As last week’s chapter revealed, Record Store Day on 19 April 2014 had seen the release of a 12″ single. The next single wouldn’t appear in digital form until 16 February 2016
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – The Pop Kids
The track was initially made available to anyone who pre-ordered Super, the forthcoming studio album.
It’s a catchy number, one which includes a lot of the musical tricks and hooks that had been deployed over the decades. It also has a strong story-like lyric, telling the tale of two friends in London in the 90s. who found each other from studying at the same university, having a real love of pop/dance music.
Just over a month later, The Pop Kids was released as a CD single and in two digital bundles, with the majority of tracks being remixes of the lead song, along with two other songs which wouldn’t be included on Super.
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – In Bits
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – One Hit Wonder
The CD and digital bundles sold enough to copies to enable an expanded chart placing of #128. I’m only mentioning this as it proved to be the final time a PSB single would find itself in the charts.
The two b-sides are fine, if not totally essential. In Bits is a mid-tempo number, while One Hit Wonder is more or less an instrumental, that was seemingly written back in the early 80s but not recorded until 2014 as the theme for a Berlin-based online music show. (the original date of composition makes sense as it has the feel of a light but airy pop tune from the era, reminding me a lot of very early Depeche Mode.)
In light of this being the final chart hit for PSB, I’m going to gradually bring the series to an end by focussing on just one release each week from now on in, taking it through the summer months and into the autumn. It means I’ve more time to consider what to bring up next on Sundays.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 