Day 0744 - Very

 Pet Shop Boys "Very" (1993)

 

The Band explained the title by saying that the album is 'very' everything.  "Very up, very sad, very pop very etc."

The music feels like the Boys finally stopped moodily noodling on synthesizers in a drab London flat and headed out to the club.   This ecstatic dramatic change in sound could be due to this being the group's first album in some years, an embracing of the emergent club scene, or possibly  Neil Tennant feeling a newfound sense of freedom as he prepared to reveal his homosexuality to the world at large.

Certainly that latter aspect is addressed in the lyrics of songs like "To speak is a sin" and "can you forgive her".... or more overtly with the club-esque cover of the Village People's "Go West" with its rousing male chorus.

Essentially the Pet Shop Boys managed to delve into different realms of pop, while still managing to sound like themselves.

 

Day 0673 - Behaviour

Pet Shop Boys "Behaviour" (1990)

This album continues the P.S.B's line of quality, interesting pop, that uses some technology (analogue synthesisers as the Boys were unhappy with the digital synths available at the time) but retains its humanity, through stripped down arrangements and Neil Tennant's light, sometimes plaintive voice.

Much like their second album, Angelo Badalamenti (best known for his scoring work on David Lynch films and the "Twin Peaks" series) provides some string arrangements.  A change to the formula though comes in the form of Johnny Marr providing guitar across one or two tracks.

I don't have too much else to say about this one.  It has some fairly nostalgic and introspective lyrics (which then makes it a pity that they'd already used "Introspective" as the title for their previous album) in songs like "Being Boring" and "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave".  

Day 0608 - Actually

Petshop Boys "Actually" (1987) - got it

Another one that my older sister used to thrash back in the 80s (though with this one I remember that I did enjoy it back then).  It's a solid pop album, somehow sounds 'of its time' but without seeming dated.  Probably due to the songs just being really strong, and of many of the synthesizer sounds used currently being back in vogue.

In some ways it's a quite a bleak album, covering ideas from consumerism, Catholic guilt, one-sided relationships, romantic paranoia.  However, these themes are couched in catchy tunes, with minimal but imaginative arrangements, which help increase their appeal.

The track "It couldn't happen here" is co-written with Ennio Morricone and with strings arranged by Angelo Badalamenti who brings in hints of his score-work on Twin Peaks.  Laying in strings that walk the line between schmaltz and darkness.