What does everyone think of Pet Shop Boys? — Forum Archive

9 Apr 2003, 15:37

Just curious, but what does everyone think of PSB?

I sampled some of their songs the other day on Musicmatch and thought they were decent (similiar to NO in some ways).....

What do you all think of PSB?

9 Apr 2003, 16:01

I use to be really obsessed with them. I loved please and Actually. This was before I really gotten into New Order. I use to collect whatever I could by them. I actually spent over a hundred dollars once to get a copy of their film "It couldn't happen here". I started losing interest when Very came out. It wasn't a bad album. I really liked it. But I couldn't stand the damn costumes and all. Then their stuff started getting to dancy and poppy for my taste. I really felt like I wasted my money with Bilingual. I still like them. but I haven't really kept up with them very much. I still listen to Actually fairly often. Being Boring is one of my all time favorite Tracks.

9 Apr 2003, 16:04

I just noticed that NO and PSB released separate songs named "Young Offender" in '93

NO's Republic and PSB's Very. :eek: Just noticing this, I wonder how PSB's sounds...

As far as PSB goes, I think it's a mixed (hand)bag for me...some of their stuff sounds cheesy and dated (their early 90s stuff), and others ("What Have I Done...", "Domino Dancing", "West End Girls" and "I Want to Wake Up") are quite masterful.

EDIT- :eek3: Halfway to 1000. Wow, me.

9 Apr 2003, 16:18

I love PSB. They're a great pop band, with many classics in their career. Are also very melancholic, specially in their best album, Behaviour.

Songs like "Being boring", "This must be the place i waited years to leave", "My October symphony", "So hard", and many more, are fantastic. From their previous albums i like Please and Actually, but Introspective is good too.

My faves are: "What have i done to deserve this", "Shopping", "West end girls", "Left to my own devices", "Always on my mind", "King's cross", etc.

9 Apr 2003, 16:22

Ah, and they have one of the best song titles ever: "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk".

9 Apr 2003, 16:27

I thik PSB are great some of their songs are all time classics - Suburbia, Being Boring, Red Letter Day, Home and Dry, Rent, Too Many People. Neil Tennant has one of the best consistently good voices in pop. Their lyrics are a cut above the average and they have stood the test of time - much like New Order.

9 Apr 2003, 17:06

Rocket has ALL their albums and a few rare bootlegs.These are all on CDs because their 12 inch singles etc are extremely costly and i could not afford both the COMPLETE PSB aswell as BOWIE and the others i collect aswell as NEW ORDER.Some fantastic DANCE music and extremely classic songs.I never thought they were anything like NEW ORDER but just liked the synths and singers voice.Used to read NEIL when he wrote for NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS.West End Girls,Domino Dancing,I Want a Dog,NEW YORK CITY BOY,Go West,Always on My Mind and numerous others still get played regularly at PLANET ROCKET! :jawdrop: Cheers CHIP SHOP BOY ROCKET :D

9 Apr 2003, 17:37

Cocksuckers.

9 Apr 2003, 17:40

Love the Boys!!!

They are always working, and never let you down.

9 Apr 2003, 18:22

Originally posted by Subsy of Greater Rochester I just noticed that NO and PSB released separate songs named "Young Offender" in '93NO's Republic and PSB's Very. Just noticing this, I wonder how PSB's sounds...

Both sound very similar. Stephen Hague is written on the both of them.

9 Apr 2003, 18:42

Originally posted by Benny's Cobweb Eyes Cocksuckers.

So you REALLY like em a lot then BENNY?:D

9 Apr 2003, 19:31

Originally posted by Benny's Cobweb Eyes Cocksuckers.

yeah, but that's no reason to dislike them....

i've always liked PSB--ever since 'please' was released. they've put out some fantastic songs/albums throughout the years.

9 Apr 2003, 23:14

Rather liked Rent and What Have I Done To Deserve This?, but haven't actually bought any of their albums.

9 Apr 2003, 23:22

I remember begining to like New Order with the idea of Sebastien who told me Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr were gays.. :D

So what? doesn't stop the music.

I liked them a lot on Behaviour and Very, then for some reason, nothing came out here until Nightlife...

BTW... :topic:

Remember, there is a forum for those topics!

9 Apr 2003, 23:52

ah, PSB got played around the house too much when i was a kid, and i was throughly sick of them. but i like them now...though i don't really know their stuff beyond very.

10 Apr 2003, 00:08

Always been a fan, but not as much since roughly mid 90s, although they still turn out some decent material. "Actually" one of their best albums. Still love "I Want To Wake Up" & "King's Cross". Their stuff with Barney 'n' Johnny wasn't half bad either!

10 Apr 2003, 00:22

I'm a fan...Tennants lyrics are hilarious and poignant.

Haven't bought much of their stuff since early 90's though.

I remember catching the "young offender" coincidence as well

10 Apr 2003, 01:44

I actually got into PSB right when I was getting into new order. However, the first album I listened to was "Nightlife," which I found at the public library and taped - illegally, but never mind that. Although nightlife does have several good songs on it, particularly in the first half, I prefer their older stuff, especially "please," which is in my boombox almost as much as the first side of Substance and Disintegration (I've been a Cure fan for a while). I like New order better, since their sound varies and is more than just synths, programming, and vocals. :singer: :computer: (Shouldn't there be a keyboard/synth icon, especially since this is a new order forum?) Lyrically, PSB can be better than New Order, but they just don't have Hooky's bass. "Why don't we live together?" and "love comes quickly" are my favorite songs off please, although "domino dancing," "Closer to heaven," and "vampires," which aren't on please, are also pretty good.

10 Apr 2003, 05:40

I´ve been listening to them since 1985,west and girls. Like them a lot,suburbia is my number 1 and Neil taught Barney to sing much better.His voice in Republic tour was fantastic and never out of tune after Electronic sessions.

10 Apr 2003, 08:08

Originally posted by Benny's Cobweb Eyes Cocksuckers.

Quite literally.

10 Apr 2003, 08:15

I love PSB. I've been a fan since WEG in '85-86. I think NO and PSB compliment each other and my fantasy has been for them to collaborate. I kinda got that with Electronic so I'm happy. Neil has a great voice and he writes just the neatest lyrics. Being Boring is my favorite PSB song - it's just brilliant! Too Many People sounds like it coulda been a NO song.

I got to see them last year in Detroit and they kicked ass.

They rock my world. :love: :love2:

:D:D:D:D:D anita

10 Apr 2003, 09:22

There a great band,i originally got into them back in the late 80's as they have always been cited as being closing aligned to neworder and i knew that Barneys a big fan of neils lyricism and the critically acclaimed psb "sound"

Still think Behaviour is one of the most powerful albums ever released - regardless of the somewhat dodgy innuendos that lurk round every corner in Tennants lyrics, he remains without doubt of the cleverest and poignant lyric writers around. Just hearing the collaborations that were done with Electronic is testament to this. The lyrics on GAWI for example effortlessly blows wide open the twisted tenderness (for want of a better phrase!) relationship subject matter that Barney so often relentlessly harps on about in NewOrder songs but can never quite seem to nail down and put to bed.

So yea i got lot of time for their music, although i have all albums up to behaviour and picked up release a short while ago as it was in the sale im not an avid fan in so much as i have to have all their albums.

Ps: That Electronic connection not bring it back a little ON topic eh Spotnick?? ;)

10 Apr 2003, 09:51

I guess to bring it further back on topic....

I thought it was interesting comment my Neil Tannant in "NEWORDERSTORY" where he went out bought the new NO single "blue Monday". brought it home, played it and his heart instantly sank because he said it was something he and chris were wanting to do. and that they were working on a track with a similiar bassline around the same time.

10 Apr 2003, 11:03

Sorry to be a stick in the mud here, but don't have any time for them at all. Pompous rubbish when compared to New Order IMHO. CTB :bear:

10 Apr 2003, 11:56

I hired the PSB's for a party recently.

I thought 200 quid was expensive until they started playing some of their older stuff which went down really well. Bit disappointed with the sound (they only brought one speaker!) - but Neil and the other boy stopped back to chat to the guests which went down well, and I noticed one of them had taken a dump as the toilet roll was very neat when I went in afterwards to check for damage.

:hat:

10 Apr 2003, 13:37

I very much love the group, actually. So far I have Introspective, Behaviour, Discography, Very, Alternative, and Disco 3. In fact, I was singing Love Comes Quickly on my way to the university.

Neil has a great voice in my opinion, plus his lyrics are excellent (plus I've awlays had a thing for irony), and the music is great.

Domino Dancing and Miserabilism are my favorite tracks of there's.

By the way, speaking of very/republic, has anybody noticed the following:

1988-89: DM's Violator, NO's Technique, PSB's Introspective, all considered by many as the best albums of the group.

1993: NO's Republic, PSB's Very, both with Stephen Hauge and somewhat similar sounds.

1994-1995: NO's Best Of, which features older tracks, PSB's Alternative, which features older tracks.

2000-2001: DM's come back as Exciter, regarded as decent, NO's comeback as Get Ready, regarded as decent, PSB release Release, regarded by many as a very poor album.

10 Apr 2003, 16:38

Neil & Chris are obviously genious. It was and still is the first band after the Beatles which can make so many beautiful excellent songs and - quite often!! I'd be very proud of them if I were an Englishman.

10 Apr 2003, 23:00

I loved Release because they did something different on it. Love is a Catastrophe just rips a huge hole in my heart...Home & Dry is waiting for someone to come home...

I just love it to death...told Neil that, too!

10 Apr 2003, 23:23

Originally posted by anita I loved Release because they did something different on it.

I didn't buy Release yet, although I downloaded a few songs from it, and they were decent, but not up to the older stuff. Too guitarish in my opinion, which, although I like when bands use guitars well (such as NO in Get Ready or any release by smashing pumpkins or the cure), the sound just doesn't fit PSB well. However, "The Night I fell in Love" is hilarious, in my opinion. I despise Eminem (and most of american rap culture), especially his homophobic lyrics, eventhough he considers them just a part of his stage image or whoever that moron slim shady is.

11 Apr 2003, 02:57

PSB are the best songwriting duo active in the music industry. Although I love New Order, I have to admit a large portion of the PBS catalog is just as good, or better than NO - especially the Further Listening CDs. These guys know how to write a song and produce it. Best album - Behavior. Then there’s their unofficial third member who brings so much to the table – Johnny Marr. It all works rather well.