I finished off last week by saying I was going to get my hands on a copy of Electric, the twelfth studio album from the Pet Shop Boys, that was released in July 2013.
It has proved to be every bit as great as was made out in that Guardian Review from Alexis Petrides.
The third single from the album was released on 1 September:-
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Love Is A Bourgeois Concept (nighttime radio edit)
It’s an edited version of one of the high spots on the album. As I played the CD, I thought the tune reminded me of something. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Thankfully, wiki can be handy.
Love Is a Bourgeois Construct is based on the 1982 instrumental “Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds”, a minimalist piece by Michael Nyman, which was initially based on a hook by Henry Purcell.
It was used in the Peter Greenaway film, The Draughtman’s Contract, and that was the reason I had filed it away in a very obscure part of my memory.
mp3: Michael Nyman – Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds
The single was primarily a digital release, but there was a limited number of CDs pressed up. I’m guessing it was very limited, as the going rate for a copy on the second-hand market is about £50.
Alongside a number of remixes, two otherwise unavailable tracks came out with this single
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Entschuldigung!
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Get it online
The former is a song based on constantly apologising for not being able to speak German.
Ich nicht sprechen Deutsch!
Ich nicht sprechen Deutsch!
I said
Ich nicht sprechen Deutsch!
Ich nicht sprechen Deutsch!
Entschuldigung!
It is yet another instance when Neil and Chris come up with something completely out of leftfield which straddles the fine line between bonkers brilliant and bonkers nonsense. I’m very much, based on just three listens, convinced it is brilliant and up there with as good a b-side as they have released.
The latter is kind of linked in that there’s a huge Kraftwerk influence on a track which was largely composed by Chris with his vocal contribution being deliberately distorted. Oh, and there’s also much use made of languages other than English to deliver phrases which seemingly all translate into consumer-speak. It’s not as immediate as Entschuldigung!, but it is growing on me.
Love Is A Bourgeois Concept didn’t make it into the Top 100, but as I’ve mentioned before, the chart positions of the singles no longer seemed to be an issue.
The next single appeared on 3 November:-
mp3: Pet Shop Boys (feat. Example) – Thursday (radio edit)
In listening to Electric, without being fully aware of what were the future singles, I reckoned this stood a great chance. It’s very radio friendly – PSB wearing their lightweight pop hats – and it also has a co-vocal from Example, an English rapper who had been enjoying a fair amount of chart success since bursting onto the scene in 2006. His real name is Elliot Gleave, and his stage name comes from his initials, E.G., the abbreviation of the Latin phrase exempli gratia (“for example”).
It’s a decent enough pop song with a bit of rap thrown in to try and differentiate it at the end, but other than Chris’s deadpan delivery of ‘Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday’ as the song moves along, it didn’t leave too much of an impression on me. It’s the sort of song I could imagine Robbie Williams wishing he’d written and recorded.
Once again, it was primarily a digital release, with a limited number of CDs and a 12″ vinyl copy pressed up. As with the previous single, two otherwise unavailable tracks were part of the release:-
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – No More Ballads
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Odd Man Out
The former is a bitter-sweet love song that the PSB seem so capable of writing at the drop of a hat. This wouldn’t have sounded out of place back in the days when all the singles and albums went to #1. The ‘relegation’ of the song to become almost a throwaway b-side is really down to the fact it wouldn’t have been a good fit on the new album.
The latter is a remarkable song, one that I’m really surprised wasn’t held back for release as a single in later years. It wouldn’t have been a hit as it is far too downbeat and depressing a tale for that, but it would have generated a fair bit of media chat, both printed and digital, if Neil and Chris had decided to give it some promotion.
Odd Man Out is based entirely on the plot/story of Victim, a 1961 film which is regraded as the first to deal sympathetically and openly with homosexuality. And while it is true that society’s attitudes had moved on a fair bit over the next 50 years, there was still much to be concerned or angry about to the extent that Neil and Chris would feel the need to pen such a song, complete with historical references, as well as having the final 30 seconds feature dialogue from the film. Listen and weep quietly for those whose lives have been made miserable by homophobes, and then think again about those who live their lives under oppressive regimes where it still a punishable crime to have feelings of love for someone of the same sex.
Thursday was a relative success in that it reached #61 in the singles chart.
There would be one final 45 lifted from Electric:-
This was a 12″ single for Record Store Day on 19 April 2014.
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Fluorescent (Indio Mix)
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Fluorescent (Cali Mix)
Only 1000 copies pressed. £165 – £250 is the asking price if you want to pick up a copy on the second-hand market. (And no, I don’t have a copy!!!!!)
It’s obviously different mixes from the album version, while the lyrics are quite different, with a self-effacing question being asked…..‘Are You Past Your Sell-By Date?’
Given Part 25 of the series will be with you next week, you can take a stab at the answer. I’ll be disappointed if you get it wrong.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Great piece, now you’ll have to get a copy of their next album which was ‘Super’, great tunes & some brilliant lyrics.
It’s not often ‘Victim’ gets a mention. What a great film (despite – or, perhaps because of – it’s storyline). Hurrah!
The German song is fantastic. and something only they could have done.