What’s truly “missing” from the Further Listening discs?

[Dog]

When Pet Shop Boys reissued their first six albums in 2001, they revealed five “rough rules” they’d given themselves in order to determine what they would (and wouldn’t) include on the accompanying Further Listening discs. These were:

1. The tracks would have to be what they considered to be recordings of “master quality”
2. They would include their own twelve-inch mixes
3. They would not include remixes by other people
4. They would sequence the tracks in the chronological order in which they were recorded
5. If the CD time was over 78 minutes they’d jettison those tracks which they thought seemed redundant, less interesting or which they particularly disliked

The Relentless tracks were not included alongside Very as they couldn’t make them fit - however, when they reissued their next five albums in 2017, they were clearly more comfortable with the idea of a three-disc set, taking this route for Nightlife, Release and Yes. This extra content and the move to three disc sets was, they justified, a consequence of this period coinciding with them purchasing their own permanent studio.

I suspect this has been long-covered before, but I’m interested to know what people consider as missing from the Further Listenings discs, presumably as a consequence of “rule five”, or simply because they were overlooked.

[TallThinMan]

The first rule never made much sense to me because by definition a demo is not a finished master recording.

[Dog]

The first rule never made much sense to me because by definition a demo is not a finished master recording.

I think it comes down to: do they consider it good enough / finished enough / different enough from any subsequently released version.

[Towa]

The first rule never made much sense to me because by definition a demo is not a finished master recording.

Didn’t they rather mean master “quality”?

[Wish]

Chris: What is "master quality"?! If Neil doesn't like it, it's not master quality

[Wish]

I remember they told in some interview about FLs in 2017, that they thought about extending the previous batch of FLs with additional CDs but realised that 2001 editions will be redundant and decided not to do it.

[Too Many Shadows]

Have we had an explanation for the omission of the Japan only extended version of This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave? Does it count as a remix by someone else?

[Sandy Shaw]

Have we had an explanation for the omission of the Japan only extended version of This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave? Does it count as a remix by someone else?

It doesn't exist...

[Dog]

Have we had an explanation for the omission of the Japan only extended version of This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave? Does it count as a remix by someone else?

Julian Mendelsohn alone is credited for the mix. So that could be a reason. Equally, when I interviewed Julian for this forum (viewtopic.php?t=33413&sid=2285579542e0e ... 20b566aa9d) back in 2018, he confirmed that either just Neil, or both Neil and Chris, were always present when he was remixing their tracks, giving input, so presumably that would have been the case here, which would have qualified it for inclusion. So maybe it slipped their mind, or it could have been discounted for not being sufficiently different enough from the album version. They had lots of content already for the disc so probably had to make some tough decisions. It’s a shame it wasn’t on there anyway.

[daveid]

As I said in a post recently, some of those 2001 FLs seem stretched out, Behaviour being the best example, with others compressed. So there are plenty of other tracks that could have been added.

[Dog]

As I said in a post recently, some of those 2001 FLs seem stretched out, Behaviour being the best example, with others compressed. So there are plenty of other tracks that could have been added.

That fit within their five rules?

[Leonidas]

Rule no. 3 is crazy. Look what happened recently with the Arthur Baker Suburbia remix on the dance masters cd. All these vinyl only remixes should have been swept up. Hopefully now, Parlophone will finally step in.

[Too Many Shadows]

Rough rules? Hmmm… plenty of room to paint yourself out of a corner if necessary. Not that this is a bad thing; however, where do "rough rules" end and "anything goes" begin? Maybe where art stops and commerce begins?

[TallThinMan]

What I’d really like to hear, that will perhaps never emerge are the ‘Behaviour’ demos.

[Dog]

Rule no. 3 is crazy. Look what happened recently with the Arthur Baker Suburbia remix on the dance masters cd. All these vinyl only remixes should have been swept up. Hopefully now, Parlophone will finally step in.

I think it makes sense to limit the Further Listening discs to their own material, rather than that remixed by others. But their remixes are overdue collation and at least we now know that Parlophone will be doing that as part of their project to compile and release their singles on streaming platforms. Personally I’d like to see a “Further Dancing” series of 15 companion discs - one for each album of the best remixes from each era.