Rock & Pop > 2006 onwards Rock & Pop > Synth Pop

Pet Shop Boys - Yes please

Advantages: An uplifting album for the credit crunch generation
Disadvantages: None

...80's revival disco last week, Yes is a must to have in your CD/ MP3 collection. Yes is the Boys 10th, yes 10th studio album in a career that has spanned decades and produced wonderful hits such as Being Boring, Domino Dancing and of course the football anthem Go West. The album was produced and co witten with Brian Higgins and his Xenomania team who are also responsible for the new Girls Aloud album, who added a sprinkling of their magic fairy ...
...track called 'This Used To Be The Future' featuring one Phil Oakey of 80's new romantic band Human League, a must for all fans. In conclusion the Pet Shop Boys deliver once again and are relentless in the task of creating pop for the purist, YES is highly recommended. ...

Shaunie_Shuu 26.05.2009 · Read full review

Review of Yes - Pet Shop Boys

Pop Personified!

Advantages: Great songs, especially for dancing
Disadvantages: Very 80s. Wait, is that a disadvantage?

Vince Clarke was formerly with Depeche Mode, another band that relied heavily on electronic music, synthesizers and enigmatic types of lyrics. Clarke wanted to journey out from Depeche Mode's darker tendency to a much more pop-oriented and dance-oriented sound of his own. He recruited Andy Bell after auditioning many vocalists to front the band Erasure, and after turning out dance music throughout the 80s and 90s, has become one of the better-known ...
...America, although they did have a string of top 40 hits, some one which made it into the top 10 for brief stints depending upon what Billboard chart you were looking at. Yet at every dance club even to this day you can put on a remix of "Sometime" or "Chains of Love" and the floor will be filled. Maybe one thing Vince Clarke didn't count on, being a straight man, was how identified the group he just created would be with the .. world. Yet it didn't ...

sutherland1 11.08.2003 · Read full review
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Review of Pop - The First 20 Hits - Erasure

Fundamental - Pet Shop Boys

Advantages: Superb return to form, sublime production and insightful lyrics
Disadvantages: Poltically may alienate some, not bleeding edge

Fundamental by the Pet Shop Boys was released in May 2006 and is probably their most overtly political album yet. The title itself sets out their outlook and almost certainly refers to fundamentalism, particularly in the American approach to world management. It is also a return to form after a couple of somewhat lacklustre albums but sadly didn't quite set the charts alight on release. Although it peaked in the UK album charts at number 5, it wasn't ...
...dent apart from the first one, "I'm With Stupid" Sound wise, the welcome return of producer Trevor Horn has a slightly retro effect and it sounds in many ways like their first couple of albums but with a sheen that shows how their craft has developed over the years plus of course the sort of orchestral additions that Trevor Horn is so good at along with help from Ann Dudley from the Art of Noise. That said, there's nothing new here so don't expect ...

ilaskey 26.04.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Fundamental - Pet Shop Boys

Synth-pop heaven

Advantages: alter-ego synth from the masters
Disadvantages: are you kidding

“Erasure” - Erasure 1995 Love them or loathe them , Erasure have it has to be admitted certainly left there mark on the British pop scene . Never bowing to the fastidious demands of the pop world and its various fads , Erasure have striven to perfect their particular field of speciality - electro-synth pop , along the way leading where others would eventually follow , that of the cover song ( most studio cd albums have included a cover of some ...
...guitar based based , and Erasure turned in a new direction , this time into the experimental , almost dark , variation of synth music , yet done with the presence of soul and feeling , to what culminated in the eponymously titled “Erasure” Album . ~ The Tracks ~ 1) Intro ; Guess I’m Into Feeling ( 3 mins. 14 sec ) Squeaks and bleeps cascade into euphoric celebration , it’s party time......” I guess I’m into feeling higher lately, higher than I’ve ...

CaptainKidd 30.07.2003 · Read full review
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Review of Erasure - Erasure

Of Whales and not so much of the woe if you please!

Advantages: see review
Disadvantages: none

Of Whales and Woe is Les Claypool's first proper solo album. His name may not be familiar to all as he is better known as Primus' frontman bassist extraordinaire. This album was released back in 2006 on his own record label Prawn Song. (It was recently re-released on vinyl as of November 2009.) Not so much of the wacky lyrics on this album but a far more accessable feel than his previous works. Nearly every track featured here is bass-driven in his ...
...check this out! The arrangements of the other instruments like saxophone sitar, guitar and drums, etc sit really well together without drowning anything out. The songs themselves are really catchy and you'll find yourself singing along too by the end of it. There is even one track on here, Iowan Girl, written specially for his wife with some of the most amazing bass playing I have ever heard. There isn't a bad track on here in my opinion. TRACK LISTING: ...

loopz27 24.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Of Whales And Woe - Les Claypool