| Introspective | |
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3th studio album release date: 10th October 1988 chart: UK/DE/CH #2, SE #5, NL #11 studio: Advision (London), Sarm West (London) length: 48:03 label: Parlophone producer: Trevor Horn, David Jacob, Stephen Lipson, Lewis A. Martineé, Julian Mendelsohn, Pet Shop Boys Introspective, the third Pet Shop Boys studio album, was released in October 1988. The Pet Shop Boys had a particular concept in mind from the start. At the time, it was usual to record songs which were the length of a pop single, three or four minutes, and then to expand them subsequently, either by yourself or by commissioning someone else, into longer, more elaborate and complex dance versions. (This was in the days when dance remixes typically expanded on the original song, instead of merely using it as the reference point and source material for rhythmic reinterpretations far removed from the original.) The Pet Shop Boys decided to turn this process back to front. They would map out these new songs as seven or eight minutes long, and then later edit them down to singles. "It was quite exciting to plan the songs as long," says Neil, "because we had been so disciplined at making four-minute pop singles, with the exception of "It's a sin", which is five minutes. The idea also was to have an album where every track was a single. And in fact five out of the six of them were, because 'I'm not scared' was a single for Patsy Kensit, or rather for her group Eighth Wonder. 'I want a dog' is the exception to the rule because it was someone else's remix of a shorter song we had already recorded; we put it on because Frankie Knuckles had done such a fantastic remix. 'Always on my mind' was also an exception to the strict rule, but it hadn't been on an album." The Pet Shop Boys had begun making the album in their heads at the beginning of 1988, and notionally the first song they thought of for it, and the first they recorded, was a new version of a song they had recorded with Bobby 'O' years earlier, 'I get excited (You get excited too)', but then they needed a b-side for the 'Heart' single in March 1988 and used 'I get excited...' for that. Over the next few months they recorded the songs which would appear on Introspective. Two were produced by Trevor Horn, one with producer Lewis Martinée in Miami, and one by themselves and David Jacob. "I think this is our imperial album," Neil reflects. "The one where we felt, making it, that we understood the essence of pop music and so we felt we could do what we liked. And this was what we wanted to do. It's our best-selling album overall." The title came quite late in the day. "Originally the album was going to be called Bounce," says Neil, "which was some reference to people saying we had bouncy basslines. We'd also written a song called 'Bounce' that we've never recorded properly. Finally we decided to call it Introspective because we felt all the songs were quite introspective, and also the word 'introspective' sounded a bit ravey." The sleeve was designer Mark Farrow's idea. "He had some book explaining how colours go together," says Neil. "There were pages and pages of stripes. That was probably the first sleeve we designed thinking of it as a CD rather than as a record sleeve." "Didn't Tom Watkins think that whenever people saw the testcard they'd think, 'Oh, I must go out and buy that Introspective album?'" remembers Chris. "Our biggest-selling album has not got a picture of us on the cover. That's interesting, don't you think? I think we actually put people off our records." They were pictured on the inner sleeve and in the CD booklet, photographed in yellow t-shirts dyed to match a yellow background ("no expense spared," Chris notes) and they were shot with Booblies, a friend's Yorkshire terrier. Around this time, Booblies also appeared with them on Going Live, the Saturday morning children's TV show, where he attacked the puppet character, Gordon the Gopher. This new version of Introspective does correct one error. The original sleeve states that the total length of the album's songs is 50.03; in fact it is 48.03. "I added the times up wrongly," Neil confesses. "Neil didn't realise there were sixty seconds in a minute," Chris notes. Neil nods. "I forgot that," he agrees. |
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LP: 1988 UK (Parlophone; PCS 7325) 3x12": 1989 UK (Parl.;PLSX7325)[clear vinylx10] 3x12": 1989 UK (Parl.;PCSX7325)[large lbls] CS: 1988 UK (Parlophone;TCPCSO 790868)[promo] CS: 1988 UK (Parlophone;TCPS 7325) CD: 1988 UK (Parlophone;CDPCS 7325) CD: 1988 UK (Parlophone;CDP 790868-2) CD: 1988 DE (Parlophone;CDP 790868-2) LP: 1988 DE (EMI;60 115-3)["Club Edition"] CD: 1988 DE (EMI;18 971-2)["Club Edition"] LP: 1988 DE (EMI;790868-1)[test pressing] LP: 1988 DE (EMI;F 670 335) [for DDR] LP: 1988 EG (Amiga;670 335)[blue coverx10] LP: 1988 IT (EMI;790868-1) CD: 1988 IT (EMI;790868-2) CS: 1988 IT (EMI;790868-4) LP: 1988 ES (Parlophone;072-7908681) LP: 1988 ES (Parlophone;080-7908681) CS: 1988 ES (EMI;272-790868-4)[diff.strips] LP: 1988 US (EMI-Manhattan;E1-90868) CS: 1988 US (EMI-Manhattan;E4-90868) [promo] CS: 1988 US (EMI-Manhattan;E4-90868) CD: 1988 US (EMI-Manh.;E2-90868-2)[longbox] CD: 1988 US (EMI-Manhattan;CDP 790868-2) CD: 1998 US (Capitol-EMI;72438198312 6)[12/5] CS: 1988 US (??;??)[promo;vinyl case w/bio] CS: 1988 US (EMI;??)[promo; TDK cassette] LP: 1988 MX (EMI;SLEM-1571) [Spanish titles] LP: 1988 JP (EMI;RP25-5670)[lyr.and comments] CS: 1988 JP (EMI;ZP25-5670)[lyric sheet] CD: 1988 JP (EMI;CP25-5670) CD: 1995 JP (EMI/Toshiba; TOCP-3020)[31.5.95] LP: 1988 FR (EMI;790868-1) CS: 1988 FR (EMI:464/7908684) LP: 1988 ZA (EMI;EMICJ(D) 7908681) CS: 1988 ZA (EMI;L4 EMICJ(N) 7908681) LP: 1988 GR (EMI;062-790868-1) LP: 199? RU (SBA Records;0294 03) LP: 1988 HU (Gong;SPLXL 37220)[Hungarian] LP: 1988 HK (Parlophone;PCS 7325)[stickered] LP: 1988 NL (Parlophone;064-790868-1) CS: 1988 NL (Parlophone;790868-4) CD: 1988 NL (Parlophone;CDP 790868-2) LP: 1988 AR (EMI;10059)[promo;"Introspectivo"] CS: 1988 AR (EMI/EMSSA;20059)["Introspectivo"] CS: 1992 AR (EMI;66312)[reissue] LP: 1988 CO (EMI;111197)[also in red vinyl] CS: 1988 CO (EMI;??)[colombian cassette tape] LP: 1988 VE (EMI;25157) [Venezuela] CS: 19?? HU (Gong; MKL37220)[diff. stripes] CS: 1988 MY (EMI;TCPS 7325)[free badge] CS: 1988 IN (??;??)[India] CS: 1988 ID (??;E0229-8)[Indonesia] CS: 1988 SG (EMI;TCPCS 7325)[different style] CS: 1988 ?? (??;??)[arabian issue] CS: 1988 TK (EMI;??)[turkish issue] LP: 1988 YU (EMI;LSPAR 78065) CS: 1988 YU (EMI;CAPAR 9387) CS: 1988 CL (EMI;105542) [Chile] CS: 1988 TW (EMI;PCS 7325/RE 2177)[diff.cover] LP: 1988 BR (Parlophone; 066 790868 1) LP: 1988 SK (Parlophone; EKPL-002) LP: 1988 EC (EMI; 303-0163) |
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