Entertainment For Lively Minds
Calling all Pet Shop Boys fans
Posted by minibreakfast on 29 January 2012 - 5:43pm.
Is their upcoming double album of B-sides (Format) worth getting? Did their B-sides match up to the same high standards as their album tracks/remixes/singles, or were they just somewhere to put the ok-but-not-great leftover songs?
I love the Boys but would love some opinions before I spend my meagre pennies on a double CD. Cheers!
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I have the 2CD 'PopArt' compilation.
If the quality of that is anything to go by, I won't be going anywhere near this one.
Er
Do you mean the previous b-sides collection 'Alternative'? Or are you snarking on the PSB's greatest hits?
That's a matter of taste not quality, though, isn't it?
If you don't like two CDs of their singles you're not very likely to go a bundle on their b-sides.
I've become quite lazy when it comes to b-sides
I've got Alternative, from '95 and it's quite brilliant. If you don't have that, right now, get a hold of it.
As for the more recent clutch of 'extra tracks', I know that some of the stuff from the Bilingual era was great fun, and there is, of course, this, which is rather good.
Might be best to hold off until there's a few reviews up on Amazon, if you're not sure...
I can't see it being as good as "Alternative", but...
... ver Boyz have always had better quality extra tracks (do we still call them B-sides?) than most, often taking the opportunity to stretch out and try something new, especially in dipping their toes into whatever dance mode is fashionable at the time. Of the tracks I know on this collection, "I Didn't Get Where I Am Today" is very good, bizarrely using a sample from Nuggets fave "Father's Name Was Dad" by Fire.
I'd also imagine the packaging will be nice, so £8.99 for 38 tracks sounds good to me (Amazon price, other outlets are available etc.) and I'm certainly planning on getting it myself...
Interesting to..
...compare prices ... I remember Discography retailing in HMV at £15 ... a single CD when it was released.
So
1991 1XCD £15
2012 2xCD £8.99
I know the (Ugh) "content" is b-sides v greatest hits, but even so, that's quite a drop.
As resident PSB authority of this parish
I can confirm that Format is at turns both exhilarating and disappointing. It isn't as all-conquering as Alternative but does contain many, many gems. It starts with the Bilingual period where, like Alternative, most of the b-sides are superior to the A's, but quickly dips to their nadir around the Nightlife period.
After that, mostly good to excellent, and the accompanying interview by Jon Savage should be almost worth the price alone.
If you don't have Alternative, get that first. If you can afford both, get this too.
I'm a hopeless PSB partisan so of course I'm going to back it.
Thirty-eight songs for nine quid seems reasonable even if some of them aren't so great. But I'd put 'The Truck Driver And His Mate', 'No Time For Tears', 'Delusions Of Grandeur', 'The Former Enfant Terrible', 'The Ghost Of Myself' and 'Sexy Northerner' up with the very very best of PSB. Then again the version of 'In Private' with Elton may well be the worst thing they've ever released.
This is the best Pet Shop Boys b-side, of course:
Thanks guys...
...for all of your views. On balance I think I'll take the advice of ivan and our resident expert BC, and plump for Alternative.