I was faced with a choice at a difficult age - should I write a book or should I take to the stage?

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts.

18/12/88 : Introspective - Pet Shop Boys

Our fifth visit with them PSBs - and this is the first one I've owned (both by the group and in the year). And it's one I like and know quite well - I could write about it without listening to it, but I gave it a go anyway because I've not been there in years.

And yeah, it was good going back to it. I remembered that not all the tracks are quite as great as the others - the best ones (for me) are "Left To My Own Devices" and "Always On My Mind/In My House", both of which are also singles but are VERY different on the album. LTMOD is massively drama'ed up with opera and storms and shit whereas AOMM starts similarly but then goes super-house. The rest are still pretty good, even if the lyrics to "I Want A Dog" do annoy me with their pointlessness - but overall, this was a very enjoyable revisit.

We're at #10 in the charts this week on their tenth week of a thirty week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its first week and it managed another nine week run later in the year. The top five this week were Cliff Richard, Now! 13, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Kylie and Fleetwood Mac and the highest new entry was The Beiderbecke Collection (#99) - a collection of music from the TV series.

Wikpedia tells us it's their third album - there's not a load else on there, but I did learn that "It's Alright" is a cover version (originally put out by Sterling Void and Paris Brightledge, apparently) and I was reminded that "I'm Not Scared" was written by Pet Shop Boys but was originally recorded by Eighth Wonder (featuring one Patsy Kensit). Critically, the album was well received (NME gave it a squillion out of 10) and it did well commercially, making the top ten in most of Europe (including #1 in Finland) and even #34 in the US. Interestingly Neil Tennant has said he regrets the twelve inch nature of the album because he thinks it put people off the band, although it's not clear that view is back up by the sales numbers.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent copy for a couple of quid but there is a limited edition "Club Mixes From The Pet Shop Boys Introspective Album" three disc box set that you can drop 320 smackers on if you really feel the need. I wouldn't go quite that far, but I do like this album and it was fun to go back to it.

11/12/88 - Average material, somewhat elevated
25/12/88 - Enjoyable, yet terrible