[THIS FILE IS DELETED] Please Note: This low-quality clip of “Integral (PSB Perfect Immaculate Mix)” is being placed on VeryPSB.com without the express permission of Pet Shop Boys, their management, or their record label. This is for review and promotional purposes only and will be taken down after 7 days. VeryPSB.com will not respond to any requests for copies of this track and will remove the track at the request of the record label, the artist, or their management.
I’m sorry that this blog hasn’t been updated properly with any new song commentary or the like; I’ve been busy with other projects but I do have some time scheduled to build up a nice queue again, starting with “It’s a sin” and working forward.
…to remake “Suburbia” or “Love comes quickly,” Failed Muso has a lead on a Fairlight for you. Writes the blogger: “This is a CMI III Revision 9.34 with the MFX2 functionality (revision 11.39) added. MFX2 is basically a 24 track “Direct To Disk” HD audio recorder/editor,” which is certain to be spectacularly impressive. As far as the sounds installed on this unit, here’s the rundown:
Complete Fairlight library, Prosonus Strings, Brass, Percussion, Sound Genesis strings, plus many libraries collected over the last 20 years dealing with top producers and musicians. These include libraries from: Pet Shop Boys, Trevor Horn, Hans Zimmer, Frankie goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise and many, many others. The complete Fairlight IIX library is also included.
One of the things that distinguishes Please from many other albums released in 1986 is the adult nature of many of the songs. Note that this isn’t the version of “Adult” that gets plopped in front of “Bookstores” in shady areas near airports, but an actual indication of thematic maturity. Songs like “Why don’t we live together?” and “I want a lover” are a far cry from the Stock Aiken Waterman pablum that clogged tape decks and radio, with considerations and interests that show Tennant and Lowe’s relative maturity compared to the rest of the pop acts at the time, and that’s something that’s continued throughout the career.
It’s interesting that even their earliest image and material was in direct conflict with manager Tom Watkins’s vision for the band, and it’s probably one of the reasons he stopped representing them fairly early in their career. They’ve created a unique niche by making pop records about things that aren’t pop concerns: “I’m with Stupid” ponders a homosexual relationship between Tony Blair and George W. Bush; “Flamboyant” is about poseur culture and “I want a dog” is about, well, wanting a dog. This willingness to write creative, interesting material on atypical subjects is one of the things that makes them better than duo’s most obvious of peers, Erasure (whom I also quite enjoy, but in a very different, less cerebral way.) Erasure is very good at writing songs about what Erasure writes songs about: love, dancing, the love of dancing, and dancing with someone you love.
As I write this, “It’s a sin” is playing. Yes, it’s a bombastic, very singable song that’s definitively 80s thanks to the no-holds-barred production, but it’s also a condemnation of Tennant’s Catholic upbringing that was ironically praised by the Church for bringing the topic of sin up in the public arena. Not many bands can claim something similar, and that’s why I like Pet Shop Boys.
According to Wikipedia (as of this writing, at least) Paninaro is…
a subculture born in Milan, Italy during the early 1980s at a fast food restaurant called Al Panino (in English: At the Sandwich Shop). The subculture was famous for its apolitical nature and its obsessions with fashion and the United States, contrasting sharply with the hyperpoliticized 1970s. It did develop consequently with the vapid hedonism on the 80s, fostered by reaganomics, thatcherism and deregulation liberalism, reinforced by the diffusion in Italy of privately-owned television channels which vehiculated messages of consumerism and a fetishitic urge of self-affirmation through status symbols.
According to Neil Tennant, he and Chris Lowe had heard about the frowned-upon paninari, young people madly in love with designer clothing and holding a great devotion to new wave records and thought “how fabulous - so do we!” Famously, this is the first song to include Chris Lowe’s vocals, and it was also written primarily by Lowe, originally composed as the backing track for a gay disco record for another Tom Watkins-managed act, The Hudsons. After the initial session recording at Abbey Road, the duo reprogrammed the song with Adrian Cook (who had been attached to the aborted first tour) utilizing sounds from previously-recorded Pet Shop Boys tracks on the Fairlight.
“It was a nightmare, Chris doing his vocal,” Tennant has stated, referring to the fact that Lowe would only do two takes. Lowe’s response? “You know what I’m like.”
One of those songs that pretty much every fan likes, “Paninaro” was featured in the second half of Pet Shop Boys’ recent tour, but let’s take a look at the unreleased live version from the MCMLXXXIX tour:
(And for those of you who are about to say “Hey, the original “Paninaro” wasn’t a single: while it was originally offered up as the B-side to “Suburbia,” “Paninaro” saw a limited-edition single release in Italy, hence its mention here and yes, I’ll probably also discuss the 1995 remix as well when I get around to it. Nyah.)
From Tennant at the official site (which, again, should have a damned RSS feed):
Victoria, not true. We had a drink with Damon just a few weeks ago after seeing his “Monkey” opera in Manchester…(And we didn’t request permission to put “Girls and Boys” on Disco 4.)
As I said earlier: “Ah, The Sun!” It’s amusing that whenever they run an item about Pet Shop Boys, there’s either an official denial or confirmation.
Gorillaz founder Damon Albarn has blocked the Pet Shop Boys from releasing a remix of the Blur single ‘Girls and Boys’, say reports.
The ‘West End Girls’ duo are releasing new album Disco 4, which will feature songs by The Killers, Madonna and David Bowie and wanted to include a reworking of the popular Blur track.
However, Albarn has apparently placed a ban on the song’s release, claiming that the remixed version was too good.
A source told The Sun: “Damon complained that they had made the song sound like their own.
They added: “He was also annoyed when he heard Neil Tennant supported Oasis in their 90s chart battle with Blur. Neil said Damon was pretentious.”
This thread on the PopJustice forums, wherein “fans” sound off on the release of Disco 4 has me bemused, saddened, and a bit ticked off. I’m pretty familiar with this pattern from my other major hobby’s online contingent, but the presumptuous nature of the response is galling. Here are my talking points in this matter, posted on the internet as all good talking points should be:
If you have all of the remixes, then you don’t have to buy the record.
If you don’t want the remixes, you don’t have to buy the record.
It’s not the job of Pet Shop Boys to do exactly what you want. If you want different mixes of existing tracks, then you’ll have to commission them yourself.
You’re going to buy it anyway, so shut up.
The way people were complaining about Disco 4, you’d think it cost $50 and was a required purchase in order to maintain their “fan” status. Myself, I think it’s a neat idea that probably won’t sell shedloads, but it’ll be worth a look for casual fans for both the duo and the artists they’ve remixed. I certainly don’t think it indicates “contractual problems” (as one fan in that thread pulled out of their rear) or a lack of interest in what they’re doing.
