It's out now - discuss
[Edited 3/15/09 7:15am]
[Edited 3/20/09 5:43am]

graecophilos said:

Well, Pandemonium, the fan favorite, doesn't really grab me. I think it's a catchy but yet too catchy melody. It's a too obvious joyous song. I prefer PSBs sad songs anyway!

Vulnerable is great, great lyrics, haunting melody...

Did You See Me Coming is a good album track.

The Way It used To Be - another song that haunts me, sad, melancholy, the voice fits to the mood of the song - weak and vulnerable.

K I'm like 30 seconds into did you see me coming and i love it.

nice lil pop song with a great hook.



[Edited 3/9/09 11:34am]
[Edited 3/9/09 11:35am]
[Edited 3/9/09 11:36am]

lazycrockett said:

you're right. I was being too harsh. But for me it's still an album track. Yesterday the other songs were on youtube too, but now they're away!

You Don't Have To Be In Who's Who To Know What's What.

graecophilos said:

It always takes me a while to get into any album and that is definitelyG the case with PSB. And of course, 30 second samples can't do it justice. but so far they are two for two on the first two full tracks. Great singles material (if this is the next single...maybe they are waiting for a response to see if it should be....it's very "Very").

A track by track review.

1. "Love etc.": The lead single finds Neil Tennant chidingly waving a finger atop a shuffle beat, declaring you "don't have to live a life of power and wealth" in this time of global economic collapse to be happy; "You need love." The bellowing male chorus is quite reminiscent of "Go West" and "New York City Boy." (Andy posted the animated video clip for "Love etc." a few weeks back.)

2. "All Over The World": Make no mistake, the Pet Shop Boys have pulled out every last stop to craft shameless pop this time around—and here's it's done with a Tchaikovsky "Nutcracker Suite" sample married to swaggering electo beat! "This is a song about boys and girls," Tennant simply states over and over in this addictive number. And much like Paul McCartney once proudly crooned that some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs, Neil gives more than a knowing wink and nod to the PSBs pop roots by singing, "It's sincere and subjective, superficial and true, easy and predictable, exciting and new..."

PSBmain 3. "Beautiful People": The first of two downbeat offerings on Yes. Like on Behavior and Release, Johnny Marr once again lends his crafty guitar work to Neil and Chris. A twangy '60s/surf rock-sounding ballad (which also finds Marr playing harmonica!), "Beautiful People" is more of a showcase for the onetime Smiths and Electronic guitarist than a Pet Shop Boys song. Actually, this would've sounded right at home on Release. Still, it gets under your skin by about the fourth listen.

4. "Did You See Me Coming?": Just like to state that much has been made in the past about the duo's double-entendre song titles, such as "So Hard" and "Love Comes Quickly." But moving on, we're back in sunny, skipping-down-the-street-in-springtime pop territory here. In lesser hands, this one might be considered throwaway, but the Pet Shop Boys have always been adept at wrapping their confections with enough simplistic complexity to keep things interesting. It's the "Heart" of this album. Also, the music geek in me wants to point out the similarity of the opening guitar riff to that in Morrissey's "Sister I'm A Poet." (Nice one, Johnny Marr.)

5. "Vulnerable": Sweet, but undeniable album filler. And the chorus is repeated far too many times, eventually becoming a bit tiresome. Interestingly, one thing notable about Yes is that a number of the choruses are curiously introduced right at the beginning of the songs.

6. "More Than A Dream": A real gem that opens with dark, squiggly synths and a disco swagger. Now living in the Obama era, one can't help but notice the poignant lyrics: "Could be better news we can share, something's coming soon, I hear it everywhere." For the chorus, Neil jumps into a Bee Gees-esque falsetto ("I believe we can change, we can make it more than a dream"). A great centerpiece for an album that, at this point, is shaping up to be pretty damn good.

7. "Building A Wall": Chris Lowe sings! Well, okay, he and Neil kind of banter back and forth in the intro and breaks between verses. Good album filler that's a bit of a history lesson, lyrically. Plus, it strangely manages to call out Jesus and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in the same line.

8. "King Of Rome": A lush, beautiful ballad swathed in Chris Lowe's trademark synth chords. Highly reminiscent of both Behavior's "To Face The Truth" and "It's Only The Wind," and Very's "To Speak Is A Sin" in melodic tone.

9. "Pandemonium": Like Stock/Aitken/Waterman having a perfect head-on musical collision with Motown; in other words, my hands-down favorite on the album! "Pandemonium" is in a similar vein to Very's "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing," in that it's an upbeat, unabashed love song. "The whole world's gone mad, what did you do? I'm telling perfect strangers that I love you!" Tennant proclaims. Also, in sneaks Johnny Marr's harmonica once again.

10: "The Way It Used To Be": Another standout track, and a complete 180-degree turn from "Pandemonium." This haunting tale of love lost builds at a layered, steady pace until, at almost three minutes in, Neil Tennant snaps into an accusatory rant, spitting out, "Then and there I knew that I lost you." Absolutely compelling, and should please fans who like their Pet Shop Boys dark and moody.

11. "Legacy": The second of the downbeat numbers, which clocks in at over six minutes. At one point long into this plodding political ballad, Neil bursts into French while circus music begins playing. Hot. Ah, well, maybe it's a grower. All in all, an irresistible album which we kind of always suspected the Boys still had in them. If you're a fan, you may be disinclined to be disinterested.

from http://www.towleroad.com/....html#more

"Did You See Me Coming" is that much of a leak, you know. It was released on a Pet Shop Boys "Greatest Hits" single disc released through the Sunday Mail (a UK paper) exclusively. It's a single disc with "7-inch" mixes but not always the best known... It's kind of hard to just pick out 11 PSB key tracks.

"Neil said the Mail had approached them with the idea to come up with the package. Their designer, Mark Farrow, produced the cover, "Which", he said, "we thought would never get approved, but it did". It also allowed them to feature two of their favourite "overlooked" hits, Before ("Chris has always adored this one") and Home and Dry ("Which I just think is beautiful"). The track listing is as follows:
1. West End Girls (10" mix)
2. Paninaro (7" mix)
3. It's a Sin (Disco mix)
4. What Have I Done to Deserve This? (7" mix)
5. Jealousy (7" mix)
6. Being Boring (7" mix)
7. Go West (7" mix)
8. Before (7" mix)
9. Home and Dry (7" mix)
10. Flamboyant (7" mix)
11. Did You See Me Coming? from Yes"

http://worrapolava.blogsp...cd-in.html

VinnyM27 said:

I adore Before too!

Home and Dry is great. Well, speaking of it I think I might get into our sauna and listen to the Release album through the boxes. The album is quiet and it fits to a sauna-sessions

okay:

All Over The World: Their most joyus single since Se la Vida E, and their biggest chance for a hit too. If presented right, even younger folks could like it. It has an uplifting, swinging feel to it - great!

Vulnerable: many consider it a simple album track, and in deed it's on the Love etc maxi single! But I love it though. It's a sad melody and the lyrics are great:

I know the assupmtion is that I'm tough
With or my anger that's fair enough
Even with friends I have to compete
And try to be mean when I walk on the street

You may think I'm strong and i can do no wrong
But i'm vulnerable... without you

More Than A Dream: Could be another single, the hook, the chorus are so catchy yet dark and haunting.

The b-sides

The Loving Kind: No b-side but written during the Yes-sessions and given away... I like the "Somewhere on a Monday morning..." part. The rest of the song is generic girl-group-sound

Gin and Jag: Dark, long and you have to listen to it afew times to like it. I couldn not figure out what it is about. Alcoholism?

We Are All Crimninals Now: It's another song of those which they seem to write effortlessly but I like the sound used on the chorus. It reminds me of something, another decade usually not connected with the Boys...

Baby: Written in 2003 but only now released by the Swedish pop group Alcazar it's a song in the manner of Loving Kind - throwaway pop music.

I love the fact they're back with this album, that's how we want them and isn't it fascinating that Neil's voice doesn't seem to alter??? He sounds like in 1986 and is 56 years old allready!

The BBC Music Review.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/musi...ease/v3dp/

by Jaime Gill
13 March 2009

Like greatest hits albums, outstanding contribution awards are often last rites for a music career, proof that the recipient's finest work is long past. But for anyone who has followed the Pet Shop Boys' unlikely, dazzling journey, it will not be a total shock that these canniest of pop operators have used their Brits recognition as the springboard for their most vivacious, consistent and adorable album since 1993's Very.

Kicking off with the wondrous lead single, Love Etc, with its tingling electronic sheen and ravishing melody, the Xenomania-produced Yes is as inventive and flamboyant as the strained Fundamental was falsely rumoured to be.

There are fumbles - notably, the closing ballad Legacy, which aims at grandeur and profundity, but unravels over six long, long minutes into a dog's breakfast - but for every mis-step there's another where the boys sound on their old sure-footed, imperial form.

The most insatiably poppy numbers, all echoing Very, are the
irrepressible Pandemonium, the lavish All Over The World and the sugar rush of Did You See Me Coming?. The latter, destined to rub up in their back catalogue against the similarly innuendo-ripe So Hard, Rent and Love Comes Quickly, is a joyous reminder that Neil Tennant is one of the few middle-aged men still able to tap into the inner teenager at the heart of great pop.

But few bands are as equally at home in a pool of stately introspection as in a fizzy hot tub of hedonism, which is where the sumptuous King Of Rome and heartbreaking The Way It Used To Be come in. Built on a fluttering synth hook, over which Chris Lowe piles his trademark orchestral flourishes and electro squiggles, this last song joins Love Etc as the most perfect fusion of Xenomania and Pet Shop Boys sensibilities here.

The Pet Shop Boys needed neither the Brit award nor this album to cement their status as one of the finest pop acts of all time, with their remarkable combination of thrilling pizzazz and searing intelligence. But for us grateful fans, Yes is a wonderful vindication, and their finest album in many, many years.

Today the Love etc will be released and in one week the album.

It's intersting the whole album has not leaked yet. I mean, certainly, when Madonna or MJ are releasing a new album a dozen times more people anticipate those albums than a PSB one, so the danger of leakage is higher, but still, it's cool one week ahead and no complete leak...

graecophilos said:

Yeah what the hell is that bout?
Anywoo is an interview Music Weekly Extra: http://www.guardian.co.uk...opandrock.

lazycrockett said:

thanks, I've listened to almost all of the tracks. I still dislike Pandemonium, it's catchy but in a very obvious and ordinary way. I dislike that.
All Over The World is my favorite song, and one of their best happy songs imo!!!

so far I've only heard about half the album plus the b-side "we're all criminals now" - and it's not really getting me excited at this point. Its too early to judge, obviously. But I loved most of the "Fundamental" tracks right away.

I'm anxious to hear "Gin and Jag"

It's leaked!!!!!

Loving It.

The single "LOVE.ETC" has yet to be released in the US. not even on iTunes.
Anyone have any suggestions where I could find this single? CD or mp3

1DirXtion said:

bit torrent is your friend.

It's the best thing they've done since Very. Hell it maybe better than Very.

All Over The World.



love the nutcracker

Beautiful People

Have you listened to "This Used To Be The Future" too? I think Chris sings half of the track. The first time since I Believe Ecstasy!

Just gave a listen. Their recent albums are so strange. I never really love them off the bat, though clearly this is their most Behavior-like album since, well, Behavior. But it's not really grabbing me instantly, like pretty much every album since Nightlife. I can tell it has grower potential though. And I still think Love, Etc. is the best single they've released in ages.

My PSB faves are (in particular order) Behaviour, Please, Actually, Very and Release.

I think Yes may be a part sooner or later of that list. It's a step forward from Fundamental. I have to give Fundamental a new chance, but I hardly like one song.

From Yes my favorites are (in no particular order)

Vulnerable
All Over The World
The Way It Used To Be
Love etc

The b-sides so far are okay, let's hope for many more!!!!

for artwork, booklet etc visit

http://petheads.de/viewto...&start=725

and scroll down a bit

so, has anyone bought it?

After a week of listening, this album is effin' amazing. Their best since Very easily. Every day I seem to have a different song stuck in my head. In fact, I'm having a little trouble giving my full attention to LF/MPLSound because of it.

MendesCity said:

I've listened to the disc at least once a day and with each listen it gets better n better, I'm even starting to like Legacy.

lazycrockett said:

Me too, even the French parts!