Author Topic: Pet Shop Boys (plus other synth pop bands) (Read 10460 times)

Kotowboy · « **Reply #35 on:** August 11, 2011, 05:02:39 PM »

I'm not a big fan of " Light At The End Of The World "...

It sounds a bit overcooked compression wise and the music itself is a bit on the clubby side for me...

Dittomist · « **Reply #36 on:** August 11, 2011, 05:23:58 PM »

Here is how I would rank all of the Erasure albums from best to worst.

1. I Say I Say I Say
2. Erasure
3. Cowboy
4. Chorus
5. Wild
6. Nighttbird
7. The Innocents
8. Loveboat
9. The Circus
10. Wonderland
11. Light at the End of the World

KevShmev · « **Reply #37 on:** August 11, 2011, 05:32:01 PM »

A buddy of mine way back in the day was a huge fan of Ministry, but I could never get into them. Of course, this was literally 18 years ago...

The Innocents only Erasure's 7th best album? Interesting.

Kotowboy · « **Reply #38 on:** August 11, 2011, 05:51:16 PM »

Don't they have a new studio album out soon ?

Jaq · « **Reply #39 on:** August 11, 2011, 10:49:39 PM »

Back to the Pet Shop Boys for a moment if I may.

I don't like the Pet Shop Boys. I love their cover of Always On My Mind. This has always confused me

KevShmev · « **Reply #40 on:** August 12, 2011, 08:05:31 AM »

That isn't that crazy, really. There are some bands that I generally don't like, but might like a song or two by. It happens.

What's funny is, even when growing up in the 80s, West End Girls, their first big hit, wasn't a song I was that wild about it. I mean, if it came on, I would usually listen to it, but there were tons of songs I liked more. I was very fond of What Have I Done to Deserve This, however. That was one of my favorite songs of 1987 at the time (which is saying a lot, considering how much music I loved from that year, and how important that summer was to me from several standpoints, including a musical one).

Even now, while I think West End Girls is a pretty cool song, I can think of a ton of PSB songs I now like more.

Bill Carson · « **Reply #41 on:** August 12, 2011, 08:35:09 AM »

Anyone for Go West ? This has to be one of the best keyboard riffs...in fact I'd love to hear DT cover it lol !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9s9vmrJkV8&ob=av2n

Dittomist · « **Reply #42 on:** August 12, 2011, 09:16:38 AM »

Go West is one of the best cover songs I've ever heard--it was originally done by the Village People. I made sure to listen to it a lot as I was moving from Missouri to Oregon

Bill Carson · « **Reply #43 on:** August 12, 2011, 09:18:53 AM »

Sorry my fault !!! I actually didn't mean the Pet Shop Boys tune....even though this thread is about them......I meant the british band Go West.

Pantherize · « **Reply #44 on:** August 12, 2011, 10:24:56 PM »

Been a guilty pleasure of mine for a while. My wife kind of looks at me and rolls her eyes and begins to suspect I'm gay when I tell her I like Pet Shop Boys, but good music is good music. (She thinks everyone is gay for almost any reason btw. She wants them all to be because she loves gay people...but I digress...)

What Have I Done to Deserve this is an AWESOME song. That may be one of my favorite female vocal performances of all time from Dusty Springfield. Her voice is so smooth it gives me goosebumps when I listen sometimes. I don't go deep into their catalog and really don't care much for their biggest hit West End Girls, but most of the stuff on the greatest hits is very enjoyable.

Other synth pop from that era that I like...Aha Hunting High and Low. Don't know if you can call them totally synth pop but there was an element to that in Flock of Seagulls. A lot of Howard Jones' stuff from that era was very good. I went through a period where I was looking for the song The Promise by When in Rome but I couldn't remember who it was and was totally convinced it had been Howard Jones, so I scoured Howard Jones' catalog trying to find that song. He had a duet with Duncan Sheik called Someone You Need that was absolutely beautiful. Kind of like some of the movie/tv show pop synth theme songs of the era like Harold Faltermeyer with Axel F and Jan Hammer Miami Vice theme song. Not sure if they would qualify totally as synth pop but I'm a huge Enigma fan and the few hits they had were really good. Sadness and Return to Innocence. I guess maybe they were more early 90's.

CrimsonE · « **Reply #45 on:** August 13, 2011, 07:18:57 AM »

The synth side of "new wave" music from the 80's was at times a wonder to behold. I agree that the Pet Show Boys was one of the masters of that sound. I'll confess I don't have any of their studio albums, but their Greatest Hits record is amazing, and is particularly fun to exercise to. Depeche Mode is about the only other band that can really compare, and they really didn't hit their stride until the late 80's.

I don't know if they'd qualify, but the Thompson Twins were also a fine band to listen to. Howard Jones also had some amazing stuff as well.

KevShmev · « **Reply #46 on:** August 13, 2011, 08:39:03 AM »

Quote from: Pantherize on August 12, 2011, 10:24:56 PM

Been a guilty pleasure of mine for a while. My wife kind of looks at me and rolls her eyes and begins to suspect I'm gay when I tell her I like Pet Shop Boys, but good music is good music.

That is funny about the gay thing. The funny thing is, some of their songs definitely have some gay undertones. Among others, In Denial, the duet with Kylie Minogue, is quite obviously about a father/daughter relationship where the father is gay, and Did You See Me Coming? sounds like it is about the lead singer coming out of the closet in the mid 90s (although the lyrics seem ambiguous enough to where you could apply them to almost any type of relationship). All in all, despite being straight as an arrow, those lyrics don't bother me. I don't have to relate to lyrics to enjoy a song that I like musically.

Quote from: CrimsonE on August 13, 2011, 07:18:57 AM

The synth side of "new wave" music from the 80's was at times a wonder to behold. I agree that the Pet Show Boys was one of the masters of that sound. I'll confess I don't have any of their studio albums, but their Greatest Hits record is amazing, and is particularly fun to exercise to. Depeche Mode is about the only other band that can really compare, and they really didn't hit their stride until the late 80's.

I don't know if they'd qualify, but the Thompson Twins were also a fine band to listen to. Howard Jones also had some amazing stuff as well.

I only know the hits by Jones and the Twins. I also dig some of their pop synth hits by ABC (The Look of Love is a great pop song), A Flock of Seagulls and The Fixx, although I am not sure The Fixx would really be labeled outright synth pop.

Ravenheart · « **Reply #47 on:** August 13, 2011, 09:05:53 AM »

Any New Order fans? They probably don't qualify as strict synth pop, but they definitely contain strong elements of it in their songs, like Bizarre Love Triangle. They're one of my favorite bands.

KevShmev · « **Reply #48 on:** August 13, 2011, 09:11:50 AM »

I've always dug Bizarre Love Triangle and True Faith, but admittedly don't really know much else by them (although my older brother always swore that all of Substance was great).

Ravenheart · « **Reply #49 on:** August 13, 2011, 10:01:51 AM »

Substance is a pretty good collection of their singles and B-sides. It's a good introduction to the band if you don't want to jump in cold with an official studio album.

Kotowboy · « **Reply #50 on:** August 13, 2011, 02:57:04 PM »

I once bought The Best Of New ORder CD and tbh I didn't care for it....

Dittomist · « **Reply #51 on:** August 13, 2011, 07:05:39 PM »

New Order is another one of my all-time favorite groups. I'd say their best albums are Technique, Power Corruption and Lies, and Substance. Their last album, Waiting for the Sirens Call, was also really impressive. Fans of New Order should also look for a group called Electronic, which is a side project of Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr (guitarist from The Smiths). Electronic's first album also features Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys

Kotowboy · « **Reply #52 on:** September 18, 2011, 05:44:24 PM »

Vince Clarke just followed me on twitter

So now i'm listening to Erasure.

KevShmev · « **Reply #53 on:** October 28, 2011, 01:24:02 PM »

Still listening to Pet Shop Boys a lot! Lately, they have been my default band in the car, which is a good thing considering how much fun their music is to drive to. Fundamental is a legitimate 4 1/2-star record by any measure.

Kotowboy · « **Reply #54 on:** October 28, 2011, 02:17:00 PM »

The new Erasure album is not much of an improvement on the last one.

Now with loads of auto-tune now to boot .

KevShmev · « **Reply #55 on:** October 30, 2011, 11:21:04 PM »

Except for the majority of The Innocents, I've never been able to get into any other Erasure. I tried, but it didn't do much for me.

Ravenheart · « **Reply #56 on:** October 30, 2011, 11:26:54 PM »

Erasure is okay. Not really my thing, though.

In other new wave/synthpop-related news, New Order are touring Europe, minus Peter Hook. No news if they're ever going to tour the U.S. It would be awesome if they end up doing it, though.

Kotowboy · « **Reply #57 on:** October 31, 2011, 10:46:11 AM »

Quote from: KevShmev on October 30, 2011, 11:21:04 PM

Except for the majority of The Innocents, I've never been able to get into any other Erasure. I tried, but it didn't do much for me.

I love :

Chorus
I Say, I Say, I Say
Nightbird

Kotowboy · « **Reply #58 on:** November 22, 2011, 06:49:01 PM »

Just seen a video of Andy Bell tracking " When I Start To Break It All Down " minus auto tune in the studio.

His singing is perfect.

Why did they ruin it with autotune ?

Using it for the f---ing sake of it.

Great Tune though. I Lose Myself is a massive song. Sounds like Blue Monday but All 21st Centuried Up.

KevShmev · « **Reply #59 on:** August 21, 2013, 12:35:03 PM »

The new PSB album, Electric, is sounding pretty good so far (a little over halfway through my first listen). Love Is a Bourgeois Construct is one helluva awesome dance tune.

Dittomist · « **Reply #60 on:** August 21, 2013, 02:54:48 PM »

Electric is very impressive, especially considering it had been only 8 months since their last album. It has so much energy and the production is as good as it gets. Inside a Dream, Fluorescent, and Axis are probably my three favorites at the moment. I was happy to hear that Love is a Bourgeois Construct will be the new single because it's catchy as hell and it kinda reminds me of their version of Go West.
I was worried that Elysium was going to be their last album, because it really did seem like they were saying goodbye. Leaving, Invisible, and Memories of the Future are among their best songs ever, but the other tracks were surprisingly underwhelming. So I am thrilled by how alive, energetic, and cheered up they sound in Electric.

Kotowboy · « **Reply #61 on:** August 21, 2013, 04:31:17 PM »

I liked Erasure's Tomorrows World but they really didn't need to put pitch correction on Andy's voice. He doesn't need it.

KevShmev · « **Reply #62 on:** August 22, 2013, 12:04:22 AM »

Quote from: Dittomist on August 21, 2013, 02:54:48 PM

Electric is very impressive, especially considering it had been only 8 months since their last album. It has so much energy and the production is as good as it gets. Inside a Dream, Fluorescent, and Axis are probably my three favorites at the moment. I was happy to hear that Love is a Bourgeois Construct will be the new single because it's catchy as hell and it kinda reminds me of their version of Go West.
I was worried that Elysium was going to be their last album, because it really did seem like they were saying goodbye. Leaving, Invisible, and Memories of the Future are among their best songs ever, but the other tracks were surprisingly underwhelming. So I am thrilled by how alive, energetic, and cheered up they sound in Electric.

Dang, I didn't know they released an album last year.

More to check out...

KevShmev · « **Reply #63 on:** August 23, 2013, 11:08:25 AM »

So, I mentioned the song Love Is a Bourgeois Construct the other day...it is just me or does the very beginning sound exactly like the As I Am fade-in (that reprised the fade-out from Six Degrees):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7w0eqUBp3c

Kotowboy · « **Reply #64 on:** September 27, 2014, 06:03:29 AM »

Been sort of checking out the new Erasure album.

It's pretty much a continuation of Tomorrow's World but there's a lot less obvious pitch correction on Andy's voice - which I really didn't like. He obviously doesn't need it.

They sound a lot more modern these days which is a shame coz they always sounded really different to me - whatever decade it was.

Vince's synths always sounded better than everyone else's. Now they're starting to sound slightly generic.

Andy still sounds great too.

RoeDent · « **Reply #65 on:** September 27, 2014, 10:30:20 AM »

Neil Tennant has such a unique voice. I can't think of anyone who sounds even remotely like him. Some wonderful songs. My favourites include Suburbia, Left To My Own Devices, What Have I Done To Deserve This?, It's A Sin, Being Boring and I Don't Know What You Want...

Outcrier · « **Reply #66 on:** September 27, 2014, 11:51:54 AM »

Recently, Pet Shop Boys became one of my favorite bands.
I really enjoy even their weaker albums.

KevShmev · « **Reply #67 on:** September 27, 2014, 11:59:24 AM »

That last album, Electric, was really, really good. Chock full of good tunes.

The one before that, Elysium, was just okay.

Outcrier · « **Reply #68 on:** September 27, 2014, 12:56:32 PM »

Agreed. From their later stuff, i think Fundamental, Yes and Electric are all very solid albums.

Dittomist · « **Reply #69 on:** September 28, 2014, 12:53:50 PM »

Elysium was probably the first time I've been disappointed with a Pet Shop Boys release, even though half of the tracks were outstanding. Memory of the Future sounded like classic PSB's, while Leaving and Invisible are two of the most beautiful, emotional songs they've ever made. But so much of that album sounded weak and uninspired. So it was quite a surprise when less than a year later, Electric came out and they sounded more lively and energetic than ever. Such a good album!!!
Unfortunately, Erasure doesn't seem to have as much ideas and longevity as the Pet Shop Boys. I tried listening to their brand new album but it did absolutely nothing for me. I was also really let down by Tomorrow's World. I wish they would try to make another album like the 1995 self-titled album.

News: Track-by-track video for Paralyzed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd5TbGbalPs&feature=youtu.be

Author Topic: Pet Shop Boys (plus other synth pop bands) (Read 10460 times)