetics about love and relationships. The simple element of desire is poetically captured by Tennant and Lowe with lines like “Far away / Through night and day / You fly long haul tonight / Come to me /You know I'll be here / When you call tonight / Oh tonight / I miss you / Oh tonight / I wish you / Could be here with me / But I won't see you / 'Til you've made it back again / Home and dry” (“Home And Dry”). Even when the men of the band sing ridiculously simple lines, the poetics work and perfectly characterize the emotions they are trying to express, which is the essence of great music.

And yes, there is a very calm, very heartfelt gay love song on Release. The album has a musical storysong that Tennant earnestly characterizes. There is a charm to the relationship that is described in song thus: “I was backstage / Couldn't believe my luck was in / I saw him approach / Wearing a most approachable grin / When he said hello / I was surprised he spoke so politely / I said I'd liked his show / Well he just smiled / I guess it happens nightly / And so I fell in love / We went to his room he had a video camera I was so nervous I had to try hard not to stammer” (“The Night I Fell In Love”). Whether it is gay or straight, the storysong is rich with nervous realism and it works wonderfully as an atypical song on the album.

Even with repetition, some of the songs work and truly resonate. For example, the refrain “I get along, get along / Without you very well / I get along very well” works so well for “I Get Along” arguably because it is broken up with stanzas like “So I lost my patience at last /And it happened so fast / You belong in the past / I've been trying not to cry / When I'm in the public eye / Stuck here with the shame and taking / My share of the blame / While making / Sudden plans that don't include you” which make the repetition of the refrain bearable. Even so, there is a lot of repetition in that song, despite how wonderfully melodic it is.

Ultimately, the main gripe I have with Release is the one I came in with: it is overly short and with such creativity from such a well-established dance-pop duo, I wanted more! Those who like good pop ballads will likely come to the same conclusion.

The best track is “The Night I Fell In Love,” the low point is the far less distinct “Here.”

For other Pet Shop Boys works, please check out my reviews of:
Disco
Actually
Behaviour
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Very
Disco 2
Bilingual
Se A Vida E (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Disco 4
Yes

6/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page for an organized listing by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Utterly Indistinct Pet Shop Boys, Bilingual Is An Atypical Flop For The Dance-Pop Band.

The Good: Decent lyrics, Vocals are not terrible.
The Bad: Short, Tracks blend together, No hooks, Musically uninspired.
The Basics: A disappointing Pet Shop Boys album, Bilingual is pretty generic dance-pop music.


It took long enough in my exploration of the music of Pet Shop Boys, but here we are. With Bilingual, I have come across a Pet Shop Boys album where the music lacks hooks, the sense of originality that has made other Pet Shop Boys albums resonate above most dance-pop works. The only surprise on Bilingual is an unfortunate one; that the Pet Shop Boys created an album where the songs blend together like a sweaty night club experience with no real definition or zest.

In fact, after listening to Bilingual eight times now, I find myself with surprisingly little to write about the album. The album feels short, the songs are musically unimpressive, the vocals are too familiar for me to comment terribly positively about them and the lyrics are frequently obscured by the instrumental accompaniment. But far more damning than what is on the album is what is not present on Bilingual: there is nothing that stands out. None of the songs separate and scream "I'm the special track!" As a result, the album gels together as an auditory muck which is entirely indistinct and easily becomes background noise.

With a dozen tracks occupying 53:52, Bilingual is very much the work of the Pet Shop Boys. The duo - Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe - wrote all of the songs and Tennant provides all of the lead vocals. Lowe plays most of the synthesizers and programmed the drum machine, as well as providing the samples the songs utilize when they do that. The band is also credited as co-producers on the album, so this is very much the sound they intended to create, at least at the time.

That sound has more of a Latin influence, which seemed to poise it for its release prior to the Ricky Martin-driven Latin music fad. The beats are more syncopated and there is an increased emphasis on stringed instruments which are strummed more for percussion than for melody, so Bilingual has an initially different sound to it. Unfortunately, that difference becomes mundane as the album continues as all of the songs sound generally the same. In fact, the strings are more or less overwhelmed by "Before," where the percussion once again overtakes the sound of the songs as being the driving force of the music. On "Saturday Night Forever," the dance beats are so obvious, predictable and overdone by the Pet Shop Boys that the track could be lifted from Bilingual and put on virtually any other Pet Shop Boys album and no one would likely notice.

There is a little musical differentiation, but not all of it is good. "Metamorphosis" and "Single" are both more synthesizer-driven - as one might expect from the Pet Shop Boys - but they have simple tunes which are repeated a lot to create the songs. The result is that the repetition makes the songs mundane and as the album is replayed, the percussion blends into the next songs. Even "To Step Aside," which ought to be a great Pet Shop Boys anthem, falls flat largely because the orchestration in the song is more muted than many other Pet Shop Boys anthems and it cannot break out of the repetitive energy of the rest of the tracks. The result is that it, too, blends in.

My enjoyment of the works of the Pet Shop Boys has usually come from my being impressed by the vocals and lyrics the band is performing. However, on Bilingual, I don't have even that. It is not that Neil Tennant does anything vocally bad on the album, he just does not do anything terribly new. Instead, Tennant performs with his smooth baritenor vocals with the occasional falsetto line or riff and the listener feels like they have heard it before (because we have).

Lyrically, Bilingual is no great masterpiece of poetry. Opening with "Discoteca," Bilingual is unfortunately repetitive. Simple lines like "I've sometimes walked / And tried to talk / But how can I be heard / In such a world / When I am lost? / I'm doing what I do / To see me through" ("Discoteca") plague the opening song, as well as many of the tracks which follow. "Single" is annoyingly repetitive as well and between the two songs, the album gets off to a very rocky start.

Still, it is not all bad. Songs like "The Survivors" have an actual message and the song works to create a musical storysong. If Tennant could actually be heard singing "If life is worth living, it's got to be done / One might be forgiven for thinking it's a life on the run / Many roads will cross through many lives / But somehow you survive / Look around / Picture what's in store / Is this the final edit / Or is the subject now a bore" ("The Survivors") the song might resonate, but instead the instrumental accompaniment drowns out the vocals. What poetry is present on Bilingual tends to get sublimated to the instrumental accompaniment.

And what poetry there is is not necessarily even the best works of the Pet Shop Boys. "It Always Comes As A Surprise" has a great title, but predictable rhymes: "You may be right, it's too much too soon / To talk of love all night in your bedroom / I don't know why it always comes as a surprise / To find I'm here with you / You smile, and I am rubbing my eyes / At a dream come true / I won't play games or waste your time / But I won't feel ashamed to speak my mind / So just relax, don't question why / For calculated facts will not apply." Ultimately, Pet Shop Boys seems to be trying to make a less deep dance album with "Bilingual" and they unfortunately succeed. Fans of the band want more than random words strung together.

Ultimately, that is the death knell of Bilingual: it is a very typical dance-pop album and fans of the group want and deserve more than that. There are no terribly superlative tracks on this album as the whole experience blends unfortunately together.

For other Pet Shop Boys works, please check out my reviews of:
Disco
Actually
Behaviour
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Very
Disco 2
Se A Vida E (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Disco 4
Yes

3/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Original Dance-Pop Is Very Pet Shop Boys!

The Good: Engaging synth tunes, Good lyrics, Decent vocals.
The Bad: A little repetitive.
The Basics: A surprisingly deep dance-pop alum, Very is still more average Pet Shop Boys than it is extraordinary music.


Sometimes, it helps for me to contemplate an album in-context. After all, it isn't always fair to evaluate new-to-me albums by how they sound now, with twenty years of music between when the album was first released and now. In the case of the Pet Shop Boys, their albums tend to suffer at my hands for two reasons. The first is that my first experience with them truly was a timeless album (Actually) and second, that so much dance-pop music actually sounds similar. After all, there are only so many things one can do with a synthesizer and a drum machine. That said, I find myself enjoying Very more with every repetition of the disc.

The reason for this is probably in the lyrics and the fact that Pet Shop Boys beat most of the world to the synthesizer-driven dance music. As I listen to "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing," I hear the influences that brought us Lady Gaga. Seriously. The production elements and the basic beat patterns are similar and the Pet Shop Boys beat Lady Gaga there by over fifteen years. What tends to set the Pet Shop Boys apart from so much of what I usually find to be an insipid genre is the lyrics and the quality of the vocals, which have a distinctly less produced sound than the instrumental accompaniment, something which is very much uncommon in dance-pop music.

With only twelve tracks occupying 53:14 on a single c.d., Very is much the creative work of the Pet Shop Boys. All of the songs, save "Go West," were written by the Pet Shop Boys ("Go West" had additional lyrics provided by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe). Neil Tennant provides all of the lead vocals on the album and Chris Lowe plays the synthesizers on all of the songs. The only aspect of production the Pet Shop Boys were not directly involved in was producing the album, but given how far along the career of the Pet Shop Boys was when the album was released, it is hard to imagine they would work with anyone who did not yield the sound they wanted for their band.

Instrumentally, Very is very much an average Pet Shop Boys album. The songs are driven by synthesizer melodies that are catchy, melodic and easy to remember. There is an epic, sweeping quality to the crescendos and falls on songs like "The Theatre" and "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" is less a dance track than a ballad which effectively uses the synthesizer. The songs are frequently deceptive in their instrumental accompaniment in that they tend to possess an up-tempo beat, but have thematically darker tones in both the lyrics and the instrumentation. While the beat picks up to an urgent pace in "The Theatre," the chords Chris Lowe strikes are far lower and the result is an unsettling an epic quality to the score.

Very escapes its sometimes repetitive feel only in the climax of the album. On "Go West," the band breaks out of their traditional, somewhat narrow, synthesizer-driven sound and they burst forth melodically with a brass section that rivals the one used on "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac! But for the most part, Very is exactly what one expects instrumentally when buying a Pet Shop Boys album.

Vocally, Very also is very familiar for those who like the Pet Shop Boys. The songs are led by Neil Tennant's vocals and on Very his voice is where it usually is, right in front of the instrumental accompaniment. Tennant has a very clear voice and he articulates everything so that his lyrics may be clearly understood and on Very he is very much within his safe range as a tenor with a soft, smooth voice. He does return to his more nasal deliveries on songs like "One And One Make Five" and he goes into his higher, almost falsetto range for "To Speak Is A Sin." Either way, he has a stunning voice that is natural and presented incredibly well to remind listeners that the synthesizers are not the only real instrument on the album!

What often knocks the Pet Shop Boys albums up in ratings with objective standards are the lyrics. The Pet Shop Boys frequently make songs with lyrics that set them apart and Very is no exception. Unlike many dance-pop artists, the Pet Shop Boys are unafraid of telling musical storysongs, which they do with songs like "Youthful Offender." There, they create a whole character with their lines "You may be broke now and you may be bored / Call you delinquent or leave you ignored / You'll get what you want / Drive to distraction and crash on the way / Watch your reaction and wait 'til you say / You'll get what you want / It hurts if you can't" ("Youthful Delinquent"). The song is danceable and interesting and it tells a whole story.

But what tends to be the forte of the band is the way they characterize real human emotions. They describe the clumsy feelings of rage well and how it effects relationships. When Tennant sings "You have a certain quality, which really is unique / Expressionless, such irony, although your voice is weak / It doesn't really matter 'cause the music is so loud / Of course it's all on tape, but no one will find out / You hated me too / But not as much as I hated you" ("Yesterday, When I Was Mad") it is hard for anyone who has been in a relationship to not relate!

Unfortunately, there is a bit of repetition which makes Very just a little less compelling than it ought to be. For example, the refrain "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing" is repeated so much more frequently than any of the bridges or other lines in that song that it is easy to forget what the musical protagonist is actually doing!

Even so, Very is better than most any other dance-pop music I have heard of late and it makes for a very easy, very strong "recommend," even if objectively it is not the best album by the Pet Shop Boys or best album ever.

The best song is "The Theatre," the low point is the utterly unmemorable, "Liberation."

For other Pet Shop Boys works, please check out my reviews of:
Disco
Actually
Behaviour
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Disco 2
Se A Vida E (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Disco 4
Yes

7/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Disco, The First Pet Shop Boys Remix Album Is More Average Than Bad.

The Good: Fun/interesting mixes, Good dance music.
The Bad: Short, Repetitive.
The Basics: A mediocre dance remix album of six of the earliest Pet Shop Boys songs, Disco is a bit of a letdown, though it is easy to listen to.


As I listened to new (to me) works by the Pet Shop Boys (my July Artist Of The Month), I was actually excited to listen to how they had an effect on pop music. Oddly, the earliest album I was able to get in was their second, Disco. Disco, as the sequels I have already reviewed informed me, are the Pet Shop Boys remix albums. As a result, Disco is hardly exciting to those who own or have the band's first album, Please. All of the songs on Disco are remixes of songs from Please. As such, it is inherently one of their weaker endeavors, but having not heard the album Please, it is hard for me to critique it for that.

I will say that the album sounds like exactly like what one expects from Pet Shop Boys in that the songs are pretty continually dance tracks. The mix is short (hence the very short review) and it has a repetitive quality that makes it ultimately hard to recommend for anything other than background music in a dance bar.

With only six tracks occupying 46:15, Disco is short and has a strangely drawn-out quality. All of the songs were originally written and performed by the Pet Shop Boys and Disco is a collection of the songs remixed, all longer than the originals. Oddly, this is credited as a Pet Shop Boys album, though the band was only involved directly in remixing a single song. Neil Tennant does provide all of the lead vocals.

What makes Disco hard to recommend is that all of the songs have a monotonal, monolithic quality to them. These are all hard dance songs and the drum machines and synthesizers which once might have been audacious are now passe. I can respect that the Pet Shop Boys might have gotten there first, but the instrumentals become somewhat boring because the remixes auditorily bleach out the original flavors and melodies of the songs and replace them with more active, homogenous percussion.

As well, Disco remixes are characterized by a lot of repetition. The remix of "West End Girls" is like many remixes of that song repeating the title words and refrain more than the rest of the song. Only "Love Comes Quickly" sounds like it is a first-run Pet Shop Boys song which is performed without incredible and disappointing repetitions.

Even so, Tennant's voice comes through well on most of the tracks and he performs well in his smooth, tenor vocals that many people know him for. His voice is mechanized in the remix of "Suburbia," but outside that, Tennant's vocals are the most natural thing on the album.

Lyrically, Disco seems to nullify most of the musical storysongs that the original versions likely were. Save "In The Night," which has a musical protagonist and a whole character arc, most of the songs are dulled down to be dance tracks that capitalize on the most popular, most melodic parts of the song. The remix of "Paninaro," for example, just repeats the title word a LOT.

That said, "Opportunities" is left mostly intact in its remix. That song tells the story of two people looking to join forces to make lots of money. Its iconic lines "I've got the brains, you've got the brawn / Let's make lot's of money" ("Opportunities") the song retains much of its original flavor. It is the standout track as a result because it manages to tell most of the dark story of capitalism and corruption that the original did.

Ultimately, Disco is not a horrible album, it is just a tiresome mix of six dance mixes of songs that were already dance to begin with. That lack of ambition in a group as young as Pet Shop Boys was when it was released is disappointing.

For other Pet Shop Boys works, please check out my reviews of:
Actually
Behaviour
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Disco 2
Se A Vida E (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Disco 4
Yes

5.5/10

For other c.d. reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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A Remix Dud From Pet Shop Boys: Disco 2 Doesn't Do It For Me!

The Good: One or two creative dance tracks.
The Bad: Short, Largely repetitive sound, Repeats several tracks, Largely indistinct.
The Basics: A surprisingly disappointing mix of remixes that sound very much like regular Pet Shop Boys songs, Disco 2 is unimpressive.


I invariably feel bad when I select an Artist Of The Month and early on in my exploration of their music, I discover an album that is just awful. With the Pet Shop Boys, I was actually quite excited. I was excited because I love their album Actually and I could admire the creativity of their remix album Disco 4. But with Disco 2, Pet Shop Boys present an album that is surprisingly listless and disappointing album which transforms songs originally done by the Pet Shop Boys into uninspired dance tracks that sound virtually identical.

In fact, it is hard to bother with much more analysis of Disco 2: the album is largely dance pop which range from songs which are little more than clips (“Absolutely Fabulous”) to annoyingly repetitive remixes which sound terribly alike one another; there are two remixes of “I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing” (back to back) and three remixes of “Yesterday, When I Was Mad.” Unfortunately, given how short this album is, there is a sense of repetition that the album never fully overcomes. Instead, it is dance song after dance song and the beats sound similar and most of the remixes do not sound distinctive, especially the songs that appear multiple times on the album.

With only twelve tracks occupying less than fifty minutes on the c.d., Disco 2 is one of the least-inspired, least aurally interesting albums credited to the Pet Shop Boys. I write “credited to” because it is hard to call it a Pet Shop Boys album. After all, when the Pet Shop Boys remix works by other artists, as they did on Disco 4. But on Disco 2, other artists and DJs are remixing works written and performed originally by the Pet Shop Boys. Given that there are only eight songs (so much repetition!), the album is hardly a masterwork of creativity. Instead, Pet Shop Boys wrote, originally performed and produced the songs on Disco 2, but each song has been remixed by other artists.

Unfortunately for fans of Pet Shop Boys or of decent music, Disco 2 is unimaginative. The songs lack the sense of narrative many Pet Shop Boys songs possess. So, for example, “Absolutely Fabulous” (both of the Rollo Our Tribe Tongue-In-Cheek remixes) is basically the two title words repeated over and over again with synthesizers backing up Neil Tennant. There’s nothing terribly clever about that and listeners are likely to feel cheated. Similarly, “Liberation” has the title word repeated so many times, the listener forgets what the song is supposed to be liberating the musical protagonist or listener from!

Add to that, the more interesting songs from the sense of lyrics and musical storytelling tend to be truncated. So, for example, “Yesterday, When I Was Mad” is featured with three different mixes on the album, but none of them seem to tell the whole story of the soured relationship that – one assumes – the original mix does. That said, “We All Feel Better In The Dark” is a good Pet Shop Boys song and the “Brothers In Rhythm After Hours Climax” Mix sounds more like a typical Pet Shop Boys song than any form of remix on this album. Indeed, perhaps one of the more than anything else about Disco 2, the real issue for a new listener to the works of the Pet Shop Boys is how none of these songs sound truly audacious or different from the standard works of Pet Shop Boys.

What that means is that all of the songs on Disco 2 sound like very typical songs one might expect to hear at a dance club. The instrumental accompaniment for every song is synthesizer music and while some of the songs have typical epic swells and falls to them that one might expect from the Pet Shop Boys (like “Can You Forgive Her?”), most of them have more sedate tunes that simply provide danceable synth melodies to dance to. In other words, these songs sound like dance music, so how they are remixed to make them MORE like dance music – it’s not like any of the remixes on Disco 2 are taking a dance song and making it into a clever acoustic version that truly does something different with the song – is a bit of a mystery to me. The album is driven by synthesizer music and drum machines.

As one might expect from unimaginative remixes, the drum sounds are all club beats. Yes, they have a primal speed that makes one want to dance, but track after track, that becomes tired and monotonous because there is no variation. By the time one is done with Disco 2 they have the feeling of being trapped in the same dance club for far, far too long.

Ultimately, Disco 2 is disappointing for the monotony and the lack of real originality to the remixes. Those who love the Pet Shop Boys are likely to find these remixes to be not terribly different either from the originals or what they might expect from the Pet Shop Boys or from dance/electronic musical artists. And those who like a variety of music and have no real expectation from Dance music or the Pet Shop Boys will just find it dull.

The least impressive track is “Absolutely Fabulous,” there are no real strong tracks.

For other Pet Shop Boys works, please check out my reviews of:
Actually
Behaviour
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Se A Vida E (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Disco 4
Yes

2/10

For other musical works, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Behaviour Might Not Be My Favorite Pet Shop Boys Album, But It Still Resonates!

The Good: Some wonderful lyrics, Good vocals, Music is decent
The Bad: Short, Somewhat repetitive sound.
The Basics: A good Pet Shop Boys album, Behaviour redefines the band as a group that can effectively create pop ballads instead of just dance hits.


It is rare that I find myself listening to an album of great renown without actually knowing it is famous going into the experience. Yet, in getting some background information for my review of Behaviour by the Pet Shop Boys, I learned that this album I had never heard of was actually considered one of the essential albums of the 1990s. Go figure. When I began to play it, I was just surprised to hear "Being Boring." I had only heard Merill Bainbridge's cover on The Garden and it was a pleasant surprise on Behaviour to hear the original, especially as it was the first track on the album!

Ironically, I found myself thinking that the album was somewhat overrated. As a fan of the Pet Shop Boys album Actually, I was surprised that Behaviour was considered so much better when there are fewer hooks and none of the songs seemed quite as distinct. In fact, Behaviour is almost entirely composed of pop ballads, whereas Actually has dance songs, ballads and fun pop numbers. Behaviour is a much more intimate album and I can see why those looking for a departure from the regular works of Pet Shop Boys would enjoy it. It is engaging and the poetry of Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant is remarkably good on the album.

With only ten songs occupying 49:50 on a single c.d., Behaviour is largely the work of the Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. The duo wrote all of the songs and Tennant provides all of the lead vocals. Most of the programming and synthesizer work was done by Chris Lowe and while there are additional musicians, one suspects this is exactly the sound they wanted considering they are credited as co-producers of the overall album.

On Behaviour, the music is largely synthesizer-dominated. While there is recognizable percussion and it is significant, it takes a much more traditional back seat to the synthesizer and orchestra parts which create strong, soft melodies. The songs actually wisely use the instrumental accompaniment as just that. Of all of the Pet Shop Boys albums I have listened to so far, Behaviour has the most muted instrumental accompaniment. As a result, all of the vocals in the songs may be clearly heard and the album has a slower, more murky feel to it.

That said, there is still enough pop to Behaviour to thrill most fans of Pet Shop Boys who like the dance-pop aspect most of their albums possess. It might be hard to dance to "This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave," but the song has a resonance that still evokes images of smoky clubs and nighttime. Even when the Pet Shop Boys are not making music which one would dance fast to, they keep the beats tight and present instrumental accompaniment that is grand enough to make listeners sway at the very least.

Vocally, Neil Tennant is extraordinary on Behaviour. He goes lower on several songs, like "Being Boring," and he presents his songs with an earnest quality that is endearing. Tennant overpowers the instrumental accompaniment on "Jealousy" to make the lines heard and he does it with a perfectly musical quality that is wonderful. While his vocals are occasionally produced with reverb and minor mechanized sounds, largely Behaviour succeeds because his natural voice is heard most of all. When he does into the upper registers of his tenor range on "To Face The Truth," the emotion it conveys is wrenching. And at all times, Tennant sings clearly on this album.

The clarity of the vocals does what it is supposed to do, which is to highlight the lyrics. On Behaviour, the band tells a series of musical storysongs or emotional musings. Often more complex than regular pop-rock songs, the Pet Shop Boys envelop the listener with intrigue when they sing "Each morning after Sunblest / Feel the benefit, mental arithmetic / I waited by the staffroom / In time for benediction / Living a law just short of delusion / When we fall in love there's confusion / This must be the place I waited years to leave / To our voices nobody's listening / We shiver in the rain by the touchline / Then a coach ride to the station / 'My lord, the carriage awaiteth!' / Living a law just short of delusion / When we fall in love there's confusion / This must be the place I waited years to leave" ("This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave"). There is a lonely quality to the rhymes and diction that is often wrenching and the Pet Shop Boys present their poetry remarkably well.

In addition to lyrics about love and loss, the Pet Shop Boys characterize desolation and depression remarkably well in their songs. On songs like "Only The Wind," the band manages to create a view of a world without overpopulation which is haunting. With lines like "It's only the wind blowing cans along the street / Someone's dustbin lid playing havoc with the peace/ There's nobody hiding behind a locked door / And no one's been lying, 'cause we don't lie any more" ("Only The Wind") the band repaints the world as a wasteland and the starkness of the lines is mirrored wonderfully in the music.

This is not to say all of the songs are amazing. "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?" is a bit repetitive for my liking, for example. But largely Behaviour has hits, whether or not they were charting singles at the time the album was released. Their take on "Jealousy," for example puts it in a fair race with Natalie Merchant's original version of the song by the same title for best musical expression of the emotion. On their version, they sing of the emotion with perceptive characterization: "Where've you been? / Who've you seen? / You didn't phone when you said you would / Do you lie? / Do you try / To keep in touch? You know you could / I've tried to see your point of view / But could not hear or see / For jealousy" ("Jealousy"). That has the paranoid voice of a jealous person to me!

Ultimately, Behaviour holds together as a surprisingly tight album, even if it does not stand out the way other albums of the Pet Shop initially do. The ballads are more emotive than dancable and ultimately, it makes for a sound that seems like it truly deserves the endurance it has had in the imagination of audiophiles everywhere.

The best song is "This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave," the weak point is "So Hard," more from being less memorable than truly being bad.

For other Pet Shop Boys works, please check out my reviews of:
Actually
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Se A Vida E (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Disco 4
Yes

8/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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My Immersion In Pet Shop Boys Started Off With Disco 4!

The Good: Good remixes, Moments of musical creativity
The Bad: Very little original or spectacular content.
The Basics: Not a bad album, Disco 4 illustrates the creative talents of the Pet Shop Boys applied to other people's music in a very listenable work.


Arguably the purpose of my monthly immersion into different musical artists' works has a lot to do with trying to expand my horizons. I try to find artists whose work I am unfamiliar with or have had tragically limited experiences with. In the case of Pet Shop Boys, before July, all I knew by the band was Actually. My first new experience with Pet Shop Boys was their 2007 album Disco 4.

The Disco albums by Pet Shop Boys, I have since learned are essentially remix albums designed to take music they have done and play with it by changing the production elements in the songs. However, with Disco 4, the Pet Shop Boys play mostly with works by other artists and the result varies with each track, but ultimately makes for a very interesting album that sounds good, especially for dance-pop music.

With only eight tracks, it might seem natural to pan Disco 4 for not being terribly long, however with a running time of 56:28, it is longer than many c.d.s by artists with a greater number of tracks. The songs on Disco 4 are performed and written by other people, save the “Perfectly Immaculate” mix of “Integral” and the new maxi-mix of “I’m With Stupid,” both of which are by the Pet Shop Boys (Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe). The pair remixes all of the songs on the album and given that, it is worth me doing one of the rare track-by-track analyses as the album has a pretty homogenous musical quality as far as accompaniment. In other words, no matter who the artist is who originally performed the work, Pet Shop Boys makes their song over into a dance-pop number, occasionally adding their own supporting vocals to them.

Kicking off with the “Stars Are Blazing” remix of The Killers’ “Read My Mind,” Disco 4 gets off to a surprisingly melodic start. The song features smooth vocals and the trademark melody of the musing, lonely song, but the percussion is replaced with a very standard, obvious dance beat which makes the song sound like it belongs in a discotheque. Ironically, much of the song sounds very much like the original version by The Killers, only this version repeats itself more frequently. Given that I like the source material a lot, this remix is arguably my favorite of the album and it is enjoyable even with the minimal changes made to it.

Arguably the least intrusive mix is the Pet Shop Boys Extended remix of their duet with David Bowie, “Hallo Spaceboy.” That song, which features the delicious lines “Do you like girls or boys? / It’s confusing these days” performed by both Tennant and Bowie is an energetic dance song that actually tries to reflect on the changing times and does it well. There are sweeping synthesizers which give the song a very operatic quality that works for both the song and the band.

Unfortunately for “Integral” (Perfectly immaculate mix) which follows, the opening sounds a lot like the end to “Hallo Spaceboy.” This song features the band with vocals made mechanized and constant crowd noises which are just annoying. I know dance-pop tends to be a communal experience with people getting energetic for it, but with this remix I just feel like I am stuck at a concert with a bunch of people I would not want to be around otherwise. This is not the best remix the band has ever done.

After that epic song, I had my first musical experience with Yoko Ono as the group remixed her song “Walking On Thin Ice.” What opens as a very obvious synthpop, electronica song develops nicely as Ono’s high pitched vocals come in to dominate over the instrumentals. This is a song that I had to listen to a few times before I truly enjoyed it, but the clarity of Ono’s vocals contrasts nicely with the murky quality of the instrumental accompaniment.

I recall not especially enjoying Madonna’s original version of “Sorry” when I heard her album Confessions From A Dance Floor but in context on this dance-pop album it sounds energetic and her voice actually sounds fresh and clear. Tennant sings some additional lines on the song, but largely it is an anthem about a woman standing up for herself and it rocks well as a result!

I had also never heard of the group Atomizer, but their song “Hooked On Radiation” followed with the “Orange Alert remix.” The song is an energetic mix with troubling lyrics about killing celebrities. The song is very much a random dance song where the words are thrown out more to be danced to than actually make a coherent song and the only way I realized I might even like it was I found myself listing those words (“bad boy / bleach blonde / sex toy / hand gun”) and humming the tune. It is a rare time I find a song fun and just enjoy the sound of it!

This energetic song was followed by the deep, angry German vocals of Rammstein and the “There are no guitars on this mix” mix. Rammstein seems like an odd choice for Pet Shop Boys to remix and the dance beat does nothing for me against the German growling. This is the weakest track on the album (not just because I cannot understand the lyrics, but because it sounds so angry!).

The album closes with the Pet Shop Boys song “I’m With Stupid” and their own remix of the song. This has a very classic Pet Shop Boys sound, meaning it is energetic, quirky and easy to dance to. The song is a dance pop track that might not be one of their most memorable, but it is fun enough and it sounds like just what it is, a Pet Shop Boys dance song. The bassline and drum machines are repetitive and predictable, which makes me hope I’ll run into the original and it might be a better song.

Ultimately, despite fairly repetitive basslines and drum machines, Disco 4 works because the Pet Shop Boys have an interesting ear for the source material and they have a way of playing with it that makes it all sound new and fresh again!

For other Pet Shop Boys works, please check out my reviews of:
Actually
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Se A Vida E (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Yes

6/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page for an organized listing!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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"Se A Vida E" And "To Step Aside" Are Not Worth The Single!

The Good: Nothing actually terrible on the single.
The Bad: Short, Poor use of the medium, Songs are easily available on Bilingual.
The Basics: A blase single with no new content makes the radio release two-track single of "Se A Vida E" easy to pass by.


It is no small irony that the day before my local library managed to snag me a copy of the Pet Shop Boys album Bilingual for review that they managed to get me in a copy of the single "Se A Vida E," which was a single from that album. There are several versions of the "Se A Vida E" single, but the one that has only that song and "To Step Aside" appears to be a radio promotional single with the two tracks. Unfortunately, when one considers how mainstream radio was not playing much Pet Shop Boys in 1996 when this single was released, both songs are largely unrecognizable to U.S. audiences.

Indeed, the promotional single is a terrible investment for those who want to listen to the Pet Shop Boys as both songs are easily available on Bilingual. The promotional radio single would only be for those collecting every single possible disc by the band. Because the two songs are the same as the mixes on Bilingual, it is very easy to pass this c.d. single by. That said, the two songs are not terrible.

With only the two tracks - "Se A Vida E" and "To Step Aside" - this c.d. single is a poor use of the medium as it only fills 7:49 of the c.d.s capacity. Even so, it does represent the talents of the Pet Shop Boys well as they provide the lead vocals for the two songs, which they wrote. Chris Lowe plays the synthesizer and programmed the drum accompaniment for the song. In fact, the only thing the men of Pet Shop Boys did not do was produce the song.

"Se A Vida E" is an up-tempo song that has an almost salsa sound to it. The song features Neil Tennant singing about relationships with lines like "Come outside and see a brand new day / The troubles in your mind will blow away / It's easy to believe they're here to stay / But you won't find them standing in your way / Se a vida e', I love you / Come outside and feel the morning sun / Se a vida e', I love you / Life is much more simple when you're young / Come on, essa vida e' / That's the way life is" ("Se A Vida E"). As the title suggests, most of it is not in English and that might irk some, though the Latin flavor of the song plays well now that it is no longer just a fad. The simple rhyme schemes might not be impressive, but they work with the beats and sounds of the song.

"To Step Aside" is a slow, soft pop ballad for much of the song, which compliments well the other song. Somewhat more complex with its lines "I look from my window down to the square / At workers still queuing patiently there / For market forces to provide / What history's so far denied / For a different kind of fate / Than to labour long and always wait / And if I decide to step aside / I will try to return to the person inside," "To Step Aside" is a musing on personal relationships that compares a personal relationship to the forces of history and the idea is a good one.

Ultimately, though, there's not a reason to buy this single. Both of these tracks are on an easily-available studio album and there are single versions of "Se A Vida E" which have other remixes, so the listener gets more for their money in that case.

For other works by the Pet Shop Boys, please check out my reviews of:
Actually
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental
Yes

2/10

For other music reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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The Pet Shop Boys Return With Yes, A Vibrant, But Typical Album By The Band.

The Good: Good lyrics, Good vocals, Decent music.
The Bad: SHORT! Very typical sound for the Pet Shop Boys.
The Basics: A generally good album, Yes suffers most from being short, but returns the Pet Shop Boys to the collective consciousness quite well.


Before my library changed its interlibrary loan policy, it was still pretty rare for me to have gotten in the most current releases. So, when I was studying the Pet Shop Boys, I was quite glad to have gotten my hands on the group’s latest album, Yes. Frankly, with the band not having the popularity it once had in the United States, getting in Pet Shop Boys albums via interlibrary loans has been a little more problematic than it once was. But, apparently, Kansas City has a pretty rockin’ musical library and before my local library became much more restrictive on how many interlibrary loans from out of system I could get each month, they managed to get me in Yes from half the country away. And, largely, it is worth it.

Yes is both what one expects from the Pet Shop Boys and a surprisingly fresh sound for the dance-pop duo. With an emphasis on social messages and danceable beats, the Pet Shop Boys return to making new, original music that has punch and resonates even after one is done listening to the album over and over again. But more than many of the recent albums by the group, Yes has the hooks one expects to hear when listening to dance-pop. There are tunes on Yes that are distinct, one listens to and thinks “yeah, that could be a hit single” and they want to hear again. In other words, the Pet Shop Boys have all the makings of a return to popularity with Yes.

With only eleven tracks occupying 48:39, Yes is a more collaborative original (non-remix) album by the Pet Shop Boys than some of their others. The duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe wrote only eight of the tracks, with the other three being co-wrote by others who appear as additional musicians on the album. Neil Tennant provides all of the lead vocals, as usual, though Chris Lowe notably has additional vocals on “Building A Wall.” As usual, Chris Lowe performs all of the primary keyboards and programming on the album, though Tennant adds keyboards and programming of his own to several of the tracks. The Pet Shop Boys are credited as co-producers of the album, though, so it is hard to argue this is not the sound the duo wanted for their first original album in three years.

The instrumental accompaniment on Yes is what most people would expect of the Pet Shop Boys. Regardless of the lyrical content, the sound of the songs is largely dance-pop and it is keyboard and drum machine driven. Even so, new songs like “Vulnerable” and “Building A Wall” stand out for having strong melodies which stick in the head of the listener far better than many of the other tracks from the band on recent albums. Instead of just making mellow storysongs which meander through the lyrics, on Yes, songs like “All Over The World” have a catchy, memorable melody that makes the instrumental accompaniment stand out, even if it is pretty much what one expects from the Pet Shop Boys.

Vocally, Yes is a reminder that Neil Tennant is a master of range. He has great register range from moments of baritone performance through falsetto and on Yes, he traverses that entire range well. On “Building A Wall,” he gets accompaniment backing from Chris Lowe and the back and forth undercuts the dour message of the song with a deliciously subversive quality. As always, the duo performs all of the lyrics with a clarity that makes it clear that the intent of the album is to be heard and to get a message across.

And that message is socially conscious, as always, on Yes. More than just singing about interpersonal relationships, on Yes, the Pet Shop Boys explore the terror of the way the world is changing. When Tennant and Lowe sing “I'm building a wall / A fine wall / Not so much to keep you out / More to keep me in / Back then on a bomb site / We were spies among the ruins / Such precocious barbarians / On TV we saw / Cold War / Protection (prevention) / Detection (detention) / There's no where to defect to any more” (“Building A Wall”) they perfectly embody a sense of reality and paranoia that is distinct in pop music. Moreover, the level of diction the duo uses is far higher than most of their peers, making the Pet Shop Boys an intelligent alternative to a usually banal genre.

Despite having great social messages on many of their songs on Yes, the Pet Shop Boys also explore interpersonal relations and on Yes they capture beautifully the sense of weakness of the human animal. With lines like “I know the assumption / Is that I'm tough / With all my anger / That's fair enough / Even with friends / I have to compete / And try being me / When you walk down the street . . . You may think I'm strong / And I can do no wrong /But I'm vulnerable / So vulnerable / Without you” (“Vulnerable”) the band creates a sense of real ennui. For sure, despite the emotion, the rhyme scheme is a bit predictable, but even with that, the song resonates and the listener feels like the sense of loss is fresh and new.

What the band seems to be doing best with Yes is exploring chaos and songs like “Pandemonium” are lyrically unsettling as a result. The band creates verbal whiplash with the opening lyrics “Is this a riot or are you just pleased to see me? / Why aren't we holding hands and talking sweets? / I love you really, though I know no-one believes me / There's chaos every time we meet” (“Pandemonium”) which works remarkably well for the theme of the song.

Yes should have been a mainstream comeback album in the United States for the Pet Shop Boys with its relevant lyrics, great beats and decent vocals. It is too bad the world was too busy checking out Lady Gaga to notice. Fortunately, for those with a discerning ear, there is still time to pick this underperforming album up.

The best song is “Building A Wall,” the low point is the unmemorable “More Than A Dream.”

For other Pet Shop Boy albums, please read reviews of:
Actually
How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? (single)
Discography: The Complete Singles
Was It Worth It? (single)
Nightlife
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More (single)
New York City Boy (single)
Pop Art: The Hits
Disco 3
Fundamental


7/10

For other music reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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