Feb 20, 2010 - Pet Shop Boys Announce Live DVD/CD Release was a top story for this week. Pet Shop Boys return with "Pandemonium", a deluxe DVD/CD set containing their entire live show from London's O2 Arena on December 21, 2009. The film has been made by David Barnard who directed Pet Shop Boys' 'Cubism' DVD of the Fundamental tour. The audio for the DVD was mixed by Dave Woolley. My review will follow shortly.
....I picked YES up last week, I wanted to listen to it at least ten times before writing anything and that's exactly what I did. Truth be told I probably could have written a review before even listening to the album. When it comes to the Pet Shop Boys I pretty much know what to expect, perfection, absolute perfection. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have crafted another masterpiece, right from the lead off single "Love Inc." the album grabs you and pulls you in. Each song carefully crafted, layer upon layer of synthesizers intertwined with a that heavy redundant trance like beat we're all accustomed to, add to that some selected guitar riffs by ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and you get a sound experience like no other. That albums has already caught on huge in Europe, the Pet Shop Boys music is after all tailor made for the UK underground.
....It's hard to pick the strongest tracks, because as a rule they don't don't normally include any fill on their albums, it usually a two to three year gap between releases. Besides "Love Inc" their are a number of other track that could easily be issued as singles. "All Over the World" should be the second release a catchy trance like droning dance track that's already being played in the clubs. "More Than a Dream" an upbeat dance track with combining a new wave syth-pop sound with a slight disco beat, it also has one of the best hooks on the album, "Building a Wall" my personal favorite, it has that older 80's style feel to it, a real throw back to the original Pet Shop Boys sound, and "King Of Rome" every album contain at least one ballad, and YES is no exception, a beautiful heart felt song that balances guitar and keyboards with meaningful lyrics and an hypnotic beat.
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The Track List is as Follows...
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1....Love Inc
2....All Over the World
3....Beautiful People
4....Did You See Me Coming?
5....Vulnerable
6....More Than a Dream
7....Building a Wall
8....King of Rome
9....Pandemonium
10..The Way It Used to Be
11..Legacy
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At the time of writing this review, the album is currently sitting at number 3 on the European Top 100 Albums, #4 on the UK Albums Chart, #3 on the German Album Chart and occupies chart position in 16 other countries around the world, not bad for two guys approaching their fifties.
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Supplementary July 24 2009
"Love etc." has moved up to 1 from number 2 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart in the USA. This is Pet Shop Boys' ninth Billboard Dance number one hit, the first being "West End girls" in 1986. According to Billboard.biz: "...Pet Shop Boys set the record for the most No. 1s in the history of the Hot Dance Club Songs chart among duos or groups this week as "Love Etc." becomes the ninth Pet Shop Boys song to hit the top slot."
Suplementary Feb 18, 2010 The album contunues to expolde all over the world, here's a clip from CNN Feb 18. 2010 .
"I get along" is a single by the Pet Shop Boys from their album Release. A love song, Neil Tennant has also hinted that it can also be interpreted as commentary on the then fraught relationship between British prime minister Tony Blair and New Labour architect Peter Mandelson after the later had to resign from the British Cabinet after a second major scandal he was involved in. This is a beautifully video it portrays a number of young actors in a New York artist's studio and also features Russian super model Natalia Vodianova (before she became famous). Natalia grew up in a poor district of Gorky USSR. She enrolled in modelling at age 15 and by 17 she'd moved to France to establish her self as a successful runway model. Today Vodianova is ranked 14th in the U.K. as one of the World's Greatest Supermodels and has done the cover of every major magazine in the world. But Natalie is more than just a pretty face, she is the founder and the President of the Naked Heart Foundation, a philanthropy that strives to provide a safe and inspiring environment in which to play for every child living in urban Russia.
.....The Pet Shop Boys new album "YES" was released in North America yesterday. I went to my local HMV today to get my copy. As with most bands, when a new album comes out I tend to buy the deluxe or limited two disc addition... Imagine my surprise when they didn't have it.
.....HMV is a funny f**kin store store, when you walk in the first thing ya see is the new release wall, no Bleepin Pet Shop Boys... ya get four bloody rows of Miley Cyrus, four bloody rows of the Jonas Bothers and four rows of Tylorf**kin Swift, not to mention four rows of the new Depeche Mode album, which by all accounts isn't very good... but no f**kin Pet Shop Boys. I went to the back of the store and checked the "P" section under "Pet Shop Boys" but only found two standard one disc additions, I was pissed off to say the least. Here's the thing... If HMV is gonna basically drive every other record store out of business and make themselves the defacto monopoly for new music ( which is essentially what they've done ) then the least they can bloody well do is provide a decent selection of albums for those of us that don't like over commercialized pop. If it was some obcure band I might undersand, but we're talking about a group that has sold more than 50 million records worldwide, a band that's been around as long as U2 and released just as many albums, if not more ( most of which BTW ain't even available at HMV ) the disrespect is mind-boggling...
