Search found 284 matches

by Propertius
Wed 11 Jan 2023, 6:10 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Bilingual promotion
Replies: 33
Views: 4432

Re: Bilingual promotion

Bilingual was also deliberately pitched against the trends of its time—an anti-Britpop album that was also disconnected from the dance music of the era. And disconnected from the hyper-creative 1980s milieu that had given rise to PSB in the first place: Italo disco, NYC electro and early hip hop, ea...
by Propertius
Fri 02 Dec 2022, 4:55 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Producers suggestions for a new PSB album
Replies: 82
Views: 8519

Re: Producers suggestions for a new PSB album

Johnny Jewel. Not only for moodiness and Italo feel of his work but also because he seems to keep remixing and producing interesting new variations on everything he produces. (I guess Chris Zippel did that, too, but not many of the permutations he did in the Release days have been, erm, released.)
by Propertius
Fri 03 Sep 2021, 6:10 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Hating PSB
Replies: 39
Views: 8197

Re: Hating PSB

The Moz/Bennett story is that the playwright chose “It’s a Sin” over a Smiths song to feature in “The History Boys.” If memory serves…
by Propertius
Thu 20 May 2021, 6:25 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: The mass-media trilogy
Replies: 5
Views: 1616

Re: The mass-media trilogy

They’d first thought about touring in 1986 with a “scratch video” multimedia component. They decided against it. (From the sound of it, it might have been like U2’s ZooTV some five or six years later.) I agree with those who see MCMLXXXIX as a precursor to Performance. The point of Discovery was sim...
by Propertius
Wed 12 May 2021, 8:16 pm
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: The PSB vault
Replies: 23
Views: 3594

Re: The PSB vault

There's scads and scads of stuff, as back issues of Literally have informed us. And as the Further Listenings have shown, there are recordings that aren't even known from the recording diaries in Literally. The fates of "You've Got to Start Somewhere" and "In the Club or in the Queue&...
by Propertius
Tue 27 Apr 2021, 6:48 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Do you think a producer like Mark Ronson could work for PSB?
Replies: 26
Views: 5217

Re: Do you think a producer like Mark Ronson could work for PSB?

I’d like them to work with Johnny Jewel. Not only is he great as a kind of neo-Italo-disco producer, but his habit of making a lot of alternate mixes and remixes would generate plenty of material for singles.
by Propertius
Thu 04 Feb 2021, 9:10 pm
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: DREAMWORLD Greatest Hits Tour 2022, 2023 & now 2024
Replies: 689
Views: 150118

Re: DREAMWORLD Greatest Hits Tour RESCHEDULED until 2022

I can’t see any logic behind another greatest hits. Who would buy it? Nobody under 35 buys CD. And anyone over 35 who is just a casual listener to PSB already has Discography, Popart, or Ultimate. Die-hard older fans are the only CD market for the Boys today, and those fans—we fans—would be better s...
by Propertius
Fri 25 Sep 2020, 8:58 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Single versions
Replies: 36
Views: 8690

Re: Single versions

Regarding “Heart” and how attentive the Boys are to their albums, I think they’ve said they liked the lucky accident of the “abrupt,” partially erased intro to the album version of “Heart.” They obviously had conflicted feelings about the song as a whole, though, as it underwent a radical reworking ...
by Propertius
Fri 25 Sep 2020, 8:50 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Single versions
Replies: 36
Views: 8690

Re: Single versions

I’ll break with just about everyone else and rather than nominate a remixed single, I’ll suggest the 7” edit of “Before” as better than the album version, and I think the Boys made the right call with the “Minimal” edit as a single, even tho I prefer the album version personally. What makes these ed...
by Propertius
Wed 16 Sep 2020, 5:23 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Did the PSB website change?
Replies: 19
Views: 5255

Re: Did the PSB website change?

When the Boys left Parlophone in 2013 the music business was moribund. Nobody wanted to invest even in the big companies. Now there’s a Vogue for music investments because streaming has matured enough that it seems clear what the revenue flows will look like over the long term, and even though music...
by Propertius
Fri 11 Sep 2020, 5:06 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Did the PSB website change?
Replies: 19
Views: 5255

Re: Did the PSB website change?

My guess is this is actually quite big—maybe they sold their music catalogue to Warner’s. Former PSB manager Merck Mercuriadis has a company that buys up catalogues and recently acquired Blondie’s, https://variety.com/2020/music/news/blondie-song-catalog-hipgnosis-1234725924/ . Several long-establis...
by Propertius
Thu 30 Apr 2020, 4:41 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: 4th single off Hotspot - I Don't Wanna
Replies: 200
Views: 66879

Re: 4th single off Hotspot - I Don't Wanna

I'm baffled by the radio edit. Would it really be any less likely to be played on radio at 4 minutes long, compared to the chopped version? The edit makes an abrupt switch from the truncated intro into the beat--it sounds amateurish. The "Monkey Business" and "Burning the Heather"...
by Propertius
Wed 29 Jan 2020, 5:05 pm
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Wedding in Berlin: revival of interest?
Replies: 78
Views: 19236

Re: Wedding in Berlin: revival of interest?

I was thinking it should have been a b-side, but then it occurred to me that for sales reasons it made sense to include it on the album: there will be some demand for the song at weddings, and by associating the song with the album, they might sell a few more albums. It’s more helpful than it would ...
by Propertius
Tue 26 Nov 2019, 12:38 am
Forum: Pet Shop Boys Discussion
Topic: Obsessed with anything unreleased?
Replies: 68
Views: 17306

Re: Obsessed with anything unreleased?

“Love your enemy,” which has never leaked, sounded enticing from its description in Literally: “gorgeous strings” and apparently a Massive Attack vibe. I’d love for the Bobby O demos / album prototype to get a proper release. And in addition to the Bobby O demo of “In the club or in the queue,” ther...