Pet Shop Boys - General Discussion

I thought I was posting in the Soft Cell-thread and my remark was aimed at the Cell.

 

To ruin a legacy would imply that anyone beyond diehards and 6Music listeners* will even know it exists.

* I count myself as both.

 

Soooo I was just listening to the demo of Nothing Has Been Proved...

... and had to play it back because for the Dusty version I've always been singing "... and Christine's getting drunk" but it turns out the lyrics are actually "... and Christine's pale and drawn."

Wow.

 

Pet Shop Boys
Friday 24 June 2022
Electric Ballroom, London

As part of https://www.passportbacktoourroots.org/

 

Dusty's voice just hits different. For a woman who is arguably the greatest female vocalist to come out of the UK in pop music history, I feel she is still deeply underrated. The PSB contributions to her 'Reputation' album were excellent. 'Daydreaming' and 'Occupy Your Mind' are particularly inventive.

x

 

I’m terrible at keeping up w PSB but thank you so much for posting this because I just listened to Hotspot and it is SO great! xoxo

 

I don't think they've ever leaned into their own 80s heritage status as much as here. I don't dislike the track, but I find it a bit dated. The production also sounds like a very conscious nod to both "Always on my mind" and "A red letter day". Dominoes might be a reference to "Domino dancing", the melting ice cream a reference to "A red letter day" again?

Pre-orders for physicals are here:
https://www.lexermusic.com/soft-cell

 

Yes, I picked up on the Always on My Mind reference. I do like Marc Almond though, his interview with Vernon Kay on Radio 2 this morning was excellent, he’s just so enthusiastic about everything.

 

I’m definitely hearing shades of Always On My Mind and A Red Letter Day- but also Love Is A Bourgeois and Shameless. It’s definitely a grab-bag of past PSB references but that’s nothing to be sniffed at, especially with the upcoming Greatest Hits Tour.

Id sooner them celebrate their heritage and their soundscape that have them trying to copy whatever is popular today.

 

Purple Zone is awful to these ears. Couldn’t get through one listen!

 

I think some of you are forcing the Pet Shop Boys references on this. It’s a Soft Cell song that’s been around since last year that’s only recently had a few tweaks on it.

 

But still, the Pet Shop Boys influences on the this version of the track are undeniable.

 

Given the pedigree of the four people involved, I find Purple Zone to be woefully lacking. A collaboration that on paper offers so much yet in reality delivers very little. A shame.

 

I like the chorus, but that production, I dunno, I get it's meant to sound nostalgic, but that speed-up cymbal and the Always On My Mind horns just sound naff some how. Pet Shop Boys have always managed to sound fresh.

 

Song: subpar for either band, verging on German Schlager (something PSB are no stranger to, but Soft Cell?? NEVER!)

Production: Flat and lazy. 90´s handbag re-hash (Something that PSB has done to death, but Soft Cell??? They had the common sense to split before handbags were invented!)

Video: It would have been AMAZING if it was just the four of them sitting in the pub, getting wasted and bitching about the industry (poor Dave as the only hetero on the table). But what are these other people doing here? So desperate, cynical and LAZY!

 

But tell us how you really feel!

 

According to Spotify, the production credits go to Soft Cell, which was a surprise in so far as it does sound like a demo PSB knocked out with Pete Gleadall on a Sunday afternoon in 2005.
The song is fine - I guess here I disagree with @TrendyMüller - but the arrangement and production really drag it down.

 

Click here!

 

I wish I liked it, but no…just no. This is not it.