Pet Shop Boys album

Album   Released Publisher Rating
Concrete (UK) 2006 Parlophone Records
Behavior (Japan 2-CD) 1990 Alex Imports
Behavior (Bonus CD) 1990 Capitol Records
Back to the topConcrete (UK)
Review by David Jeffries, All Music Guide
Released:
November 21, 2006
Label:
Parlophone Records
Rating:
Styles:
Dance-Pop
Club/Dance
Alternative Dance
Alternative/Indie Rock
Dance-Rock
With a generally deadpan singer and another guy behind a bank of synthesizers, the Pet Shop Boys just aren't built for live albums, even if the songs are exquisite, there's an orchestra behind them, and some very special guests appear. While the duo can deliver in a live setting, the experience relies heavily on the visual, check the Performance or Somewhere concert videos for proof. Still, for fans, Concrete must exist since it captures the duo's May 2006 appearance at London's Mermaid Theater, an invite-only affair with the BBC Concert Orchestra as backing band. The song selection doesn't read like a greatest-hits compilation because save "It's a Sin" and "West End Girls," everything here was originally recorded with various sized orchestras. Singer Neil Tennant is obviously proud of the high-profile arrangers the duo has worked with in the past and pays respect to them between the music with special mentions for Craig Armstrong, Angelo Badalamenti, and Anne Dudley whose former partner in Art of Noise, Trevor Horn, is musical director here. These little interruptions make the album like a PSB episode of Storytellers as Tennant brings up some points of interest, like how the fascinating Badalamenti arrangement of "Rent" played here is from the Liza Minnelli album that the Boys curated, Results. Other bits from the fringe of the catalog include selections from the duo's The Battleship Potemkin soundtrack and their musical Closer to Heaven, but more interesting is hearing guests Rufus Wainwright and Robbie Williams pull the bittersweet out of "Casanova in Hell" and "Jealousy," respectively. As a one-off show with a "pick-up" band, it isn't surprising that some tracks are executed brilliantly ("The Sodom and Gomorrah Show," "Dreaming of the Queen") while others stumble and fall ("Numb," "It's a Sin") but there's often a good dialog going between the duo and orchestra, and only "It's Alright" sounds exactly like the studio version. While that's probably not enough to keep everyone occupied, fans and fetishists will embrace this curio
Track # Track Time Composer
1 Left to My Own Devices 8:36 Tennant, Lowe
2 Rent 3:56 Lowe, Tennant
3 You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk 3:31 Lowe, Tennant
4 The Sodom and Gomorrah Show 5:33 Tennant, Lowe
5 Casanova in Hell 3:40 Tennant, Lowe
6 After All 7:56 Tennant, Lowe
7 Friendly Fire 3:57 Lowe, Tennant
8 Integral 4:01 Tennant, Lowe Ringtone
9 Numb 5:03 Warren
10 It's Alright 5:03 Brightledge, Void, Jefferson
11 Luna Park 6:21 Tennant, Lowe
12 Nothing Has Been Proved 4:40 Tennant, Lowe
13 Jealousy 5:57 Lowe, Tennant
14 Dreaming of the Queen 5:28 Tennant, Lowe
15 It's a Sin 5:18 Tennant, Lowe
16 Indefinite Leave to Remain 2:59 Tennant, Lowe
17 West End Girls 4:55 Lowe, Tennant Ringtone
Back to the topBehavior (Japan 2-CD)
Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Released:
January 1990
Label:
Alex Imports
Rating:
Styles:
Dance-Pop
Club/Dance
Alternative Dance
Alternative/Indie Rock
Dance-Rock
Behavior was a retreat from the deep dance textures of Introspective, as it picked up on the carefully constructed pop of Actually. In fact, Behavior functions as the Pet Shop Boys' bid for mainstream credibility, as much of the album relies more on pop-craft than rhythmic variations. Although it's a subtle maneuver, it would have been rather disastrous if the results weren't so captivating. Neil Tennant takes this approach seriously, singing the lyrics instead of speaking them. That doesn't necessarily give the album added emotional baggage -- all of the distance and detachment in the duo's music is not a hindrance, it's part of the concept -- but it does result in an ambitious and breathtaking pop album, which manages to include everything from the spiteful "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" to the wistful "Being Boring." [The Japanese release offered a second disc with three bonus tracks: "Miserable," "Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend," and a lengthy remix of "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave."]
Track # Track Time Composer
1 Being Boring 6:48 Tennant, Lowe
2 This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave 5:30 Lowe, Tennant
3 To Face the Truth 5:33 Tennant, Lowe
4 How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously? 3:54 Tennant, Lowe
5 Only the Wind 4:18 Lowe, Tennant
6 My October Symphony 5:18 Tennant, Lowe
7 So Hard 3:56 Lowe, Tennant
8 Nervously 4:06 Tennant, Lowe
9 The End of the World 4:43 Tennant, Lowe
10 Jealousy 4:47 Lowe, Tennant
11 Miserablism (*) 4:30 Lowe, Tennant
12 Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend (*) 4:26 Lowe, Tennant
13 This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave (Extended Mix)(*) 9:30 N/A
Back to the topBehavior (Bonus CD)
Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Released:
January 1990
Label:
Capitol Records
Rating:
Styles:
Dance-Pop
Club/Dance
Alternative Dance
Alternative/Indie Rock
Dance-Rock
Behaviour is arguably Pet Shop Boys' best album -- rivaled by the one that followed it, Very -- so it's appropriate that it's paired with the best "further listening" component available in the reissue series. This is certainly a byproduct of the duo's high creativity between 1990-1991, but it's also a smartly selected, sharply assembled album in its own merit, containing several of the group's very best non-LP songs -- "It Must Be Obvious," "Miserablism," "Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend," and the anthemic "DJ Culture" -- which are sequenced between many fine extended mixes, including one of "Where the Streets Have No Name"/"I Can't Take My Eyes Off You." Several of these mixes are for songs not on the album as well ("We All Feel Better in the Dark," "Was It Worth It?," and "Music for Boys"), which give the record additional value, since these are different versions than those on Alternative. But even if you have that record, the richness and very flow of this installment of "further listening" makes this expanded edition perhaps the most essential of all the 2001 PSB reissues.
Track # Track Time Composer
1 Being Boring 6:50 Tennant, Lowe
2 This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave 5:31 Tennant, Lowe
3 To Face the Truth 5:32 Tennant, Lowe
4 How Can You Expect to Be Taken So Seriously? 3:56 Lowe, Tennant
5 Only the Wind 4:17 Lowe, Tennant
6 My October Symphony 5:18 Tennant, Lowe
7 So Hard 3:58 Lowe, Tennant
8 Nervously 4:10 Lowe, Tennant
9 The End of the World 4:39 Lowe, Tennant
10 Jealousy 4:49 Lowe, Tennant
11 It Must Be Obvious 4:26 Lowe, Tennant
12 So Hard (Extended Dance Mix) 6:38 Lowe, Tennant
13 Miserablism 4:07 Lowe, Tennant
14 Being Boring (Extended Mix) 10:40 Lowe, Tennant
15 Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend 4:30 Tennant, Lowe
16 We All Feel Better in the Dark (Extended Mix) 6:48 Lowe, Tennant
17 Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You) [Extended 6:46 Evans, Clayton, Hewson, Mullen
18 Jealousy (Extended Version) 7:58 Lowe, Tennant
19 Generic Jungle (#) 0:14 Tennant, Lowe
20 DJ Culture (Extended Mix) 6:53 Lowe, Tennant
21 Was It Worth It? (Twelve-Inch Mix) 7:15 Lowe, Tennant
22 Music for Boys (Ambient Mix)(#) 6:13 Tennant, Lowe
23 DJ Culture (Seven-Inch Mix) 4:26 Tennant, Lowe
Price: $22.98     63 Reviews
Pet Shop Boys, Behavior
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