New Year, New Decade and New Sounds

Hello 2020 and hello new possibilities. The beginning of a new year always begins with high anticipation of what’s ahead, and for me the turning of the calendar always brings to mind the promise of new music from favorite artists.

Despite another lackluster Grammy Awards ceremony, the new decade began with a bang as we were treated to the surprise release of a new album by Eminem, the third set of the Pet Shop Boys’ Stuart Price trilogy, as well as a career-spanning 18-disc box set by Depeche Mode.

As for the rest of 2020, my ears are already anxiously awaiting new records from: Garbage, The Killers, Panic! at the Disco, plus the long-awaited new set from Tame Impala. Also, in the works are new offerings from Green Day and Weezer, which will be profligately supported by this summer’s unabashed Hella Mega Tour along with Fall Out Boy.

Other noteworthy releases in the musical pipeline for the new year include the much predicted sixth album from Lady Gaga, and also Coldplay’s follow-up to last year’s unexpected Everyday Life.

So, here’s to new songs, new albums, new artists and hopefully, the demise of auto-tune used as a disconcerting crutch.

Pet Shop Boys Catalogue Remaster Series

The Pet Shop Boys catalog remaster campaign concludes with the final batch of reissues. The duo’s Behaviour, Very, and Bilingual have all been newly remastered and expanded with B-sides, remixes and alternate versions.

Behaviour, the PSB’s fourth studio effort includes the hits “Being Boring” and “Jealousy” and now features an extended mix of “Where the Streets Have No Name (Can’t Take My Eyes Off You),” as well as the ambient mix of “Music for boys.” The two latter tracks have been remastered and both make their appearance on CD here for the first time.

PSB’s Very from 1993 includes the duo’s hit cover version of “Go West,” plus lead single “Can you forgive her?” This new 2018 remaster also contains previously-unreleased tracks “Falling” (demo version for Kylie Minogue), and a 1992 twelve-inch mix of the aforementioned “Go West.”

Finally, Bilingual, the Pet Shop Boys sixth studio album from 1996 rounds out the third and final wave of the remaster roll-out. This newly remastered version contains the singles: “Before,” “Se a vida é (That’s the Way Life Is),” “Single-Bilingual” and “Somewhere,” as well as previously-unreleased versions of “Discoteca” and “A Red-Letter Day.”

These three final remastered titles are not only well worth the wait, but they’ve have never sounded better than they do on these expanded remastered 2-CD sets. The 2018 remastered versions of Behaviour, Very and Bilingual are also available twelve-inch vinyl LPs. Sample at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/pet-shop-boys/488020

Track listings:

Behaviour:

CD1 – “Being Boring,” “This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave,” “To Face the Truth,” “How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?”, “Only the Wind,” “My October Symphony,” “So Hard,” “Nervously,” “The End of The World” and “Jealousy.”

CD2 – “It Must Be Obvious,” “So Hard (Extended Dance Mix),”Miserablism,” “Being Boring (Extended Mix),” “Bet She’s Not Your Girlfriend,” “We All Feel Better In The Dark (Extended Mix),” “Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You; Extended Mix),” “Jealousy (Extended Version),” “Generic Jingle,” “DJ Culture (Extended Mix),” “Was It Worth It? (12” Mix)” and “Music for Boys (Ambient Mix),” “DJ Culture (7” Mix).”

Very:

CD1 – “Can You Forgive Her?,” “I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind of Thing,” “Liberation,” “A Different Point of View,” “Dreaming of the Queen,” “Yesterday When I Was Mad,” “The Theatre,” “One and One Make Five,” “To Speak Is a Sin,” “Young Offender,” “One in a Million” and “Go West.”

CD2 – “Go West (1992 12” Mix),” “Forever In Love,” “Confidential (1992 Demo for Tina Turner),” “Hey Headmaster,” “Shameless,” “Too Many People,” “I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind of Thing (Seven-Inch Version),” “Violence (Haçienda Version),” “Falling (Demo for Kylie Minogue),” “Decadence,” “If Love Were All (Bitter Sweet),” “Absolutely Fabulous (Single Version),” “Euroboy,” “Some Speculation,” “Yesterday When I Was Mad (Single Version) and “Girls And Boys (Live In Rio).”

Bilingual:

CD1 – “Discoteca,” “Bilingual,” “Metamorphosis,” “Electricity,” “Se A Vida é,” “It Always Comes as A Surprise,” “A Red-Letter Day,” “Up Against It,” “The Survivors,” “Before,” “To Step Aside” and “Saturday Night Forever.”

CD2 – “Paninaro ’95,” “In the Night (1995 Version),” “The Truck Driver and His Mate,” “Hit and Miss,” “How I Learned to Hate Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Betrayed,” “Delusions of Grandeur,” “Discoteca (Single Version),” “The Calm Before the Storm,” “Discoteca (New Version),” “The Boy Who Couldn’t Keep His Clothes On,” “A Red Letter Day (Expanded Single Version),” “The View from Your Balcony,” “Disco Potential” and “Somewhere (Extended Mix).”