Pet Shop Boys - Yes

Lead single, "Love etc." is out there. Opinions?

On first listen: I like it. For now.

Tune doesn't announce itself as one of their strongest, but it's them and it sounds like them and oddly enough that still counts for at least a little something with me (I can't think of anyone else I would say that about). My only other thought (and I'm still making my way through the first listen) is that Neil Tennant's voice doesn't sound like it's diminished over time -- I mean, not at all. And that's completely rare, no?

Aside from the melody on the fist verse, which I think is a total blunder, I like it.

i thought this was a poll: pet shop boys vs. yes

I don't like it.

A shame, as the singles from Fundamental were all much better.

so trevor horn isn't producing this one, then

Neil Tennant's voice doesn't sound like it's diminished over time -- I mean, not at all. And that's completely rare, no?

Not since the 90's, anyway

^^Xenomania is producing the whole album. And they also co-wrote 3 track including "Love, etc."

This is dope! Sw00ds OTM

Fairly standard noughties PSBs fare but given how good "The Loving Kind" is, it's a pity they weren't given the whole of the current Girls Aloud album to write.

This completely smokes "The Loving Kind," fwiw.

They should have released "All Over the World" as the first single :/

You people are nuts. It's just awful, and Fundamental wilted with familiarity.

"The Gerhard Richter hanging on the wall, a chauffeur driven limousine on call, to drive your wife and lover to a white tie ball..."

Works for me.

At the Brits last night

^excellent video

this isn't bad, or at least not as bad as the last album - i love that sinister drip-drop melody, and that video is excellent, but...it's just kind of saddening that a band whose way with words made them so special is now giving us trite lyrics about how Fame And Money And Hollywood Are Bad, Children. "don't have to be a big bucks hollywood star, don't have to drive a super car to get far"? uhh thanks for that, pink!

actually it's more like latter-day madonna, isn't it. oh god :/

My god, you're right, Lex, the "look at the point I'm making" in fifth grade lyrics is AMAZINGLY reminiscent of Pink!

I mean it isn't precisely bad - there are good bits, and it is their best video in ages, but by their own standards it's pretty limp. Parts of the melody work - the chorus, definitely, but it's hampered by those awful, awful lyrics. As I've said repeatedly, Neil has been nothing special as a lyricist since "Very" - "Nightlife" has some great lyrics and there's the odd gem since then ("Miracles", "Flamboyant", "Indefinite Leave To Remain") but a surfeit of dull clever-clever stuff (esp on the last album, "I Made My Excuses And Left" being a prime example) - and.. well, for a group who were for 10 years the best singles act the UK ever produced, this isn't good enough.

I wonder if part of the deal with Xenomania was that one of their songs had to be a single. Not unheard of in the biz. The other song they had in the medley at the Brits sounded a lot better than this, so I fully expect the album to be good for 4-5 good songs and the rest will be binned like on the last two.

I'm still lukewarm on "Love, Etc," but I was lukewarm about "I'm With Stupid Too," and Flamboyant was a near-great album, much their best since Very. Maybe with a second single knockout on the order of "Minimal" will do the trick.

sorry this is actually good, it's nowhere near bullshit madonna, how does attacking aspiration equate to attacking fame?

I find the lyric really sympathetic, I can see how it may seem clichéd, but it's not an angry evisceration, it's a sentimental analysis. and it's not entirely about celebrity or fame by any means.

daavid otm again tho, wtf was neil thinking for that first verse, he's all over the place.

(i have no doubt this shit will fade in a month or two like everything they've done for the last 10-15 years but fuck it, a quick blast of psb is better than a quick blast of many other bands)

the "but it helps" bit is nice

I don't care all that much about the lyrics ("I'm With Stupid" had GREAT lyrics btw), but the music sounds really great here. I liked the last album, and it seems like I will like whatever they put out this year too. 2009 seems like a promising year. :)

Fortunately, I don't care much about lyrics either. I mean, great lyrics can do a lot for a song but, luckily, mediocre lyrics don't really bother me as long as the words go with the melody.

...what I can't forgive is a bad melody or a bad chorus.

I like how:
-Lyrically, it's the opposite of "Opportunities" -- or the other end of it (post-boom).
-The "Show Me Love" type keyboard part probably sounds fantastic on the dancefloor.
-The lyrics and melody remind me, strangely, a whole lot of Aimee Mann.

Also, I don't hear the song as didactic about its message. Like plenty of PSB songs, it's a proposition.

I love the new song and the performance at the Brits was FANTASTIC!

Fundamental could've been a great album but it really suffered from song selection. They left some of the best songs off it ("Fugitive", "The Resurrectionist") and kept some slow boring ones that could've been B-Sides ("I made my excuses", "Casanova", etc). They even released "Numb" as a single!!! I didn't get it at all.

Casanova was underrated imo, but I could have been swayed by the Rufus Wainwright live version, which was gorg.

Still pretty sure "Numb" was only a single because it played over the BBC's England Knocked Out of the World Cup montage.

So, the album is out in two weeks, and half of it leaked yesterday.

"The way it used to be" begins with some apparently shoddy lyrics ("I'm here. You're there.") and then evolves into something all kinds of sublime. I actually got a bit emotional the first time I listened to it and those gloriously sad melodies kicked in. For me it's the highlight of the album so far.

For me, it's "Vulnerable". Probably because it reminds me of some of their old B-Sides ("Jack The Lad" maybe?). Not crazy about the rest. There are some good melodies but I think it lacks punch and the production sounds a bit boring. TBH I'm also getting tired of Neil's voice and lyrics. Still, so far much better than Fundamental, Release and Nightlife.

This leaked completely yesterday.

thoughts?

Well, I instantly liked "Vulnerable" -- it's Mature and Adult without getting goopy -- because it reminded me of "Young Offender."

the japanese version with the dub mixes on disc 2 is a great bonus.

wtf happened to chris lowe's face?

dude got old

i liked "pandemonium".

idk if the point of "beautiful peopleis supposed to be some pulp rip off/homage but it's retarded

"beautiful people" is

i wish video games actually looked like that video

OK, so IMO the two best albums of 2009 so far were released today.

The Xenomania tracks are all ace, but the rest don't quite hold up, which is why I rank Röyksopp just ahead of Pet Shop Boys this time.

The only two tracks I absolutely love "Did You See Me Coming" and "The Way It Used To Be."

It sounds OK but not an improvement over Fundamental, and the writing seems pretty lacklustre generally.

I've spent ages looking for and buying PSB singles in America. Now that record stores are in decline and import singles are even harder to find, I'm looking at buying the b-sides to Love, Etc. from I-tunes. (I'm sure I could P2P them but for the sake of argument) -- I am wondering are digital CD singles and their B-sides limited edition or will those items be always available from I-tunes? Previously, if I didn't get the single when it came out, I would be stuck looking in used bins and on e-bay to pick them up. I do prefer the physical CD, especially with the fantastic packing PSB are known for and have a friend in the UK who could get me the singles, the price is only slightly more.

CNN article.

I'm waiting for that interview Andrew Sullivan did with them the other day to appear. (An hour and a half, he says -- great, full transcription plz.)

Now that record stores are in decline and import singles are even harder to find, I'm looking at buying the b-sides to Love, Etc. from I-tunes. (I'm sure I could P2P them but for the sake of argument) -- I am wondering are digital CD singles and their B-sides limited edition or will those items be always available from I-tunes?

As for their albums up to the mid 90s, I believe all b-sides and most alternative mixes are available on the accompanying second CDs that were released with the remasters a few years ago. I am no iTunes customer, and I don't know for certain, but I would expect the second CDs would also be sold on iTunes. As for the stuff from 1999 onwards, somebody else would have to fill me out on that, as they weren't reissued with bonus-CDs

Stuff gets removed from iTunes all the time - if the lable wants to stop selling it, it gets removed. So there is always a chance that the singles may end up unavailable on iTunes.

"I'm always struck since then by the sort of amazing look of our meeting," Tennant said.

lol merkin transcription

finally listened to this (though only once). Some good stuff, some forgettable stuff. It was only a few years ago they had the brilliant pop number "Didn't Get Where I Am Today", and if they want to go back to fun-times PSB, why don't they do something like that?

Old age isn't fun for gays, I suppose.

sad 4 the queens

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/10/peta.pet.shop.boys/index.html

Listened to this in headphones and it did not sound as good as on speakers, so opened up a few tracks on an audio editing program and it is completely brick-walled, most of the tracks are mastered so loud that there is no range at all. For comparison, I looked at tracks from Fundamental and they are much more dynamic. Sadly and not surprisingly, the volume wars have hit the Pet Shop Boys. Now, who's going to tell me to go get it on vinyl?

http://www.thevinylfactory.com/shop/index.php/pet-shop-boys-yes.html

Not just ANY vinyl mind you...

Good interview, considering the reporter.

You have your usual skepticism.

NT: No, no, no, we love Obama. We’re crazy about Obama in Europe. We’re all Obama crazy. Everyone thinks he’s sexy. Lovely teeth, as my mother would say.

And he glides. He has a great physical fluency about him.

NT: He actually would have made a very good cardinal, that sort of gliding across St. Peter’s Square thing he does. He’s got that kind of bearing. He’s just brought back dignity, which is an amazing thing to put back on the cultural agenda. There’s a slightly corny song on our album called “More Than a Dream,” which was written when Obama was slugging it out with Hillary in the primaries, and you could feel the potential for the world to change away from the sort of paranoia -- justified as it may be -- to something different. And that spirit is what we’re riding at the moment, although of course we wrote that before the economic crisis.

http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=25235

Hahah I was just about to post a link.

the speculation on the collapse of their US popularity is pretty good. Great ending too.

That photo of them on the last page from when they first started! The Neil and Chris Chain.

American tour is on:

--

The pre-sale will begin Monday, June 8th, at 1:00 PM in the time zone of the performance. To purchase pre-sale tickets please click here: http://tix.concertmaps.com/petshopboys

Aug 29 Montreal Metropolis
Sept 1 New York, NY Hammerstein
Sept 2 New York, NY Hammerstein
Sept 3 Washington, DC Constitution Hall
Sept 5 Boston, MA House of Blues
Sept 6 Atlantic City, NJ House of Blues
Sept 9 Miami, FL Fillmore
Sept 10 Tampa, FL Tampa Bay PAC
Sept 11 Orlando, FL House of Blues
Sept 12 Atlanta, GA Chastain
Sept 14 Chicago, IL Chicago Theater
Sept 15 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Ballroom
Sept 19 Vancouver, BC Vancouver Centre of Performing Arts
Sept 20 Seattle, WA Moore
Sept 22 San Francisco, CA Warfield
Sept 23 San Francisco, CA Warfield
Sept 24 Los Angeles, CA Greek
Sept 26 Las Vegas, NV Joint

Thanks for posting. This is really fucking exciting.

As long as they play no songs from Yes, I remain excited.

Alfred gets excited, you get excited too.

(Excited.)

Anyway Sullivan's just posted full on transcripts from his interview:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/for-hardcore-petheads-the-tennant-interview-in-full.html#more

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/for-hardcore-petheads-the-lowe-interview-in-full.html#more

I did like this note from AS:

The full interview was in two parts - with Neil and Chris separately (to avoid the classic Neil chit-chat followed by Chris one-liners).

Too true.

Chris: Well, I love what you would call boys music—you know, The prodigy, banging techno, music that girls generally don’t like. That’s a bit of a crass statement, isn’t it, but you know what I mean, so I think that is quite laddish

dog latin?