Pet Shop Boys - Alternative

I think we nominated it as four sides?

Ah, maybe that’s why nothing came up on the search.

Tracks 1 to 21 = incredible, the rest not so much for me

'Do I Have To?' Yes

Extraordinarily tough, and can’t believe we never did this, but Do I Have To?

Gawd, probably one of "A Man Could Get Arrested", "I Want a Dog” (I attract ridicule when I mention that I prefer the Introspective version so won't mention it this time, oh too late), "Your Funny Uncle" (I wasn't joking in the other thread), "It Must Be Obvious" or "Miserablism".

A New Life would be in my Top 3 also, here’s Helena Springs’ version (different words, etc). She co-wrote it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njjdHfeereM

I so love the b-side version of 'A Man...." not included here. The only time they went 1985 on the production.

^ Yes!

That "A New Life" rendition is groovy. I heart that I'm still discovering such things. (The unused Morricone soundtrack cue that was recycled for "It Couldn't Happen Here" was another relatively recent case.)

Yeah thanks for sharing piscesx, was not familiar with that version. The PSB version was probably my favorite b-side for years, but now I could go for any of: that, "Was That What It Was?", "Miserablism", "Too Many People", "Violence", "Some Speculation"...

May need some time to think

I adore “Some Speculation”

Stop this caprice
You’ve got to cease
this fin-de-si’cle pretence

That was my OKCupid handle back in the day, DJP

Disc one is so perfect it's unreal. Sort of pains me that as a kid I don't remember spinning Was That What It Was or It Must Be Obvious more than maybe once or twice when I happened to own them

"A New Life", "Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend", "Your Funny Uncle", "Some Speculation", "One Of The Crowd" ... even the Sondheim/Brecht covers are great. That said, will always vote for the Latin Rascals-esque "The Sound of the Atom Splitting".

Miserablism, Shameless Do I Have To? and It Must Be Obvious are the contenders here. Going to have to revisit this compilation this week. So many wonderful songs here.

Am I too cliched or old-head by voting "Paninaro”?

I know it was originally a b-side but I think of it as a hit (and love it).

This was intended as a sort of different perspective on Pet Shops Boys (although it ended up containing hits):

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/205aTQBpnwJEwUZzQMMS6W

And Nashwan's version from around the same time:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ksHIsa9UOMtH3pXOqSQ3I

Then this was a sort of follow-up:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Vo5riagO7TOdB92H8fvuJ

Lol somehow in my first pass I missed the song I just voted for: the exquisite "Jack the Lad"

This whole thing is wonderful

thanks djh but think that link is wrong (or has too much recent stuff in it I don't particularly endorse ;) - here's my 'Scenic Route'/no A-sides PSBs playlist fwiw: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/225NqFz14N8017EeCQmUWW?si=njgL2XLmQYmaZ9ApDvrj4g

How curious ... I've been giving you credit for that for an age ... Looking forward to your proper playlist later.

Mine doesn't go beyond 'Electric' but I could add 'Entschuldigung!', 'I Don't Wanna' and 'Wedding In Berlin' to it. Need to relisten to the last few albums again perhaps but hard not to think of 'Electric' as the last hurrah.

Hotspot is sad. Last year's album was at least okay but hardly necessary.

£110 for those london shows :-(

Ouch. I was unlikely to attend due to work commitments but that makes it even less likely.

i would mind less if it was a decent venue but Electric Ballroom can be pretty awful when it's sold out; bad sightlines unless you get in ultra early and don't move, and sold out in there always feels oversold.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

This is my favourite PSB album, which moreorless means it's one of the greatest works of art in human history. It's not a bad record.

I don't know if it's the best song but I always want to go straight to "Euroboy"

you mean "go gay to 'Euroboy'"

I stand by what I said four years back:

If you believe the band themselves — at least, at the time — this B-side to ‘Yesterday When I Was Mad’ did not take its title from a gay softcore mag. Perhaps. I tend more to hear it, as the liner notes to Alternative suggested, as a contrast between a focused, all-conquering and utterly self-regarding figure, who nothing can impact and nobody can hurt, and the despair of someone else left behind. It’s a dialogue between robots well before Daft Punk. Camp and terrifying, electronic exultation achieved at the expense of everyone and everything else — perhaps that’s the real European canon in the end.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

hi five to two people

one more late vote for It Must Be Obvious. incredible song.

Would've voted 'In The Night' if not for 'Do I Have To?'. But that Zazou he don't care.

And I did get tickets for one of the Obscure shows next year fuck yeah

I almost forget that 'Paninaro' is on this. I think procuring Disco when I was maybe 11 has made it (and 'In the Night', for that matter) an honorary 'album track' from way back, and so not as fresh as the stuff I was wholly unfamiliar with before the compilation. I'm all for a stab at Italian-ness, however, though the significance of 'cinque' in that context puzzled me until reading this literally right now: http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/alternative/paninaro.htm