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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not like the first one, 29 Dec 2005
The first 'Disco' album (or rather, mini-album) by the Pet Shop Boys was released a year or so after their main hit album, 'Please'. That album generated several major hits, and the 'Disco' remix version collected those in good, dance-able and recognisable form. Thus, it is understandable that fans would expect the same treatment from an album entitled 'Disco 2', right? Well, not really. First of all, the Pet Shop Boys had been in a period of decline, relatively speaking, in terms of their overall popularity. Their album 'Behaviour' was the last major chart-topper; the album 'Very' got a lack-luster reception despite being in many ways very typically Pet Shop Boys in sound. The songs collected on 'Disco 2' are primarily from 'Very', with a few extra tracks thrown in ('So Hard' from 'Behaviour', 'We all feel better in the dark' from a B-side, and 'Absolutely Fabulous' from their one-off single release in honour of the show of the same name). One of the problems is less PSB and more systemic, perhaps - the era of remixes staying more-or-less faithful to their base tracks had come to an end, and the remixes of the mid-1990s to the present are more DJ/remixer creations with just a hint of the original song thrown in. One often gets the sense of more remixer than PSB influence on the tracks here. The songs included here (sometimes more than once) include 'Absolutely Fabulous' (x2), 'I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing' (x2), 'Go West' (the PSB remake of the Village People classic), 'Liberation', 'So Hard', 'Can you forgive her?', 'Yesterday when I was mad' (x3), and 'We all feel better in the dark.' There is a bonus disc in some packagings, which includes remixs of the songs 'Decadence', 'Some Speculation', 'Euroboy', and yet another version of 'Yesterday when I was mad' and 'I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing'. I must admit this is one of my lesser-played PSB albums, in part because there are no clear breaks in the tracks (and I rarely have time to listen to an hour or more of music of this sort uninterrupted), and partly because, while the die-hard fan will want these tracks, most will probably prefer the original songs themselves in any event. One for the fans, definitely, but not for the casual listener.
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