The Pet Shop Boys - Bilingual

Most of it sounds far more relaxed and naturalistic and unselfconscious than anything else they did in the 1990s (which is not to say that it's better or worse than the rest of it, just noticeably different). In the little booklet that came with the special edition from couple of years ago, Neil rhapsodises about the aceness of following To Step Aside with Saturday Night Forever, thereby ping-ponging wildly from Big Lifestyle Questioning track to Resuming AceExcellent Semi-Mindless Hedonism one, and it all makes perfect sense and is possibly more brilliant for it. Certainly I think it tends to be viewed as the big creative dip of their career and possibly the start of their lean period but it's a a quietly genius and fantastic album and definitely one of their most fascinating ones.

Years perfecting a stance
Of measured cool fade into insignificance
The moment one starts to understand
What on earth does it profit a man?

One notices when you see them written that Neil Tennant's lyrics are some of the very few in pop music that actually scan.

On the other hand, I put on Nightlife recently and it was just as bad as I remember it.

Mentalist!

That's a funny thing to say, John, since people are constantly comparing England and America.

Top Comments

1. PSB  "Nightlife"

2. PSB "Bilingual"

3. Beatles "The White Album"

Tockaaaa 1 year ago 22

From here

Nightlife >>>>>>>> Bilingual.

yep!

Nope!

Bilingual doesn't recover from its wobbly start, despite some of their best ever ("It Always Comes As a Surprise," "Before," "Se A Vida E," "Red Letter Day").

Bilingual was the first time the peerless PSBs lost me. But Nightlife got me back. Then Release lost me again. But I liked Fundamental and Yes.

Josh is bang OTM with that last post, that could be me talking.

Nightlife does sound a bit dated thanks to all that pop-trance stuff on there but much of it's amazing still and kinda timeless. Very is the really dated sounding PSB album i find; too compressed and shiny and glossy and.. un-warm.

the PSB released Nightlife at an important juncture in my life, and its best songs assuaged much of the pain. I mentioned the feebleness of Bilingual's opening volley. Well, how 'bout the wallop of "For Your Own Good," "Closer to Heaven," and "I Don't Know What You Want..."?

yeah easily the best opening run aside from Introspective. oh and i guess Please but yeah it's fabulous. amazing closing track too and as for 'Vampires'.. man alive.

It took turning thirty to understand the poignancy of "Footsteps."

My favourite part of Bilingual is the way the first two tracks flow together seamlessly. On the whole though, I think the track sequencing on this album isn't the best it could have been. Some great songs on this.

I've been made to believe that the post-Very albums are trash but I'm on my fifth listen to this now and it's really quite incredible - "Electricity" is a hell of a dud but this is a really deep album, and "Se a vida e" has been looping in my head for weeks now

"It Always Comes As a Surprise" and "Red Letter Day" are an amazing sequence; the album is just badly sequenced.

Nightlife and Fundamental are also great. Release and Yes definitely have their moments and, in retrospect, not every song on Elysium is wholly wretched (just most of them)

"Discoteca/Single" is a great one-two punch but having "Metamorphosis" and especially momentum-killer "Electricity" so early in the album was a mistake - there's better B-sides. The grower on the album for me was "To Step Aside", thanks to its being buried near the end of the album.

yeah "To Step Aside" is pretty massive, almost surreal in a way. I will rep for "Metamorphosis" as it's one of my favorites on the album but yeah "Electricity" should've been cut, this album is long as it is

I've been made to believe that the post-Very albums are trash

That's crazy. Nightlife, Fundamental and Electric are all strong and even the weaker ones have some great songs.

Does Release have any great songs? I remember it as sounding totally depleted.

I fucking love 'Up Against It'

"Home and Dry", "I Get Along", "The Samurai In Autumn"

I love 'Metamorphosis' lyrically, but I do agree it's a momentum-killer after the incredible opening tracks. 'Electricity' I could easily do without, I've never been a fan of it.

"You Choose" kills me.

That's crazy. Nightlife, Fundamental and Electric are all strong and even the weaker ones have some great songs.

― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL)

Yeah these are all great albums. Electric is by far by favourite but they're all pretty solid.

Release is their weakest album for me. Home and Dry and The Samurai In Autumn are the only real keepers on there. The Night I Fell in Love in Love is lyrically brilliant but sadly the music is really uninspired. Songs like E-mail and Birthday Boy are some of the of the most forgettable songs they've ever done.

Out of all their post Very albums Yes is the one I have the hardest time working out how much I actually like it. Love Etc, More Than a Dream and The Way it Used to be are up there with their best songs but just looking at the track listing I can't remember a single thing about a few of the tracks. I remember Beautiful People in particular is really poor. Oh and just like Fundamental they threw away one of the best songs on the bonus disc. This Used to be the Future with Phil Oakey, it's properly brilliant.

Release and Elysium are the only ones I haven't kept.

Seek: the b-side "Sexy Northerner."

I've kept Release just to complete the set. I bought Elysium but it was such an effort, the first time ever buying one of their albums seemed like a chore. Pretty awesome that they could turn it around so much in less than a year that I was all giddy, counting down the days until their next album came out.

I love I Get Along - a Sinatra-quoting break-up song about Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair. "Stuck here with the shame and taking my share of the blame while making sudden plans that don't include you."

I should've gone through and properly Storifyed my live tweet overload of all the albums back in September or so but yeah I was very well taken how most of the post-imperial phase thoroughly holds up. Yes/Elysium is the weakest patch but there are still some good songs there, but Electric so majestically stomps over them both.

I adore this record. A song or two aside, I think it proudly stands alongside their "classic" albums.

I'm okay with Nightlife, though I don't find it a very pleasant or happy album. It sounds tense, agitated, close to exhaustion. Release is the retreat from that.

I'm okay with Nightlife, though I don't find it a very pleasant or happy album. It sounds tense, agitated, close to exhaustion.

this is why Nightlife is awesome IMO

Relentless FTW

I hear Nightlife as the continuation of the story told in Please: the same couple, fifteen years together, bored, still hitting the same clubs but more brazen about picking up other guys and perhaps not telling each other about them the next evening.

listen to the years between "Two Divided by Zero" and "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk."

I've really come around to "Bilingual" since I resequenced it to Neil's prefered order.

Don't leave us (me) hanging, Josh! I've been googling for this fabled alternate order for 5 minutes to no avail.

Though tbf, I just sidetracked by this: http://psb-atdeadofnight.net/mezi_radky/btl_bilingual.php

I believe it is:

1. Discoteca
2. Single
3. The Survivors
4. Se a Vida E
5. It Always Comes as a Surprise
6. Up Against It
7. Before
8. Metamorphosis
9. To Step Aside
10. Electricity
11. Saturday Night Forever
12. A Red Letter Day

Thanks! Looks like an improvement to me. "A Red Letter Day" plays the "Go West" role in this track order.

"Saturday Night Forever" leaves me cold too.

I defended Bilingual on this thread in 2003 and I think I love it even more 10 years later.
I agree the sequencing could've been different and some B-Sides ("Hit and Miss", "The Truck Driver and His Mate") are better than a couple of songs that made it on the album ("Electricity", "Saturday Night Forever", although I still like them). But overall it is genius "mature" pop.
"Discoteca", "The Survivors", and "A Red Letter Day" often bring me to tears.

"The Survivors" - damn, that song is massive

What is with the way Tennant sings the word "heart" on 'It Always Comes As A Surprise'?

Anyway, even though the track order on this album is a bit fudged, this record has really blossomed for me recently - even 'Electricity', which I wasn't keen on for a long time. 'Metamorphosis' no longer feels to me like the momentum-killer that it used to be, and 'Saturday Night Forever' has really grown on me a lot. It seems to me that over time, this record is becoming more and more of a favourite of mine, and I guess this applies to Fundamental too.

I've accepted at this stage that bar one or two tracks, I've got the most out of Release and Elysium I've ever going to get, but Nightlife keeps stubbornly refusing to grow on me and I can't figure out why, especially since a lot of people here seem to rate it so highly.

i was listening to it today and pretty much it sucks but i do enjoy the songs on the further listening!

"The Truck Driver and His Mate"!

Just realised that "Delusions of Grandeur" of Further Listening/Format/Red Letter Day (non-)fame is in fact the best ever song that no-one really talks about.