Sunday, October 16, 2016

Pet Shop Boys - A Man From the Future - 2014

While looking for new and interesting material for the blog, I happened upon these PSB tracks that I never knew existed.  Wow.  Who the hell is Alan Turing?  Well, the Guardian had an article about it, here.  An interesting story, but lacking in any sort of traditional PSB trappings.  Yes, you have Neil's nasally, whiny vocals (don't get me wrong, I like them) but as the article said, not enough Chris.  And the narrator was boring as well.

BUT, it is some more PSB.  I'd almost like to see a studio version of this album with just Neil and Chris, and nix the orchestra and the narration.  Then, it would be so much better.  Either way, though, it really shows how the Boys (especially Neil) have always tried to broaden their abilities beyond the synthpop genre that they usually do their work.  It gives them a sense of depth, intelligence and maturity.

As for the track listing, I'm not sure exactly how many tracks there are supposed to be, as I found to different sets, with different numbering.  I'm not sure yet if whoever posted this "Prom" cut it into tracks at different moments, and more parts, or if there's portions missing, or whatever.  To be honest, I haven't listened to the whole thing all the way through in one sitting yet, so I'm not sure about it.

Regardless, it's another fine example of PSB work that you can confidently place right between Electric and Super.  Who knows, you may love it more than I did.  And I have no problems including it in my PSB collection.....

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8 comments:

  1. Flying Spaghetti MonsterOctober 16, 2016 at 7:10 PM

    Alan Turing pretty much invented the modern computer & was pretty much responsible for the Allies defeating the Nazis. Oh, and they persecuted him for being gay & drove him to suicide. A big name Hollywood movie was made about it 2 years ago: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=nv_sr_1

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  2. angstytimelordOctober 16, 2016 at 7:21 PM

    FSM is right -- without Turning, Hitler very well could have won WWII and we would be living in a very different world than we are now.

    The film that was made about Turing is called "The Imitation Game," and Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for it, though sadly, he didn't win. He should have, though -- the performance that DID win, Eddie Redmayne in "The Theory of Everything," a film about the life of Stephen Hawking, was a by-the-numbers exact replica of Cumberbatch's performance in another film, a tv movie titled "Hawking," back in 2005.

    I'm not a huge Cumberbatch fan, but it irked the bejeezus out of me that someone who basically just COPIED a performance he had already given nearly ten years before won the Oscar that BC deserved. "The Imitation Game" is an incredible film, he's brilliant in it, and I think it's one that everybody should see. (As is "Hawking," though sadly, it's not available in Region 1 dvd yet.)

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  3. Flying Spaghetti MonsterOctober 16, 2016 at 7:45 PM

    Love the cover art, by the way.

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  4. UnknownOctober 16, 2016 at 8:29 PM

    Wow. I was completely ignorant of the guy. You learn something new every day...

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  5. asdasdasOctober 17, 2016 at 5:42 AM

    The Turing test (to test a computer's intelligence) was also named after Alan Turing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

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  6. DiscDogOctober 19, 2016 at 5:22 PM

    Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Can't say that this would make it into heavy rotation on my playlist, but anything PSB related is worth a few listens.

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  7. DiscDogOctober 19, 2016 at 5:23 PM

    Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Can't say that this would make it into heavy rotation on my playlist, but anything PSB related is worth a few listens.

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  8. blureuOctober 20, 2016 at 12:59 PM

    Cool, Thanks. Going to see them live next month. North American tour starts tomorrow.

    http://petshopboys.co.uk/tour

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