Preferentially.

The Buzzjack

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nw8fcHV1bdE/TJkhMuYu8yI/AAAAAAAAIYI/L02B6rD6YTM/s400/Ultimate%20Pet%20Shop%20Boys.jpg

Rate

 

Results.

 

Hi everyone, finally here are the results for Part 1 of the Buzzjack Pet Shop Boys singles rate. Over the next few hours (days, weeks, making no promises tbh) I will reveal everyone's favourite Pet Shop Boys singles from 1984 to 1994. I'll also be revealing which 20 non-single tracks have made the cut for the next round, along with the singles from 1994 to now. Comments will be taken from the fantastic Pet Shop Boys Song By Song website, and will be based on 10 different rates (unfortunately as they were incomplete, I could not include John_Squire's scores). Stand by to find out what's at number 25...

25. Was it worth it?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e3/WasItWorthItPetShopBoys.jpg/220px-WasItWorthItPetShopBoys.jpg

Score: 5.0/10. Highest vote: 8 (Silver Rocket, TomKay, gooddelta, Suedehead2). Lowest vote: 0 (AH Gold, Dandy*)

 

"This is PSB in full-out "Stock-Aitken-Waterman mode," as Neil himself has pointed out. A high-energy dance track that also owes more than a slight debt to house music, it can with good reason be viewed as Neil's "coming out" song, although the Boys recorded it about three years before Neil "officially" acknowledged his gayness in print. Positively defiant in the face of obstacles, social and otherwise (such as AIDS), Tennant asserts, "I reserve the right to live my life this way, and I don't give a damn when I hear people say I'll pay the price that others pay." To the question posed in the title, he replies, "Yes, it's worth living for…. Yes, it's worth giving more.""

 

Personally I like this one a lot, but I'm not very surprised that it's last, it's never been a fan favourite. Maybe it's because of the Stock Aitken Waterman factor that it hasn't aged well?

24. Absolutely Fabulous

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/AbsolutelyFabolousPSB.jpg/220px-AbsolutelyFabolousPSB.jpg

Score: 5.5/10. Highest vote: 9 (Ghosthunter). Lowest vote: 1 (M!key)

 

"Neil and Chris are big fans of the British TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous. According to the duo (who may or may not have been speaking tongue-in-cheek), they came up with the idea for this track merely as an excuse to meet and have lunch with the show's two stars, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. To clinch it, they pitched the idea to the two women as a one-off to benefit the Comic Relief charity. Saunders and Lumley agreed, so the Boys recorded what is essentially a somewhat modified, high-energy version of "Paninaro" and mixed it with humorous samples from the TV show and Neil singing "Absolutely Fabulous" over and over again. In addition, Saunders and Lumley recorded a few brief new bits, such as "It's the bloody Pet Shop Boys, sweetie," which are also tossed into the mix."

 

I never really considered this a Pet Shop Boys song, and as such I'm disappointed but not shocked to see it so low. It's definitely one of the best Comic Relief singles ever, and a fitting tribute to a FANTASTIC TV series :wub:

Oops, I forgot about the album track nominations :ph34r:

 

AH well, good to see some results. And I'm seeing them next week, the day after Suede :dancing:

Oops, I forgot about the album track nominations :ph34r:

 

AH well, good to see some results. And I'm seeing them next week, the day after Suede :dancing:

 

Never mind :lol:

 

Oh you lucky bugger :o I can't afford to get tickets :(

23. DJ Culture

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/13/DJculture.jpg/220px-DJculture.jpg

Score: 5.8/10. Highest vote: 9 (Dandy*). Lowest vote: 2 (M!key)

 

"Pet Shop Boys lyrics tend to be relatively straightforward. This is about as obscurantist as they get (or maybe second only to "Don Juan"). If it weren't for the fact that they've been quite forthright as to what this track is about, it would be rather difficult to discern it. In short, it's a censure of the militaristic, pro-war sentiments that sprang up in Britain and America during the 1991 Gulf War with Iraq. At least, that's part of what it's about. There also seems to be a good deal of commentary about people who refuse to accept themselves as they are, even going so far as to change their personal appearance. (After noting how some people "re-invent themselves," Neil sings, "Like Liz before Betty, she after Sean," which refers to Elizabeth Taylor after her stay at the Betty Ford Clinic and to Madonna after her marriage to Sean Penn.) All of this, they seem to say, is indicative of an escapist society in which people, "living in a satellite fantasy," allow the mass media to tell them what to think, feel, and believe, as well as how to act.

 

Neil has noted, "The essence of the song is in the first place insincerity—about George Bush who acted like he was Winston Churchill. He referred to World War II and, as a matter of fact, he sampled things Churchill said, just like artists do with records from the past. That is why it is called 'DJ Culture'." In the video, the line "My lord, may I say nothing?" is spoken by Neil in the role of Oscar Wilde—an independent thinker persecuted by the state for not conforming, which is very much in keeping with the song's overall cultural critique."

 

Definitely not a personal fave this one. It's OK but I can understand why it was a bit of a flop at the time... Still it was novel for them to release a remix single at a time, and the video is fun.

22. It's Alright

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/Itsalright.jpg/220px-Itsalright.jpg

Score: 6.3/10. Highest vote: 9 (Tom PSB Kay). Lowest vote: 3 (M!key)

 

"The classic house-music track "It's Alright" was originally performed by one of its co-writers, Sterling Void. (Another co-writer is Marshall Jefferson, one of the chief originators of house music.) Neil and Chris heard it, loved it, and decided to cover it. A powerful song about the immortality of music, its vision is on nothing less than a cosmic scale. Music is sustained "on a timeless wavelength," whereby it asserts and helps to maintain human hope and dignity in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Neil provided (uncredited) some additional lyrics with a strongly ecological bent.

 

The album version is dominated by a simple, repetitive piano motif, but Trevor Horn's single remix replaces the piano with a more elaborate synth line. An interesting sidenote emerges from certain extended remixes, which feature even more additional lyrics from Neil, including a reference to "a statesman standing at a crossroads." Although there's been some speculation that this may be a reference to Romania's former dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, Neil has stated that he was actually referring to Mikhail Gorbachev and the hopeful changes taking place in the Soviet Union (and the world in general) at that time."

 

Now this one, I LOVE :wub: Easily in my top 10 Pet Shop Boys songs. Yes it's a cover, but it's a GREAT cover of a quite obscure song. I never really got the point of the video though...

21. Where The Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off You

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7f/PetShopBoysWTSHNN(ICTMEOY).jpg/220px-PetShopBoysWTSHNN(ICTMEOY).jpg

Score: 6.5/10. Highest vote: 10 (M!key). Lowest vote: 2 (Dandy*)

 

"Neil and Chris have said that they were drawn to U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" by the opening guitar sequence, which struck them as similar to the sort of repeating riff that might be played on a synthesizer. And they claimed that they made it into a medley with the old Frankie Valli chestnut "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (the original leaves "I" out of its title, while the Pet Shop Boys include it) simply because harmonically it seemed the natural thing to do.

 

It's certain, however, that they had something much more in mind. In fact, this track is one of the most insidious deconstructions of rock mythology that you're likely to find anywhere. It completely takes the wind out of U2's sails, essentially revealing the original to be precisely the dance track that it is but tries hard not to be. This is underscored in the video and during their "Performance" tour through the use of imagery from the American West, albeit with fey twists. "In our live concert," Neil has stated, "'Streets' was meant to be totally the opposite of anything U2 would ever be—all these dancers and me in a pink satin suit." Turning it into a medley with such an innocuous love song further subverts the song's lyrical mythos, even trivializing it. A musical non sequitur, it can only be explained as outrageous satire, implicitly suggesting that there's little if any substantive difference between the two songs."

 

IMHO this is the bad kind of Pet Shop Boys cover. I appreciate the artistic intention of what they were trying to do here, but it doesn't actually make for a good recording. It's a bit like a random dance cover that you'd find on a Clubland compilation these days, what's the point? Still, it does bear the Pet Shop Boys mark of quality all the same, which stops it being totally awful IMHO.

20. How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5a/HowcanyouCD.jpg/220px-HowcanyouCD.jpg

Score: 6.6/10. Highest vote: 8 (SKOB, M!key). Lowest vote: 5 (Ghosthunter)

 

"A somewhat snide comic putdown of the pretensions and hypocrisies of one or more unnamed rock stars. Allegations and speculations have cited Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and George Michael, among others (one of my online correspondents has intriguingly suggested Phil Collins, who released his …But Seriously album about a year before Behaviour came out), but Neil has specifically stated that it's no one artist in particular.

 

The instrumental track of the album version of "Seriously" borrows heavily from the jagged "new jack swing" hip-hop style of then-popular Bobby Brown, although the single and video versions were dramatically remixed by Brothers in Rhythm into a lusher, more fluid soundscape. The video depicted the Boys, especially Neil, acting out their roles as preachy, pretentious rockers."

 

Weirdly this was a double A-side in the UK with the previous track, and it's little better IMHO. Dated production, somewhat embarrasing lyrics and a general feeling of uncertainty about the whole thing. Interestingly, Wikipedia states that Neil said it was "influenced by a female popstar of 1989", possibly Wendy James of Transvision Vamp, and I can agree with that in context tbh :heehee:

19. Liberation

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8e/LiberationPSB.jpg/220px-LiberationPSB.jpg

Score: 7.2/10. Highest vote: 9 (Silver Rocket, Tom Kay). Lowest vote: 5 (Ghosthunter)

 

"Continuing on the apparent theme of newly discovered love established by the preceding song, "Liberation" finds Neil adopting the role of an ex-cynic who suddenly discovers the joy of love after a lifetime of dismissing it. Though he had always feared that falling in love would be constricting, he has found, on the contrary, that love has given him a sense of freedom he's never felt before. In short, the lover who has fallen asleep on his shoulder, far from weighing him down, has instead liberated him.

 

This track—the fourth single from the album—is essentially an extended pun in which the word "liberation" refers both to this individual sense of freedom and to "gay liberation," in which feelings and acts of love are themselves revolutionary statements of personal and social liberty. All that, plus one of the most beautiful melodies and arrangements in the PSB canon, results in one of the great moments in the Boys' career. In a September 1996 interview with Andrew Sullivan, Neil stated that the part about someone falling asleep on his shoulder during a long, late car ride is true. More recently he has denied this, though he has always conceded that this song is based on a relationship he was in when he wrote it. "

 

Now here's one I really like, as you can see above. I discovered PSB in this era, at the same time as I was discovering myself, and there was something subconscious about the lyrics and the easy going melody of this song that made me think, "yes, this is me, this is what I want". I wonder if Ally feels the same way :lol: Much too low IMHO!

21. Where The Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off You

 

Score: 6.5/10. Highest vote: 10 (M!key). Lowest vote: 2 (M!key)

Erm, did he vote twice?

I've always hated DJ Culture and It's Alright

 

Where the streets have no name, I seem to have given the track the highest and lowest point :blink:

18. Jealousy

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/57/JealousyPSB.jpg/220px-JealousyPSB.jpg

Score: 7.5/10. Highest vote: 9 (Dandy*, Suedehead2). Lowest vote: 5 (AH Gold)

 

"Although this is the closing track on Behaviour, it dates back several years; in fact, it was the very first song that Chris and Neil wrote together and thus holds a very special place in PSB history. The Boys had originally planned to include an earlier rendition on the Actually album, which was initially slated to be titled Jealousy, but they held off on it for reasons that, as far as I know, they've never explained.

 

Although the protagonist of this song is indeed grievously wronged by his wayward lover, he's no innocent victim. In fact, with his nagging questions about his lover's behavior ("Where've you been? Who've you seen?") you get the distinct impression that he may have driven his partner away from him. Jealousy is, after all, a rather unattractive and ultimately destructive emotion. That's probably what's going on with the song's overblown orchestral coda, which mirrors the narrator's over-dramatized self-pity."

 

Again, this isn't a personal favourite, but there is something very listenable about it. Certainly quintessential Pet Shop Boys and I didn't actually know until just now how old the song is :o

Erm, did he vote twice?

 

Smart arse :P

 

I've always hated DJ Culture and It's Alright

 

DJ Culture I agree with, but It's Alright, what's not to like? :)

Smart arse :P

Guilty as charged :D

18. Jealousy

Score: 7.5/10. Highest vote: 9 (Dandy*, Suedehead2). Lowest vote: 5 (AH Gold)

 

"Although this is the closing track on Behaviour, it dates back several years; in fact, it was the very first song that Chris and Neil wrote together and thus holds a very special place in PSB history. The Boys had originally planned to include an earlier rendition on the Actually album, which was initially slated to be titled Jealousy, but they held off on it for reasons that, as far as I know, they've never explained.

 

Although the protagonist of this song is indeed grievously wronged by his wayward lover, he's no innocent victim. In fact, with his nagging questions about his lover's behavior ("Where've you been? Who've you seen?") you get the distinct impression that he may have driven his partner away from him. Jealousy is, after all, a rather unattractive and ultimately destructive emotion. That's probably what's going on with the song's overblown orchestral coda, which mirrors the narrator's over-dramatized self-pity."

 

Again, this isn't a personal favourite, but there is something very listenable about it. Certainly quintessential Pet Shop Boys and I didn't actually know until just now how old the song is :o

I'm just a sucker for the wonderful OTT ending :dance:

Back in a bit with number 17 :)

Sorry, fell asleep yesterday :lol: Will carry on with this whenever there's more than two people looking at it :)

Surprised how low '..Seriously' is and thought Ab Fab would've fared better although it's truly awful musically.

 

Looking forward to the rest!

 

Surprised how low '..Seriously' is and thought Ab Fab would've fared better although it's truly awful musically.

 

Looking forward to the rest!

 

I like Ab Fab better than Seriously :lol: Should I continue now? I have the day off work, but it seems weird to do it in the day time...