Wednesday, November 10, 2010

dancing with the czars

Red alert, kittens! The video for the new Pet Shop Boys single, "Together", has made its way to the interwebs.

The clip was shot in Estonia, one of the Baltic countries bordering Russia. Geography was one of my favorite subjects at school, by the way.

Let's have a peek.



Color me underwhelmed, petheads. This has a whiff of lazy desperation. I am perplexed by PSB's decision to show nearly four minutes of dancers half their age. Neil and Chris merely make cameos in their own vid. Scandalous!

This is a far cry from their imperial visual work. Let's face facts. It's quite possible their fans will not be showing this clip much love.

I get the "ironic" nature of their presentations, but here they are simply being boring. Very squaresville for Les Boys. Better have a rethink after this one, lads. Keep in mind that this is coming from a longtime PSB devotee.

8 comments:

  1. The editing and the choreography in the second half are atrocious. Or, more to the point, I can't tell anything about the choreography because the editing is so awful.

    I *think* I can get the story. The world is a site of melancholy -- the idealism of the video for "Go West" is gone, as is the futurism of "I Don't Know What You Want..." Nevertheless, there is hope for liberation, represented by the movement of bodies. It's Madonna's "Jump" set someplace bleaker.

    But is that last set-up supposed to be a melding of "female" traditional ethnic dance and "male" parkour/breakdance? If so, it's completely unpersuasive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. First OMD, and now PSB are leaning on a video filled with dancers a fraction of their ages. 'Tis worrying. Now OMD have never had especially compelling videos [I'm a fan but reasonably clear-eyed] but PSB are legendary for making compelling clips that are the high end of sophistication and wit. Hearing that they've finally come up empty handed suggests, as you say, a rethink.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @postpunkmonk - It's a worrying trend for Les Boys. Their last three videos have, quite frankly, stunk.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with you about the video, Vinny. Maybe Parlo are being cheap and/or PSB are getting more self-conscious about their ages. I still love the song though and the extended mix is all sorts of amazing IMHO.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am just glad that the video is just something extra for me. Yes it is not inspiring, cutting edge or really anything that they have done before...but maybe that's the statement, or maybe that's just bollocks... For me it's the song. Definitely a grower, it wasn't immediately amazing for me, but the more I listened the more I began to enjoy it. Anyway when I have a PSB playlist on my iPod or iPhone I don't worry about the videos, but I really enjoy the songs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Echorich - I like the song, as well. It was a bit of a grower. I especially like the chorus.

    With PSB and their long line of brilliant videos, my question is this, "Why make a video at all if it isn't up to par with your body of work?". It's an awful lot of work. Might as well make it count.

    It seems like they wasted money on this lacklustre effort.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's a fact that two of my favorite survival acts of the 80s (PSB and Erasure) have been struggling over the past years. The fact they're still putting new music out is in itself a great thing. Visually speaking they're following the perennial trend of older pop stars who barely appear in their own videos. Appealing to younger audiences is difficult when you're well past the 50s!
    Just remember Cher's "Believe" video or "Sounds of the Universe" DM videos last year...
    So, let's be supportive....the boys will need it because even with additional DVD "Ultimate" barely reached the lower ends of the Top 30 Albums in UK. I don't see a bright future in the Top 20 for "Together" either as the song is already available for download for a couple weeks now...

    ReplyDelete
  8. I`m a fan from the beginning and I must admit, that I really like the new video, it`s imho one of the best they did in the last years.

    Actually they already got me with the cat and the dogs in the opening ;)

    But seriously, the video for me is very moody and stylish and many many years before they already did videos like "Domino Dancing" with younger actors, so that`s not a 2010 thing and I don`t think they did it only to please younger audiences.

    Also (and this is most important for me) there are many connections to older songs and videos in the new promo, what fits absolutely perfect for a new single of a best of collection.

    We should be honest, most people expected (or feared) a video like "Did you see me coming", this video is a big surprise to me.

    ReplyDelete