Lost

[Dog]

Hey Dan, great to hear from you. I am from the UK but have always been intrigued by Kalamazoo as it is name-checked in one of my favourite childhood books, Dr Seuss’s Horton Hatches The Egg. And I drove close by a couple of decades ago when my wife and I took a road trip from Chicago to New York - we stayed in Nappanee and then Battle Creek. I think that was the first time I actually realised Kalamazoo was a real place! It’s a great part of the world.

I agree PSB produced so much good stuff around this time. It is one of my favourite periods for b-sides - The dead can dance, Wierdersehen and In bits are all excellent, and of course the fantastic Brick England also comes from this era. As you say, You are the one was the song put aside for Hotspot. They also started work on Monkey business but that morphed into Pazzo. Wedding in Berlin was from this period but only ended up on Hotspot due to Stuart’s enthusiasm. It is interesting that The forgotten child also hails from this era.

Another theory regarding The lost room could be that they are saving the Price version for another purpose. Maybe it’ll be this version that ultimately ends up on the Super Further Listening disc?

Here are my 12 favourite tracks from this era:

The Pop Kids
Undertow
Brick England
The dead can dance
In bits
The forgotten child
Monkey business
Say it to me
Groovy
Sad robot world
Burn
Wierdersehen

Hi Dog,
I'm originally from the east side of Michigan, just north of Detroit. I moved to Kalamazoo five years ago for work. Before that I had only been to Kalamazoo a handful of times. My girlfriend in college (the "Behavior"/"Very" era) went to Western Michigan University, which is in Kalamazoo, and I used to visit her. When a good job opportunity became available in the county neighboring Kalamazoo, I choose to live in Kalamazoo to provide more job opportunities for my wife. We both run public libraries. I run the Van Buren District Library in neighboring Van Buren County, and my wife runs the Comstock Township Library five miles northeast of Kalamazoo.
Kalamazoo is an interesting place. It's a small city of about 74,000 people with the metro area being about 335,000. Compared to Detroit traffic is light, which is a welcome change. The western side of Michigan is very conservative in general, but being a college town, Kalamazoo is extremely left leaning and diverse. As with most cities, there is a lot of poverty and property crime, but the people are friendly and one is safe in their person. Marijuana was legalized in Michigan about four years ago and in Kalamazoo there are literally dozens of pot shops; one may smell it absolutely EVERYWHERE in Kalamzaoo. Many people smoke it as they drive around, living their lives.
Kalamazoo is most famous for it's unusual name. Kalamazoo was most recently name-checked in the Netflix, Addams Family derived series "Wednesday." Uncle Fester mentions numerous times "the Kalamazoo job." Gibson Guitars were manufactured in Kalamazoo until 1984, when the company moved to Nashville. Though former employees of Gibson subsequently set-up their own guitar plant in Kalamazoo, Heritage Guitars.
Kalamazoo is equidistant from both Detroit and Chicago, with each being about two and a half hours by car. Growing-up, Detroit was one of the largest metro areas in the US due to the auto-industry. Detroit used to be a must stop for any band on tour. The Cure recorded their "Show" live album at the Palace of Auburn Hills north of Detroit as it was the biggest venue they could fill two nights in a row in 1992. But, with the decline of the auto-industry, Detroit ceased to be a mandatory stop for many touring bands about 15 years ago. Now that I live in Kalamazoo, I may easily take the train to Chicago, which is actually quicker than driving by about 30 minutes. I've taken the train to Chicago a few times in the past five years to see Robyn, Little Boots, and the Pet Shop Boys/New Order tour. I’m also going to see what remains of Depeche Mode in Chicago in April. For shows, Detroit is still preferable to Chicago as the venues and crowds tend to be smaller, but as I said, not everyone stops in Detroit these days, but they always stop in Chicago.
The west side of Michigan is a popular vacation spot for affluent people from Chicago, and many Chicagoans own second homes west of Kalamazoo, in the county I work in, Van Buren County. Over the years many have fled the high taxes and overcrowding of the Chicago area, moving permanently to western Michigan. Up until the pandemic the flight from Chicago only extended as far as Van Buren County, but during COVID, I started to notice more and more Illinois license plates in Kalamazoo. While it used to be that Kalamazoo was most closely associated with Detroit, over time Kalamazoo is becoming more closely associated with Chicago.
In my estimation, "Super", along with "Electric" are among the sturdiest things PSB have done since the "Very" era. "Bilingual" wasn't bad and had absolutely killer B-sides, but I felt after that PSB kind of got themselves into a rut. "Nightlife" didn't live up to its promise and fell apart in the second half. "Release" is something I almost never revisit. At the time I thought it would be great if they tried their hand at a "more rock" sound, then they did and for the most part it didn't work (though oddly their best "rock" song, "I didn't get where I am today" was relegated to a B-side). While many love "Fundamental" I only cared for the more dance-oriented tracks such as "Minimal", "I'm with stupid", and "Fugitive." I was pretty excited for "Yes" when that came out, but only the co-writes with Xenomania have stood the test of time. By the time we got to "Elysium" I was pretty much ready to give up on PSB. "Elysium" was patchy at best and I only really cared for about five of its tracks. Then we got "Electric" and that was the album I always wished they would make! Every single cut is solid and all the tracks have room to breathe. While I wasn't as excited for "Super" as I was for "Electric", it's probably their sturdiest pop album since "Very." "Groovy", "Undertow", "Say it to me", and "Burn" are some of their best pure pop recordings. I think it's telling that songs written during the "Super" sessions form the foundation of "Hotspot", and that seven years on they're still releasing material from those sessions.

Hey Dan, cheers for the insight. I have friends in North Branch, north of Detroit, which may not be far from where you lived originally? I also have connections in Milwaukee and Chicago and love the people. Plenty of free thinking and healthy diversity. I have just finished watching Wednesday and had forgotten the Kalamazoo references.

I think my favourite of the Price trilogy is actually Hotspot and I love the variety across all of their albums - I’d be quite happy if their next album is another in the Release or Elysium mould. But we can agree that the Super sessions threw up plenty of exciting material. I think side two of Super might be the most consistent side of any of their albums.

[lucienchardon]

Hey Dan, great to hear from you. I am from the UK but have always been intrigued by Kalamazoo as it is name-checked in one of my favourite childhood books, Dr Seuss’s Horton Hatches The Egg. And I drove close by a couple of decades ago when my wife and I took a road trip from Chicago to New York - we stayed in Nappanee and then Battle Creek. I think that was the first time I actually realised Kalamazoo was a real place! It’s a great part of the world.

I agree PSB produced so much good stuff around this time. It is one of my favourite periods for b-sides - The dead can dance, Wierdersehen and In bits are all excellent, and of course the fantastic Brick England also comes from this era. As you say, You are the one was the song put aside for Hotspot. They also started work on Monkey business but that morphed into Pazzo. Wedding in Berlin was from this period but only ended up on Hotspot due to Stuart’s enthusiasm. It is interesting that The forgotten child also hails from this era.

Another theory regarding The lost room could be that they are saving the Price version for another purpose. Maybe it’ll be this version that ultimately ends up on the Super Further Listening disc?

Here are my 12 favourite tracks from this era:

The Pop Kids
Undertow
Brick England
The dead can dance
In bits
The forgotten child
Monkey business
Say it to me
Groovy
Sad robot world
Burn
Wierdersehen

Hi Dog,
I'm originally from the east side of Michigan, just north of Detroit. I moved to Kalamazoo five years ago for work. Before that I had only been to Kalamazoo a handful of times. My girlfriend in college (the "Behavior"/"Very" era) went to Western Michigan University, which is in Kalamazoo, and I used to visit her. When a good job opportunity became available in the county neighboring Kalamazoo, I choose to live in Kalamazoo to provide more job opportunities for my wife. We both run public libraries. I run the Van Buren District Library in neighboring Van Buren County, and my wife runs the Comstock Township Library five miles northeast of Kalamazoo.
Kalamazoo is an interesting place. It's a small city of about 74,000 people with the metro area being about 335,000. Compared to Detroit traffic is light, which is a welcome change. The western side of Michigan is very conservative in general, but being a college town, Kalamazoo is extremely left leaning and diverse. As with most cities, there is a lot of poverty and property crime, but the people are friendly and one is safe in their person. Marijuana was legalized in Michigan about four years ago and in Kalamazoo there are literally dozens of pot shops; one may smell it absolutely EVERYWHERE in Kalamzaoo. Many people smoke it as they drive around, living their lives.
Kalamazoo is most famous for it's unusual name. Kalamazoo was most recently name-checked in the Netflix, Addams Family derived series "Wednesday." Uncle Fester mentions numerous times "the Kalamazoo job." Gibson Guitars were manufactured in Kalamazoo until 1984, when the company moved to Nashville. Though former employees of Gibson subsequently set-up their own guitar plant in Kalamazoo, Heritage Guitars.
Kalamazoo is equidistant from both Detroit and Chicago, with each being about two and a half hours by car. Growing-up, Detroit was one of the largest metro areas in the US due to the auto-industry. Detroit used to be a must stop for any band on tour. The Cure recorded their "Show" live album at the Palace of Auburn Hills north of Detroit as it was the biggest venue they could fill two nights in a row in 1992. But, with the decline of the auto-industry, Detroit ceased to be a mandatory stop for many touring bands about 15 years ago. Now that I live in Kalamazoo, I may easily take the train to Chicago, which is actually quicker than driving by about 30 minutes. I've taken the train to Chicago a few times in the past five years to see Robyn, Little Boots, and the Pet Shop Boys/New Order tour. I’m also going to see what remains of Depeche Mode in Chicago in April. For shows, Detroit is still preferable to Chicago as the venues and crowds tend to be smaller, but as I said, not everyone stops in Detroit these days, but they always stop in Chicago.
The west side of Michigan is a popular vacation spot for affluent people from Chicago, and many Chicagoans own second homes west of Kalamazoo, in the county I work in, Van Buren County. Over the years many have fled the high taxes and overcrowding of the Chicago area, moving permanently to western Michigan. Up until the pandemic the flight from Chicago only extended as far as Van Buren County, but during COVID, I started to notice more and more Illinois license plates in Kalamazoo. While it used to be that Kalamazoo was most closely associated with Detroit, over time Kalamazoo is becoming more closely associated with Chicago.
In my estimation, "Super", along with "Electric" are among the sturdiest things PSB have done since the "Very" era. "Bilingual" wasn't bad and had absolutely killer B-sides, but I felt after that PSB kind of got themselves into a rut. "Nightlife" didn't live up to its promise and fell apart in the second half. "Release" is something I almost never revisit. At the time I thought it would be great if they tried their hand at a "more rock" sound, then they did and for the most part it didn't work (though oddly their best "rock" song, "I didn't get where I am today" was relegated to a B-side). While many love "Fundamental" I only cared for the more dance-oriented tracks such as "Minimal", "I'm with stupid", and "Fugitive." I was pretty excited for "Yes" when that came out, but only the co-writes with Xenomania have stood the test of time. By the time we got to "Elysium" I was pretty much ready to give up on PSB. "Elysium" was patchy at best and I only really cared for about five of its tracks. Then we got "Electric" and that was the album I always wished they would make! Every single cut is solid and all the tracks have room to breathe. While I wasn't as excited for "Super" as I was for "Electric", it's probably their sturdiest pop album since "Very." "Groovy", "Undertow", "Say it to me", and "Burn" are some of their best pure pop recordings. I think it's telling that songs written during the "Super" sessions form the foundation of "Hotspot", and that seven years on they're still releasing material from those sessions.

Thanks for the discussion about Kalamazoo and Michigan. I visited Detroit a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

I was planning to see Depeche Mode in the spring too but the prices in NYC are over twice as much as PSB/New Order. I think I will skip their tour this time.

[westendboy87]

Hey Dan, great to hear from you. I am from the UK but have always been intrigued by Kalamazoo as it is name-checked in one of my favourite childhood books, Dr Seuss’s Horton Hatches The Egg. And I drove close by a couple of decades ago when my wife and I took a road trip from Chicago to New York - we stayed in Nappanee and then Battle Creek. I think that was the first time I actually realised Kalamazoo was a real place! It’s a great part of the world.

I agree PSB produced so much good stuff around this time. It is one of my favourite periods for b-sides - The dead can dance, Wierdersehen and In bits are all excellent, and of course the fantastic Brick England also comes from this era. As you say, You are the one was the song put aside for Hotspot. They also started work on Monkey business but that morphed into Pazzo. Wedding in Berlin was from this period but only ended up on Hotspot due to Stuart’s enthusiasm. It is interesting that The forgotten child also hails from this era.

Another theory regarding The lost room could be that they are saving the Price version for another purpose. Maybe it’ll be this version that ultimately ends up on the Super Further Listening disc?

Here are my 12 favourite tracks from this era:

The Pop Kids
Undertow
Brick England
The dead can dance
In bits
The forgotten child
Monkey business
Say it to me
Groovy
Sad robot world
Burn
Wierdersehen

Hi Dog,
I'm originally from the east side of Michigan, just north of Detroit. I moved to Kalamazoo five years ago for work. Before that I had only been to Kalamazoo a handful of times. My girlfriend in college (the "Behavior"/"Very" era) went to Western Michigan University, which is in Kalamazoo, and I used to visit her. When a good job opportunity became available in the county neighboring Kalamazoo, I choose to live in Kalamazoo to provide more job opportunities for my wife. We both run public libraries. I run the Van Buren District Library in neighboring Van Buren County, and my wife runs the Comstock Township Library five miles northeast of Kalamazoo.
Kalamazoo is an interesting place. It's a small city of about 74,000 people with the metro area being about 335,000. Compared to Detroit traffic is light, which is a welcome change. The western side of Michigan is very conservative in general, but being a college town, Kalamazoo is extremely left leaning and diverse. As with most cities, there is a lot of poverty and property crime, but the people are friendly and one is safe in their person. Marijuana was legalized in Michigan about four years ago and in Kalamazoo there are literally dozens of pot shops; one may smell it absolutely EVERYWHERE in Kalamzaoo. Many people smoke it as they drive around, living their lives.
Kalamazoo is most famous for it's unusual name. Kalamazoo was most recently name-checked in the Netflix, Addams Family derived series "Wednesday." Uncle Fester mentions numerous times "the Kalamazoo job." Gibson Guitars were manufactured in Kalamazoo until 1984, when the company moved to Nashville. Though former employees of Gibson subsequently set-up their own guitar plant in Kalamazoo, Heritage Guitars.
Kalamazoo is equidistant from both Detroit and Chicago, with each being about two and a half hours by car. Growing-up, Detroit was one of the largest metro areas in the US due to the auto-industry. Detroit used to be a must stop for any band on tour. The Cure recorded their "Show" live album at the Palace of Auburn Hills north of Detroit as it was the biggest venue they could fill two nights in a row in 1992. But, with the decline of the auto-industry, Detroit ceased to be a mandatory stop for many touring bands about 15 years ago. Now that I live in Kalamazoo, I may easily take the train to Chicago, which is actually quicker than driving by about 30 minutes. I've taken the train to Chicago a few times in the past five years to see Robyn, Little Boots, and the Pet Shop Boys/New Order tour. I’m also going to see what remains of Depeche Mode in Chicago in April. For shows, Detroit is still preferable to Chicago as the venues and crowds tend to be smaller, but as I said, not everyone stops in Detroit these days, but they always stop in Chicago.
The west side of Michigan is a popular vacation spot for affluent people from Chicago, and many Chicagoans own second homes west of Kalamazoo, in the county I work in, Van Buren County. Over the years many have fled the high taxes and overcrowding of the Chicago area, moving permanently to western Michigan. Up until the pandemic the flight from Chicago only extended as far as Van Buren County, but during COVID, I started to notice more and more Illinois license plates in Kalamazoo. While it used to be that Kalamazoo was most closely associated with Detroit, over time Kalamazoo is becoming more closely associated with Chicago.
In my estimation, "Super", along with "Electric" are among the sturdiest things PSB have done since the "Very" era. "Bilingual" wasn't bad and had absolutely killer B-sides, but I felt after that PSB kind of got themselves into a rut. "Nightlife" didn't live up to its promise and fell apart in the second half. "Release" is something I almost never revisit. At the time I thought it would be great if they tried their hand at a "more rock" sound, then they did and for the most part it didn't work (though oddly their best "rock" song, "I didn't get where I am today" was relegated to a B-side). While many love "Fundamental" I only cared for the more dance-oriented tracks such as "Minimal", "I'm with stupid", and "Fugitive." I was pretty excited for "Yes" when that came out, but only the co-writes with Xenomania have stood the test of time. By the time we got to "Elysium" I was pretty much ready to give up on PSB. "Elysium" was patchy at best and I only really cared for about five of its tracks. Then we got "Electric" and that was the album I always wished they would make! Every single cut is solid and all the tracks have room to breathe. While I wasn't as excited for "Super" as I was for "Electric", it's probably their sturdiest pop album since "Very." "Groovy", "Undertow", "Say it to me", and "Burn" are some of their best pure pop recordings. I think it's telling that songs written during the "Super" sessions form the foundation of "Hotspot", and that seven years on they're still releasing material from those sessions.

Hey Dan, cheers for the insight. I have friends in North Branch, north of Detroit, which may not be far from where you lived originally? I also have connections in Milwaukee and Chicago and love the people. Plenty of free thinking and healthy diversity. I have just finished watching Wednesday and had forgotten the Kalamazoo references.

I think my favourite of the Price trilogy is actually Hotspot and I love the variety across all of their albums - I’d be quite happy if their next album is another in the Release or Elysium mould. But we can agree that the Super sessions threw up plenty of exciting material. I think side two of Super might be the most consistent side of any of their albums.

Sorry I'm not adding anything of value to this conversation. But, lol, I've been on the forum for years (since the early 00s, I believe), just more of a lurker than a poster, lol. But anyway, I'm also from Michigan just north of Detroit. (near Mt.Clemens) Great to know there are some fellow fans so nearby! Just read this in passing as I'm preparing for obligatory NYE festivities, but would love to discuss Lost at some point. Pretty stoked for it. However, I definitely need to read a bit more as to which songs were produced during which era. All sorts of good came from the Stuart Price trilogy era, though some tracks took quite some time to grow on me. I dug a majority of the b-sides that were released, but there were definitely a few I just couldn't get into, but I'll try to get on here tomorrow to get further into it. Sorry, just got excited to hear the mentioning of my home state. =P Happy new year, everyone.

Brian

[Danimal]

Sorry I'm not adding anything of value to this conversation. But, lol, I've been on the forum for years (since the early 00s, I believe), just more of a lurker than a poster, lol. But anyway, I'm also from Michigan just north of Detroit. (near Mt.Clemens) Great to know there are some fellow fans so nearby! Just read this in passing as I'm preparing for obligatory NYE festivities, but would love to discuss Lost at some point. Pretty stoked for it. However, I definitely need to read a bit more as to which songs were produced during which era. All sorts of good came from the Stuart Price trilogy era, though some tracks took quite some time to grow on me. I dug a majority of the b-sides that were released, but there were definitely a few I just couldn't get into, but I'll try to get on here tomorrow to get further into it. Sorry, just got excited to hear the mentioning of my home state. =P Happy new year, everyone.

Brian

Brian, it's funny you mention you're from near Mt. Clemens. My last job before Van Buren District Library was as the director of the Harrison Township Public Library right next to Mt. Clemens. I was there from June 2015 through November 2017. Small world.
Dan

[westendboy87]

Sorry I'm not adding anything of value to this conversation. But, lol, I've been on the forum for years (since the early 00s, I believe), just more of a lurker than a poster, lol. But anyway, I'm also from Michigan just north of Detroit. (near Mt.Clemens) Great to know there are some fellow fans so nearby! Just read this in passing as I'm preparing for obligatory NYE festivities, but would love to discuss Lost at some point. Pretty stoked for it. However, I definitely need to read a bit more as to which songs were produced during which era. All sorts of good came from the Stuart Price trilogy era, though some tracks took quite some time to grow on me. I dug a majority of the b-sides that were released, but there were definitely a few I just couldn't get into, but I'll try to get on here tomorrow to get further into it. Sorry, just got excited to hear the mentioning of my home state. =P Happy new year, everyone.

Brian

Brian, it's funny you mention you're from near Mt. Clemens. My last job before Van Buren District Library was as the director of the Harrison Township Public Library right next to Mt. Clemens. I was there from June 2015 through November 2017. Small world.
Dan

Wow, definitely is a small world, then! Great place right on the water, and the weekly roaring of jets from the air base. Good to meet ya, man.

[westendboy87]

I hope the new songs are good, this will have to tide us over for a long time. they are out on their tour now...I dont see them going out again until the release of a new album and I doubt that will be anytime soon as it would be crazy to just come back from a huge world tour and then release a new album..and then head out again.

This is my fear. I'm stoked for Lost, absolutely. And, as mentioned before by others, it'd be great to get smaller EP releases sporadically here and there, similar to Agenda. From what I've read, they have a lot of extra tracks from the past 10ish years. The b-sides were pretty good during this era. But I do understand that these unfinished/nearly finished tracks may just not be what PSB want to release, for whatever reason. I'm probably on the younger spectrum of PSB geekery, so discovering them in 2002 was a TREAT! And I'm grateful that they've released consistent material through the years, whether it be loved or hated by critics or fans. (some songs still manage to grow on me, most recently, Undertow, which I always just skipped for some reason). And it's not like I rarely listen to these albums, but there are always some songs that don't hook me. And, I'll be the first to admit that many of the PSB songs that have hooked me are the ones that people seem to dismiss as "meh". But ANY release is something worth being amped about. But, yeah, I definitely have been thinking, "what will happen afterwards?" We've been spoiled too much, maybe. I'm jonesing for some new PSB, though Hotspot still feels like just yesterday. Pandemic time-warp type stuff. =P The 2017 reissues proved that there are some nice unreleased tracks. I think I've read a lot of critical stuff about some of the brand new songs that came with the reissues in 2017, but I really was pleased by most of it. I'm hoping for some more news of some kind of release, but in the meantime, I just try to stay grateful that my favorite band is even still touring, and surely have a lot of unfinished songs that wouldn't be as demanding to finish. Not sure how it all works. Just can't wait!

[Dog]

I think there’s a bit more here from Neil in today’s social media post:

Pet Shop Boys will be releasing their first new music for two years with the four-track CD EP, “Lost”, which accompanies the 2023 edition of Pet Shop Boys “Annually" book, available in April.

The four songs, “The lost room”, “I will fall”, “Skeletons in the closet” and “Kaputnik” were written and recorded as demos in London and Berlin in 2015 for potential inclusion on the album “Super” but weren’t included “not because we didn't like them,” according to Neil Tennant, “but because they didn't fit the album.” The decision to release them now as an EP was made because “they all sit together quite well, production-wise, they're all super-electronic,” and also because “some of them are sort of relevant to the world at the moment.”

The EP takes its title “Lost” from the first song, “The lost room”, but “it also seems to represent a sort of larger, philosophical or political point, where there've been times recently where the world feels a bit lost in terms of the direction it's going in.”

The “Lost” CD EP and the 2023 edition of “Annually” will be released on April 15th and can be pre-ordered at the link below.

[rashomon]

Interesting point about the production being ‘super-electronic’

I’m probably reading too much into it but this suggests to me that the next album will be err … ‘less-electronic’

[Flaffer]

Interesting point about the production being ‘super-electronic’

I’m probably reading too much into it but this suggests to me that the next album will be err … ‘less-electronic’

Wasn’t Burning The Heather the first track nominally written/earmarked for the next album ?

[leesmapman]

Wasn’t Burning The Heather the first track nominally written/earmarked for the next album ?

Yes, that was going to be the key track for the new album.

[minimal]

And as we know from history everything could be completely different just by now and the sound of heather might not play any significant role anymore..

m+

[Patrick Bateman]

Neil is such a classic Western liberal. The world feels a bit lost in terms of the direction it's going in? Like it's always been progressing inexorably to a clearly defined destination and there have never been wars or dishonest leaders.

[Tom Angel]

Neil is such a classic Western liberal. The world feels a bit lost in terms of the direction it's going in? Like it's always been progressing inexorably to a clearly defined destination and there have never been wars or dishonest leaders.

Well, as we're constantly told, the 'liberals' know what's best for us all. I guess we should fall into line and listen.

[Ghost within this house]

Well, as we're constantly told, the 'liberals' know what's best for us all. I guess we should fall into line and listen.

Better that than no listening at all...

[NotInvisible]

Neil is such a classic Western liberal. The world feels a bit lost in terms of the direction it's going in? Like it's always been progressing inexorably to a clearly defined destination and there have never been wars or dishonest leaders.

I think he's referring to the resurgence fascism in many countries - including the West. What was once considered unthinkable is now sadly a global phenomenon.