Pet Shop Christmas

The latest release scheduled by the Pet Shop Boys is an EP titled ‘Christmas’. It features a remix of the album track ‘All Over the World’, a remix of the fan club only single ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas’, and cover versions of Madness’ “My Girl” and Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’ which segues into ‘Domino Dancing’.

Now most fans have been listening to this release for a couple of weeks now as promo’s have leaked onto the internet. The verdict? Severely disappointing.

The new version of ‘All Over the World’ features an intrusive, badly mixed, annoying and out of tune orchestral arrangement. Some further minor tweaks here and there mount up to an inferior version to that featured on the album ‘Yes’.

The ‘2009 Mix’ of ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow at Christmas’ is similarly awash wish a new orchestral arrangement which features a choir and segues into a couple of carols here and there. Once again the original version is preferable.

The cover version of ‘My Girl’ is actually very good and is the highlight of the EP for me. Yet anyone who visits the official www.petshopboys.co.uk has already heard the demo recording from which this version is derived.

During their current tour Neil and Chris have played a version of ‘Viva La Vida’ which incorporated elements of their song ‘Domino Dancing’. This track became something of a highlight of the tour and its release seems a logical step. However, the version on this EP feels different to that played during the tour. Despite being an admirable effort, this track lacks punch and left me wondering what happened to the bass frequencies. A second version of ‘My Girl’ rounds out the track list but it is largely the same as the original version.

Out Dec 14th 2009

Royksopp Live: Everything is beautiful

Seeing bands live is often an underwhelming experience. What annoys me especially about electronic musicians playing live is their use of acoustic drums or guitars that don’t feature on the recordings. Not so with Norwegian band Royksopp. As the duo walked on stage it was clear that only one cymbal and an inaudible bass guitar would sully an evening of electronic entertainment. And boy did they entertain.

The rather lacklustre intro of “Royksopp Forever” with its unintentionally distorted bass and plodding rhythm was soon banished by “Happy Up Here” (once someone remembered to turn Karin’s microphone on) and a string of high energy tracks built the crowd into the frenzy that was “Poor Leno”. My clothes shook with the bass, my face had a big grin and I remembered how good electronic dance music can make you feel.

Rather than just play the majority of their tracks in their album form they chose to play remixed and altered versions which were, in the main, far superior in the live context. Despite the inaudible bass guitarist (who couldn’t help himself and proceeded to prance around the stage in typical rock n’ roll fashion) they were the personification of cool stood behind their synths and decks with broad smiles that said they were as happy to be there as we were.

My happiness was further enhanced by the fact that Royksopp have by far the most beautiful female fans of any band I have ever been to see.  A beautiful evening indeed.