Actually

meh, ok pop

Couldn't care less. Where's his big hat at? A pair of crunchy truncheons.

Very 80s sounding. 0RS

I listened to the whole thing in one go wanting to see the light and be converted to the church of the Pet Shop Boys. It was ok. Nothing grabbed me at all. Just felt really 80s synth pop. The song about going shopping. What’s that about? It’s a Sin is a banger though.

Never liked Pet Shop Boys, and nothing about this album has changed my mind.

During the first track I was thinking “better than expected”, but shortly after that I sort of forgot it was even on - garden-party background music when you want to be at the bar. These guys were popular with some good friends of mine in college - Artsy girls with angular haircuts - so that gives this album a nice nostalgic vibe. Then The Boys slip into their orchestral effort “It Couldn’t happen Here”. It did. I wish it wouldn’t have. 2.5 stars. Rounding down.

I guess a couple of the tracks are fairly iconic, but flimsy synth pop is not for me

The feeling of this album battle a school yuppy. A bit weird and pretentious, but I will give an extra star for being much better than the last Pet Shop Boys album

Is this a song about shopping? Ok then. How 80s. Let's go to the mall! Oh now a song about a sugar daddy. Live your best life Pet Shop Boys. Overall, eh? It feels pretty repetitive. Probably not adding it to my rotation.

Pop. Aburrido. Sintético.

Klassiskt 80-tal, ikoniskt. Men nej, jag fastnar inte. Lyssningsbart, men blir tråkigt fort. Kunde inte göra om Rateing för Tortoise, så här kommer review: SÖG! Bara massa oljud?

Kind of fun, but mostly like the Talking Heads without the soul.

Decent old pop. I don’t love the sound, but it’s well done.

Echt jetzt? Oje… Viele der Songs habe ich noch von damals™️ im Ohr, stelle aber fest, dass sie gealtert sind wie Milch. Ich habe oft vorgespult, ohne zu befürchten, was zu verpassen. Womit alles gesagt wäre. 2 Sterne, aber nur vong Nostalgie her.

Always on my mind is good but the rest I’m not a fan of. 2.3

Interesting theme to the album. Does this really need to be on this list?

80’s human music. Pretty okay

Not for me

Pop with lightly rebellious experimental sounds and lyrics. I'm sure it was a bop back then.

I only liked the track with dusty Springfield

njae, gillar inte den här 80-90-tals synthen alltså

I found the meaning of the songs like shopping to be quite good but overall i found the album boring and their musical inability shone through for me. These guys are an example of people who sound ok on tape but shit live.

I like the 80s synth poppy feel of it, sometimes weird percussion breaks and vocal interludes take up too much time, the synth is almost overwhelming sometimes too. But I liked it alright! not earth-shattering

Some bangers, like It's a sin and the one with Dusty Springfield (<3). That aside, it's not their best work.

I really only know Pet Shop Boys song “West End Girls”. That’s all I like from them.

I would happily have lived two lives without hearing the Pet Shop Boys. 1 star or F.

1/1

Strong out of the gate. I was feeling great for about the first whole minute. Then the vocal kicked in and the entire thing disintegrated from there. Possible recency bias, but that might have been the most difficult listen so far. Just an absolute ass whipping. Next please

Brain cells were lost listening to them sing about shopping and rent.

I did not enjoy this one. Maybe I’ll come around to it in another era but I couldn’t even finish it. Bored me to death

This album made me feel like the dude yawning on the cover. Too slow and boring

2/10 An album full of weirdness, propped up by the lonesome high that is 'It's a Sin'. Otherwise, it's 45 minutes of wading through sub-par vocals and strange sounds. I was keen to get this one over with. Best track: It's a Sin Will I revisit?: No

Oh man, the Pet Shop Boys can fuck off. The only thing I liked about this record is that it reminded me about how incredible the Lonely Island is at parody. About every other song, I half expected Pet Shop Boy #1 to start singing about the jizz in his pants. I don’t see anything redemptive about this record. Between the sneering, poncey vocals sung almost exclusively through the nasal passages and the non-stop synthesizer assault, there’s nothing really to enjoy here. I don’t even think there was a legitimate instrument on the record anywhere. I hold Pet Shop Boys largely to blame for the reason 80’s pop music sucked so hard. With all sincerity, I have no idea why this band was so popular at the time. But I am glad they eventually faded into obscurity. I usually reserve 1-star reviews for electronica and Neil Young audio diarrhea records, but Pet Shop Boys feel like a mix of both those things. 1/10

Almost all of the songs have the same beat and they are just repeating the same lyrics again and again, this was a tough album to go through couldnt even enjoy it.

This shit is ASS

When I first saw this album pop up, I thought: 1) here's the pro-British bias again, but 2) I'll probably end up giving it a 3, or possibly a 2. But, after listening to it, I think I have to give it a 1. For me, it hasn't aged well, and feels (but not in a good way) very much of its time. Which is a little surprising, because I still love their first, great hit, from 1984, "West End Girls." Both that song, and this album (from 1987) take me back to my NYC/Columbia years (fall 1983 - spring 1987), and the mid-80s in general, and synth pop, and the so-called Second British Invasion of the 80s (the first, of course, was ca. the late 60s, with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Who, etc.). But, unlike "West End Girls," this album takes me back, but not in a good way, reminding me that, especially as the 80s went on, a lot of pop music was kinda crap. This included. If we wanted to make a case for this list of 1001 albums having a (misguided) pro-British bias, this album would be a good piece of evidence. Robbie Williams, too (lol)!

Silly nonsense. Overproduced and dated. Do I need different drugs to like this? Sounds like an SNL parody. I keep picturing what it would be like to see this in concert, and it is hilarious.

In Bojack Horseman, during some of the flashback sections they have songs playing on the radio with lyrics like 'Generic '80s new wave, Beep, bop, beep, bop, beep, bop; This is a song from the '80s, The decade which it currently is". This is basically how I felt about this album. It was like you distilled 80s new wave into the most 80s album possible..which could be great, if it captured all the great parts...but no. This is just the most generic 80s possible. Even when it has some vaguely interesting synth melody going on, it screams "generic 80s sound". I hated it. "We're S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G, we're shopping". Aaargh.

Not my cup of team. Shopping song was funny tho

👎

This album is very very bad. S-h-o-p-p-I-n-g??????? I love you, you pay my rent is….very nyc.

The further along this list I go, one thing becomes clearer and clearer. I really hate the 80's music.

Nope...this is a step (or several) beyond my taste to revisit this era and my life back then. God awful...then AND now.

Can't stand them

“Try Diet Coke! Now Caffeine Free!” That’s how I feel about it.

Two PSB albums in one month is cruel and unusual... genuinely what HAVE I done to deserve this??

synth popowanie od brytyjskiego duetu pet shop boys z 87, plyta jest druga pozycja w jej dyskografii i oczywiscie nie kojarze z niej nic poza kawalkiem its a sin, ktory zrobil chyba kariere radiowa, albo przewinal sie gdzies w filmach, ale poza tym akcentem i sama nazwa pet shopow nie wiem nic wiecej na ich temat, co jeszcze jest ciekawego na tym wymeczonym krazu jest kolab z pania dusty springfield na utworze what i have done to deserve this, wiec ciekawe polaczenie synthowego popu z wokalami ikony lat 60 czy 70 w zaleznosci na ktora czesc kariery sie spojrzy, ale poza tym nie zapamietam nic wiecej z tego odsluchu, bo nic tak jak synthy tworzace kaczliwe melodie lub w ogole muzyka elektroniczna lat 80 sa pieklem dla uszu, tak samo ma sie z tym albumem, nie wspominajac juz o meczarniach ulubionego tematu lirycznego muzyki popularnej, ktory staje sie byc moim nowym konikiem ostatnimi czasy, na plejke dodam wspomniany juz its a sin

I really hated the band in the 80s, but now, now I just dislike their music. 1/10

Amazing album!

Too bubble-gum 80’s synth pop for me.

simply maddening shit. every song is two minutes too long - an entire album of fine premises played out until they're sandpaper on my fucking brain. exceptionally same-stitch backing tracks, dull advancements, asinine and boring lyrics - complete flop.

Bloopy 80s cheese. I don't like it.

:(

Awful, I can’t listen to much of that!

Pure pop pish. Really hated this one would give it zero if I could

Not great, just very nothing

Franchement j’ai pas trouvé ça ouf et c’est des anglais donc 1

For the most part I did not enjoy this. I can’t believe how many albums of this sold.

Actually, I just had to listen to culture club and now this generic 80s pop. I don’t understand why this album belongs on this list. Not my thing.

The tame, 80s version of the Bloodhound Gang

Meh. This is album #64 for me. I entered this 1001 challenge, because I hoped it will make me more openminded about genres I don't like. When I listen to the album like this it won't helps. Like, I try to love pop music, but when there's moments I love they're a) won't repeated again b) repeated so much times, that you've hate them. I Want to Wake Up is only one I liked as a completed song. To listen to instead: Zvuki Mu - Transnadezhnost

It being not as bad as Behaviour is the best compliment I can give this one. The instrumentals are all so dated, but not even the good kind of 80’s cheese that showed up in the revivals from the late 2010s-early 2020’s. The vocals don’t do enough to elevate the songs and the melodies aren’t catchy enough to be earworms. This is for someone, but not me.

Love the hits. Rest of the album is boring. True pop band of the 80's.

So my reward for getting two 5s in a row for only the second time in 600 days, is getting two 1s in a row, for only the second time in 602 days. Rough. And it's more 80s synth-pop. Slightly less dreary and miserable than the Associates, but zero desire to sit through it again.

Found rather bland. Did not enjoy

Nothing about this excites my senses

I can see why people enjoy this... just not me. I have a very hard time with 80's pop synth and this is the epitome of it.

Add synth-pop to the list of genres that I immediately know I won't like. It sounds like One More Chance has Cartman's voice in it. The vocalist's voice makes every song sound like a remix of West End Girls. What Have I Done to Deserve This? is another example. Shopping has the worst lyrics of all time. This is terrible...how did these guys get popular? The 80s were a straight disaster for pop music. It's infuriating that Millennials are all "nostalgic for the unremembered 80s" as LCD Soundsystem put it. Rent is a song about a prostitute. It's a Sin is the song that inspired that awful Send Me an Angel song.

Shit pop boys more like

Listens: 1 Stand out tracks: Rent (though not in a good way) Not a fan at all.

Yay more 80s British synth pop......SIKE! Shopping may be the most annoying song I have ever heard. I don't know if it is synth-pop fatigue, but this album really really annoyed me and may have been the cheesiest of the 80s albums so far. I was close to giving this a 1 but I figured it would probably be a 2/3 if it came up about 700 albums ago. Fuck it I had time to sleep on it and it annoyed me that much that I am editing this to a 1

Not really loving this classic 80s bullshit sound to start off. These guys are going SHOPPING! Rent reminds me of Bo Burnham. Not sure how I feel about it. It Couldn’t Happen Here is up for worst song I’ve ever heard. This album has no right existing. I actually was close to giving this a 2 because I enjoyed the beat on Heart, and then I wanted to rip my ears off during King's Cross again.

Blah. Synthesized music that all sounds the same.

If this project has taught me anything, it's that I really dislike the Pet Shop Boys

Boomers will make fun of music made past 2010, but willingly listen to this...

Eighties op z'n slechtst. Niet eens kunnen uitluisteren. It's a Sin klinkt verdacht veel als Soldiers of Love trouwens. En het meezinggehalte van Soldiers of Love is, als we eerlijk zijn, de grootste reden waarom Soldiers of Love zo een fucking goed nummer is. Dit album geef ik een 1, aangezien ik door dit album 3x Soldiers of Love heb beluisterd.

Not for me - crying whiny feeling

This is some lazy-ass shit. Besides being British, this album would sound far less douchey if the vocals weren't sung through each other's nose. I got no patience for this.

We’re in the home stretch now, under 100 albums to go. And one thing I will be very thankful for at the conclusion is to not listen to any more 80s British synth pop.

Based on previous listening to this band, sorry could not park the bias against this group just not my thing

It's a sin to suggest this needs to be listened to at all and my hifi said it couldn't happen here. It was like I was in a nightmare, I thought what have I done to deserve this and shouted I want to wake up I decided to give it one more chance, I paid my rent and caught the train to Kings Cross to head into London to do some shopping but I didn't have the heart to buy some hit music. That's about the best use of the tracks on this album. Sorry, I don't like PSB and won't be listening again

By their second album, the boys had realised that if they just stick with Neil’s Rex Harrison style speak-singing and Chris’s Vince Clarke-alike synth lines, they could milk basically the same tune for the next few decades.

No

terrible

I didn’t like this kind of music in the 80’s, and after listening to this album, I found that I still don’t. I know that there is no accounting for taste, but I am surprised that this one’s on the list. I find a lot of these songs are really similar. Definitely not my thing.

and I was on such a good streak of albums, this one was shit. didn’t like one single song

Dull

This was very monotonous and not enjoyable. There is not very much melody to any of the songs and it sounds like they're just speaking words over the same drum beat for an hour.

Just as bad as the last Pet Shop Boys album I had to endure. I also hate the album art because it makes me feel like I need to yawn.

nope

As one lyric asked, "what have I done to deserve this?" Good lord, this was bad. Inane lyrics over synthetic rhythms drenched in semen. Ok, that last part was irrelevant. Did I mention this was bad?

Not for me

You should 100% listen to Shopping and imagine a spoof with Jimmy Fallon and Questlove haha that made my day. Otherwise I thought it was silly and not worth the listen. It felt like they made this record while they were high and thought this was deep or something. It didn’t even /sound/ good because 80’s Not a fan.

Not available on Apple Music in Canada

This album is indefensible garbage. It might be the worst music ever created. I don't mean the worst recorded music - I mean the worse music EVER in the history of the planet. Worse than a grunting Neanderthal banging an elephant bone against a rock. Utter wank, which is an insult to a wank. Most wanks are quite enjoyable. And don't make you feel crippling sadness afterwards. The whiny, nasally vocals. The embarrassing lyrics. The cheap sounding electronic trash instruments. It's fucking hell on the ears, brain, chest, stomach, and arsehole. Painful. I can't believe I listened to every track (in fairness, I spared my senses by skipping a few after a minute or two). Only an insufferable dork like Anthony Fantano - *the internet's biggest music turd* - could be pompous enough to praise these talentless hacks. 🤡 "We're S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G. We're shopping." 🤡 Oh fuck off, Pet Shop Boys. 👎👎

Extremely "meh" I feel like the album art cover with the dude yawning on the right. Just not at all sucked in to any of the songs. Tolerable background listening, but really not for me.

Not my album, not my music!

As Jake said, I've never really paid much attention to the Pet Shop Boys before. This duo was massive in England, but they never really found their way to my wheelhouse. Despite being born in the decade, 80s music is my least favorite - especially the techno/synth/garbage style. I might be in the minority here, but this blows.

weak

This band never did anything for me

The lyrics grated over an already boring beat though out the whole album really was not a fan of this one

Hated them - or more precisely his voice - since I was 12. Almost as bad as Erasure. Instant no

Pet Shop Boys AGAIN??? "What Have I Done To Deserve This" as well as the guy on the right sum up my feeling perfectly here. 🥱

0 🌟

I was interested in listening to this one because the Pet Shop Boys are a group I've heard talked about a number of times but have never really taken the time to listen to. Unfortunately, this music is not for me at all. It just feels like such shallow, 80s synth pop. The lyrics are pretty ridiculous based on my initial listen (ex. "Shopping"). I listened to the full album to give it a chance but didn't hear any tracks that really spoke to me or stood out. This is just not a genre of music I would ever choose to listen to again and if I was around more in the 80s, this wouldn't have been my go-to music. Standout Tracks: N/A

Absolute shite

I can't stand the Pet Shop Boys

1.5 I find 80s pop to be a really interesting spectrum, and overall very, very hit or miss. On one side you had flashy icons like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and George Michael with catchy, danceable hits, on the other side new wave artists like The Cure, Simple Minds, and Echo & The Bunnymen with broody, outsider anthems, and then somewhere in the middle is this. This album seems to mesh the broodiness of new wave and danceability from mainstream pop here into one proto-electronic package... and it doesn't work for me. I totally get the primary function of some albums is just to provide something to dance to, and I can only imagine how much fun this must have been at 80s clubs, but in many ways I can hear how this inspired modern electronica, and in turn, modern club music, or "Good luck if you're sober" music. Simply put, it just feels abrasive in a very cold and lifeless way. Of course, everyone enjoys music differently, but that isn't for me, and neither is this - This is an 80s album that's gonna fall under the "miss" column.

Not my cup of tea

Has some annoying 80s noises on it. This is kind of boring.

Pet Shop Boys. Not my thing

Makes me want to go shopping

awful

c'est nul

Definitely not me, even if it was background.

Woof I hated this

This was made and sounds exactly like it was made in 1987. Nothing stood out for me other than how strange it was at times.

super 80s

Meni jotenki oudosti ohi, mut en palannut. Tota ihan tarpeeks jo kuultu

no

not my style. at all.

I got through the first song, reminded me of some elements of early NIN. Complete garbage!

I tried to get it, I even gave an earlier (though not memorable) pet shop boys album 3 stars. But after hearing another of their albums, I don’t get it. It’s very simple, very generic 80s techno pop that hasn’t aged well. I don’t really understand why this band is so successful, I guess I have to hear more to get it, which I really don’t want to at this point. Virtually nothing musically interesting on this album

Nee. Niet voor mij.

cazz è sta roba? non mi pento di non averli mai approfonditi prima. Se cantassero in giapponese grandi sigle anime anni '80.

urgh, i despise this. the sound, the style, the sentiment

Sucks

Awful

1, couldn't listen to it.

¿Eres tú, Ross Geller? Defintivamente la musiquita de sintetizadores y la voz que usan de plano no son lo mío. Entiendo que en su momento fueron innovadores con algo de lo que trajeron, pero ni siquiera fueron los primeros. Me siento como el de la portada.

Boring 80s electric pop

Fattigt album där allt utom en låt flyter ihop till en dålig brittisk popsmörja som inte gör ens humör några tjänster. "S H O P P I N G shopping" är inte heller textrader som berör eller underhåller. Hade det inte varit för "Its a sin" som jag gärna hyllar som en bra låt hade repet varit nära.

Sounds like boring 80s music :P

owned it back in the day