I'm actually really enjoying all of Agenda now. Took a few listens for them to click properly, but click they have. I was wandering in town today listening to the tracks and thoroughly enjoyed them! They may not be peak PSB, but they're still bloody good.
It'll be their last with Stuart Price. I could see them do something very different next in reaction to them creating this trilogy.
It all sounds so clunky to these ears....both lyrics and production. What the hell happened? They can’t always deliver what I want I suppose after all these years, roll on the album.
What are we going to do about the rich? The Forgotten Child aside, I think the problem with the EP isn't so much the directness of the lyrics, but how utterly cliched they are. Nobody would expect them to be pro-Brexit or Trump but I feel like I've read every phrase in "Give Stupidity A Chance" a thousand times on Facebook/Twitter/Guardian over these past three years. Donald Trump pussy grabbing, Michael Gove experts quote, sneering at the lower orders and questioning democracy, blah blah blah... regardless of your view on these matters, it's boring. A Gary Lineker rant in song form. Have they lost all ability for original or critical thought? The irony of "On Social Media" is I suspect they've been spending too much time on the internet and away from the real world themselves in recent years. Songs written in an echo chamber repeating words they've heard elsewhere (and we've all heard elsewhere) They shouldn't have bothered tackling Brexit or the rich (themselves) or social media if they had nothing new or thoughtful to say on the matters. I hope the new album is better, but pleased to have discovered the Clean Bandit/Marina and Traci Thorn songs posted in here.
Yes, talking about the rich when they are rich themselves, they posted this on Facebook… Neil: “We’re talking about extreme rich – oligarchs and that kind of thing. The super-rich.” Chris: “The ones that don’t pay any tax.” I have no problem with the lyrics being direct. I love that Neil is getting all of this off his chest, we are living in frustrating times and I prefer this commentary over yet another love song.
It´s so easy to see this whole Agenda thing as meta. Explaining away that lowest denominator, pub-chanting, house muzak as intentional or as a piss-take. Maybe it´s their honest attempt to get radio play and something like a hit, or -how ironique- some relevance #onsocialmedia. Whatever it is: I never want to listen to it again! This is probably my least favourite PSB product they ever released.
The notion that you can't mention 'the rich' if you're rich yourself is a bit like saying you can't say anything about social media... on social media? This EP might not be for everyone, fine, but honesty I see a lot of unnecessary energy spent towards analysing and dissecting it. The way I see it, these songs are a mere snapshot of a specific moment in time, with no commentary attached to them. Pet Shop Boys themselves couldn't have been clearer about what purpose they serve. We might look back in 20 years time and find that this is a rare recollection in music of these years, remember that we used to hashtag things and that an imbecile was the president of the United States, have a giggle about it all and move on. Also the word demos and Elysium in the same sentence?
The Forgotten Child should have been on the same album as The Dictator Decides in a cruel yet ironic double hander.
So for me this is 3/4, the only song I don’t like is Rich, it actually makes me cringe a bit, and it’s not the lyrics particlarly, but the way they are delivered, and I find the production a bit cringe. but the rest I like, a lot.
