Pet Shop Boys, Behaviour

What impresses me most about this album is how, simultaneously and effortlessly, it captures one man's experience and yet everyone else's all at the same time. Who hasn't struggled, in ways small or writ large, with their lovers ("So Hard"), or evolved your views and profession ("Being Boring"), or felt the despair of a failed relationship ("The End of the World"), or, for that matter, wondered what to do with October, the absolute worst month of the year ("October Symphony")? Only the otherwise competent "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?" breaks the unity, however on target its criticism of shallow popstar humanitarianism might be, and Harold Faltermeyer's masterful co-production sharpens the beats to be as compelling as the lyrical vignettes. As evidence of their skill, consider "Nervously:" when Tennant came out in 1994 it became clear whom he wrote it for, and yet its universality of the trembling of falling in love seeps deeply into any human soul. I could see myself in that song; couldn't you? For an album as personal as this one must have been to them, how much more so its crystalline moments of humanity make it to the rest of us. Unfortunately, the Further Listening companion disc doesn't quite reach the heights of the main album, and the almost 11-minute "Being Boring" remix gets vaguely tedious, but U2 was wrong to dismiss their cover of "Where The Streets Have No Name" and their pastiche of Morrissey in "Miserablism" is right on the money. (Content: no concerns.)

🌟🌟🌟🌟

Pet Shop Boys, Introspective

I think I'm a pretty introspective dude personally but no amount of introspection can bring me to understand this album. Less a record than an effort-free splatter of 12"-style mixes, the production is as good as usual but the music itself varies from average to bizarre and the sometimes grotesquely lengthened tracks invariably outlast their welcome. While the Trevor Horn-produced "Left To My Own Devices" is decent enough (except for the meh whatever chorus) and the medley "Always On My Mind/In My House" makes for an amusing cover as far as it goes, the other four of the six tracks are wan, uninspired and beneath this duo's otherwise sizeable talent. Besides the dopey faux Latin beat of "Domino Dancing" the deepest pothole they dug is probably the pathetic "I Want A Dog" ("a chihuahua," Neil Tennant clarifies), which in its over six minutes apparently intended to be cute and affected but largely comes off as whiny. And that's simply the biggest fault of this album: no matter the name it's not pensive or thought-provoking, it's just pouty. The rerelease with Further Listening adds a few demos and a few new unreleased tracks; they're much more listenable if for no other reason than being shorter. (Content: no concerns.)

🌟🌟