673. Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour (1990)
















Track Listing

1. Being boring
2. This must be the place I waited years to leave
3. To face the truth
4. How can you expect to be taken seriously?
5. Only the wind
6. My October symphony
7. So hard
8. Nervously
9. The end of the world
10. Jealousy

Review

The Pet Shop Boys are never the most exciting of things to listen to, but this album is kind of good, really. Firstly it is probably their most introspective work, it isn't really a pumping dance album. In fact most of the tracks are slow and contemplative while still being synth-pop.

Some of the collaborations here are pretty great, Johnny Marr and Angelo Badlamenti and the Balenescu Quartet, this gives you an idea of the scope of music in the album. The lyrics are also particularly good.

That said it sounds quite dated now, synth-pop hasn't really stood the test of time at all well. But it is more pleasant than I thought a Pet Shop Boys album could ever be, at the same time less mechanic and more restrained than many other of their albums. Possibly their best album.

Track Highlights

1. October Symphony
2. Being Boring
3. So Hard
4. How Can You Expect To be Taken Seriously?

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although a popular album among fans, in the context of Pet Shop Boys' other albums, Behaviour differs in production value. Harold Faltermeyer was hired on to produce the album at his "Red Deer" studio in Munich, Germany. Because they were dissatisfied with the available digital synthesisers and samples, Pet Shop Boys wanted to use analogue synthesisers. Faltermeyer was a good choice for producer, as he happened to be an expert on analog equipment. The result was a Pet Shop Boys album different from both the previous album, Introspective and the 1993 follow-up, Very. In places, the album expands upon the synthpop genre with flavours of guitar pop ballads, as with "This must be the place I waited years to leave" and "My October symphony" featuring guitarist, Johnny Marr. Later, singer Neil Tennant would reflect on the different style of Behaviour, "It was more reflective and more musical-sounding, and also it probably didn't have irritatingly crass ideas in it, like our songs often do".

Being boring: