Disco de Pet Shop Boys: “Maxi-CD Collection”

It sounds raw. Not only is the recording aweful but so is the music. It was not the standard level of PSB sophisitication I am used to hearing. Don't buy this CD.

When the Pet Shop Boys were first starting out, they were helped along by Bobby Orlando, a producer of Hi-Energy music on the New York scene. Bobby O was also producer for Corey Hart, who had the single 'Sunglasses at Night', a very popular hit also in the 1980s. That explains the combination of the two songs, together with a strange track entitled 'Pet Shop Boys' and a remix of a song from their second album, 'One More Chance'. These songs are obviously ones to which Bobby O retained rights over - the production values for all of these songs are very different from standard Pet Shop Boys issue, and the general remix is one that is more reminiscent of one done for a club than for release as a single.

The fact that this has four CDs in a double-CD case when in fact all the music would easily fit on one CD also smacks of a ploy to max the marketing potential - adding up all the music on these four CDs amounts to under 40 minutes of music. That's not 40 minutes per CD, mind you, that's 40 minutes total. (Do the math for the per-minute charge for the music given the cost of this piece.)

Unless you are the most die-hard collector of PSB memorabilia, this can be safely missed. The packaging claims to have a biography included - this is true, but it is a one-page piece of trivia points about the Pet Shop Boys (there is an English and German translation of the page).

I actually really like this collection. It was done years ago though, so it may not compare with the standards we Pet Shop Boy fanatics have accepted now, but still it's quite fun to listen to. I sometimes take it out once in a while and listen to the Pet Shop Boy theme. It takes me back and makes me remember what it is about them that I always liked and continue to have a passion for. It is quite simple music, since it was done in the early 80's. But the mixes are very good! They are not like Pet Shop Boys mixes nowadays where they are full of different things to listen to; where you have at least 10 or 12 different things happening at once. But it still is a must for a true fan. My favorites are the "Pet Shop Boy theme" and "West End Girls/Sunglasses". Any mix of West End Girls, no matter how long ago it was done, OR recent, is worth getting. (This cd must have been done when they were popular in Japan, check out the Japanese music chords under different songs, particulary the ones I mentioned before.)

4 CD's of original Bobby 'O' mixes of the fab West End Girls and unreleased versions of One More Chance. Worth it, if just to have "West End Sunglasses", west end girls mixed with I wear my sunglasses at night!!