Being POLLring: The Pet Shop Boys' "Behaviour" Poll

Great album. I voted Being Boring without thinking twice but there are about 3 or 4 other songs on here that I love equally. So Hard seems to be overlooked but I loved that single and the mixes.

Voted Jealousy, but it's a coin-flip between that and Boring. Boring actually works better in the 7" version and Jealousy better in the full Shakespeared-up 12"!

This Must Be The Place was brought to life for me on the 2007 tour - but still can't not hear Tennant's then-over-enunciated "...YAAHRS to leave" when I see the title now!

So Hard - probably the best lyrics of any PSB song

Jealousy.

Being Boring no doubt but voted So Hard cos it's almost as good

So Hard great but the panoply of very different versions make it hard to lock in on the song for me

^^ owned the KLF 12" for yeeeears before getting around to the album

also another one that got really well-reinterpreted on the last tour!

My October Symphony

I've always thought "So Hard" is a bit boring. I think I'm gonna go with "The End of The World".

This is very difficult, but I'll go with "Nervously" for the beautiful lyrics and the music fitting them so well.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I voted for "To face the truth", such a nervous, gorgeous arrangement.

I really kinda hate "How can you expect to be taken seriously?" though, mostly for the chorus, particularly the "seriously" line where the guitars purr unconvincingly tough.

Blame Tennant's axemanship!

yeah I just got the 2-disc version of this and enjoyed the liner notes; I didn't realize how much guitar he played on this one...and silly me didn't realize how much Marr played on this too. Fascinating notes, though.

I find Tennant's amateurishness charming, actually: his solo answers the song title's question.

That's a smart way of looking at it! I like the verses just fine.

Pretty sure we've done this before. Still "Nervously".

'Being Boring' is one of their best singles but I went with 'This Must Be The Place...'.

i don't have this album but 'being boring' is prob my second favourite PSB song after 'rent'

gotta be jealousy

Lex, you should get this album; I think it's their second-best after Actually.

being boring tho there are lots of great songs here

"The End of the World" is mad underrated – maybe my favorite use of Tennant's theoretically detached narrator.

I voted "The End of the World" but I think the only song on here I couldn't make an argument for is "Nervously" and that's just because I don't remember how it goes right now.

That's the one with the shimmery electronics and the "A nervous boy..." refrain.

oh right, I always skipped that one

The only one I skip is "Only The Wind."

Lex, you should get this album; I think it's their second-best after Actually.

Actually their second-best after "Very".

"My October Symphony." (For what it's worth, this is the last album I ever cared about from these guys, and I don't like it anywhere near as much as the three-not-counting-Disco that came before it.)

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

No surprises.

Actually, this surprises me (and makes me a little sad) -- Do people hate it that much? (I had a pretty funny discussion with Neil Tennant about how goofy it was when I interviewed him for Request when it came out, but I kind of liked it even then.)

"How can you expect to be taken seriously?" — 3:54 0

I like it too and expected at least a couple of votes, but I don't think voters like power chords strummed over "Every Little Step" backbeats.

There's a decent single version of Seriously, sans rubbish power chords.

It seems I have the same two favourite albums as Geir and the same two favourite singles as Lex. All this agreement is creeping me out.

Just came across this thread, because I'm listening to 'Behaviour' right now. Fantastic record.

Really surprised to see 'To Face The Truth' came in so low, I've always found that to be such a gorgeous song. 'Being Boring' of course had to be the winner, probably the best single Pet Shop Boys ever released, even if those buying singles in the UK at the time didn't agree.

The only song that isn't less than excellent is "Only the Wind."

Yeah, that's probably the 'low point' of the album for me as well, to be honest. Wasn't this one of Axl Rose's favourite albums?

Indeed it was, and told Tennant so.

Hehehe! That must have been quite a surprise for him. I love the sound of this album, Faltermeyer did an excellent production job on this. Those analogue synth sounds are divine.

I dug this thing out after ignoring it for too long and it's just making me melt inside, it's so gorgeous. All the things that annoyed me the first time around -- the orchestral stabs on "So Hard", the occasional MIDI-ness, the way Tennant pronounces "years" -- I have no idea how I even managed to get hung up on such stupid things when faced with such beautiful songs. Cool, wistful, and ominous -- PERFECT record for this time of year. And yes, I love these synths too.

Fuck all the "Only the Wind" haters. That goes double for "To Face the Truth" haters.

I associate "To Face the Truth" with one of my favourite memories. I've got much love. Perfect for walking along in the snow.

Yes.

I love Tennant's vocal on 'To Face The Truth'.

"To Face The Truth" is one of my faves here too, although I still have that special thing for "Nervously", one of the best things they've ever done.