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Track Listings
| 1. "Comrades!" |
| 2. Men And Maggots |
| 3. Our Daily Bread |
| 4. Drama In The Harbour |
| 5. Nyet |
| 6. To The Shore |
| 7. Odessa |
| 8. No Time For Tears |
| 9. To The Battleship |
| 10. After All (The Odessa Staircase) |
| 11. Stormy Meetings |
| 12. Night Falls |
| 13. Full Steam Ahead |
| 14. The Squadron |
| 15. For Freedom |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Although generally happy to hide their more highbrow concerns beneath a postmodernist pop sheen, on Battleship Potemkin, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe let their artistic ambitions run free. Inspired by Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein’s desire that his revolutionary 1904 classic of the same name be furnished with a new score every decade to keep it fresh, here Tennant and Lowe have teamed up with the Dresden Sinfoniker orchestra in order to remake the original score with a contemporary flavour.
One clue to the sound is through the presence of composer Torsten Rasch, who has formerly reworked the music of German industrial provocateurs Rammstein: the likes of "Nyet" and "Night Falls" share something of that band’s deadpan hybrid of Wagnerian doom and pulsing electronics. More familiar to Pet Shop Boys fans will be three vocal originals--"Our Daily Bread", "No Time For Tears" and "After All (The Odessa Staircase)"--that boast lyrics inspired by the original subtitles (although the latter also contains pointed allusions to the Iraq war).
Reviews have been mixed, some critics accusing Tennant and Lowe of overpowering the film with a showy, inappropriate score. As a stand-along piece, however, it’s a modest success--thematically adventurous, and clever without allowing itself to get bogged down in an ironic morass.--Louis Pattison
Product Description
A few years after their foray into musicals, the Pet Shop Boys, who are quite possibly disco-pop's most intellectual act, have returned with another project: a live score to Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. Battleship Potemkin was a silent film made in Leninist Russia in 1925, and tells the (somewhat idealized) story of a revolt among sailors of the Czar's Black Sea fleet. Given the Pet Shop Boys' history of playing with Leninist imagery (take, for example, the lyrics to "West End Girls"), they were a suitably apt choice to do a live score to this film.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It is almost impossible to write a successful soundtrack album - how can music designed to accompany a film work without the visual imagery? However, Tennant and Lowe have managed, because this album was designed from the start to make sense by itself (or so I would speculate). If you don't feel any sympathy for the Pet Shop Boys, then you will hate this. However, if you do like PSB, or you're prepared to keep an open mind, then I think you will like this combination of string orchestra and synthesiser music. There are lots of good tunes, and the sound is spectacular. This is, in its way, pretty unbeatable.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A year ago, twenty-thousand people crowded into Trafalgar Square in London in the rain to watch a black-and-white silent Soviet-era propaganda film. The majority, probably, went to see the Pet Shop Boys.
This is not the first time the duo have strayed out of traditional pop music. They've already written and staged a musical in the West End, done a three-week residency at the Savoy Theatre, and worked with a range of artists including Derek Jarman and Sam Taylor-Wood.
This time, they've brought in orchestrator Torsten Rasch and the Dresdner Sinfoniker, to create a new soundtrack for Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin.
The music is easily recognisable as the Pet Shop Boys, a mixture of electronics and orchestral sounds, and it's highly accomplished.
But, without the movie, it's not necessarily the easiest listen - the music was written to the movie, and so there are long, fairly repetitive instrumental passages which work much better alongside Eisenstein's visuals. A DVD release of the movie with the new soundtrack would have been a better idea than the music alone.
This is not a follow up to the group's last studio album. There are only really two songs, as such, "No time for tears" and "After all". Both would easily sit on a regular Pet Shop Boys studio album, "After all" in particular works as a very angry response to the war in Iraq.
It's twenty years since West End Girls was released, and the Pet Shop Boys have evolved from a pop group to a kind of arts project.
Battleship Potemkin is not a classical album. Neither is it a pop album. To be prepared, twenty years into your career, to repeatedly head in a new direction shows exactly why the Pet Shop Boys are still around, and still relevant.
And, as usual, the sleeve is impeccably designed....
This is not the first time the duo have strayed out of traditional pop music. They've already written and staged a musical in the West End, done a three-week residency at the Savoy Theatre, and worked with a range of artists including Derek Jarman and Sam Taylor-Wood.
This time, they've brought in orchestrator Torsten Rasch and the Dresdner Sinfoniker, to create a new soundtrack for Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin.
The music is easily recognisable as the Pet Shop Boys, a mixture of electronics and orchestral sounds, and it's highly accomplished.
But, without the movie, it's not necessarily the easiest listen - the music was written to the movie, and so there are long, fairly repetitive instrumental passages which work much better alongside Eisenstein's visuals. A DVD release of the movie with the new soundtrack would have been a better idea than the music alone.
This is not a follow up to the group's last studio album. There are only really two songs, as such, "No time for tears" and "After all". Both would easily sit on a regular Pet Shop Boys studio album, "After all" in particular works as a very angry response to the war in Iraq.
It's twenty years since West End Girls was released, and the Pet Shop Boys have evolved from a pop group to a kind of arts project.
Battleship Potemkin is not a classical album. Neither is it a pop album. To be prepared, twenty years into your career, to repeatedly head in a new direction shows exactly why the Pet Shop Boys are still around, and still relevant.
And, as usual, the sleeve is impeccably designed....
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
What a soundtrack! This is PSB personified in their familiar but never tiresome electro/orchestral music.
This album is a treat for any PSB fan or anyone with a passion for the Russian sound, a sound of hardship and exhaustive conditions, so well portrayed in this masterpiece.
In Neil's own words; "Foreground music" and deservedly so. A courageous album for any artist except Tennant/Lowe, for they are now at a stage where they can undertake any project and produce a winner.
I urge you to buy and listen to this album. You will not regret it.
Best track (in my humble opinion): 'Night Falls'. Try listening to it without getting clear images in your mind, it cannot be done.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brain food
I started listening to the boys' version of Potemkin score again. Now i can't stop playing it.
The beginning movement is nothing short of miraculous. Read more
The beginning movement is nothing short of miraculous. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Robert Kelly
I was there
I have always been a fan of the movie, which is mercifully short.
I saw the "Boys" play this at a live screening of the movie at Trafalgar Square one damp Sunday... Read more
I saw the "Boys" play this at a live screening of the movie at Trafalgar Square one damp Sunday... Read more
Published on 29 Feb 2008 by Mr. Paul Millennas
The worst Pet Shop Boys release in 11 years.
Nonetheless, it's all about the music. And what is "Battleship Potemkin"? Sadly, it's not very good. Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2007 by Mr. M. A. Reed
Intellectual
I thot I would go with the PSB's use of single word sub-titling FX. Well, not being sufficiently clever enough (tried to spell eloquent there), I will not try to review PSB-ism in... Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2007 by Craig Benton
Intellectual genius
Writing as somebody who has not seen the silent movie, first time listening was a matter of trying to work out what is going on. Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2006 by Ms. Ea Harkin
Battleship Potemkin
Recently attended the live show in Newcastle and rated it as one of the most atmospheric experiences ever. Read more
Published on 4 May 2006 by Stephen Leech
Battleshop Boys
The masters of all things techno and disco have tried to diversify before by venturing, without much success into musical theatre with Closer to Heaven. Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2005 by Daz
Wonderful!!!
Chris Low and Neil Tennant are definitely continuing their musical journey. After Closer to Heaven (what a shame there is no DVD!!) now this piece of Art. Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2005 by Michael Rada
pets in their element
I was fortunate to be able to "see" this record in sync with the film a year ago in Trafalgar Square. Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2005 by mr d j t bull
Battleship Potemkin
Pet Shop Boys at their best. Lush orchestral classical sounds blended with their unique style. Have not seen the film but the soundtrack gives your imagination a good idea of what... Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2005 by rebecca rogers
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