My 5 least favorite PSB videos

OK, so it's art. Doesn't mean I have to like it. If I wanted to watch rodents scurrying about, I'd watch a nature documentary—except every nature documentary I've ever seen is more interesting than this.

2. Winner

Let me count the ways in which I dislike this video:

The Pet Shop Boys don't bother appearing in it at all—in any way, shape, or form. Not as a brief cameo, not as cartoons, not as digitized images, not as a still photograph held up by one of the characters. (And, no, I don't like it when other artists don't appear in their videos, either.)

I've personally never cared for roller derby. I'm hard-pressed to think of a more thoroughly unattractive, unappealing sport. Foxhunting, perhaps. But at least they dress better when hunting foxes.

Wouldn't a biological male (if transexual, then apparently untransitioned) surreptitiously participating in a female team sport be considered—I don't know—cheating? Is that such a good depiction of "winning"? Of course, if roller derby really is the sham competition that many people think it is (at least at the professional level), "cheating" becomes a moot point. Then again, if it is a sham, then winning itself is moot. Oh, gee, where'd I put my aspirin?

The cardinal sin – It's bad enough when videos feature talking over instrumental portions of the song, but I can live with it. But this video has characters talking over the lead vocal! I can't abide that! And I'm amazed that Chris and Neil can abide it.

And I assure you that my dislike has little if anything to do with the "trangender" central character (who seems, from my perspective, not so much "transgender" as "transvestite" or simply cross-dressing, but I suppose it's a matter of perspective). Actually, that's probably the best thing about the video—its one great redeeming grace, saving it from the distinction of being #1 in this list—even if it may have the unfortunate effect of reaffirming in some less-enlightened minds the false one-to-one equation between transvesticism and homosexuality. And even if I do intensely dislike men shaving their chests, which, to be honest, strikes a sour note with a hirsute cisgender guy like me, the subject matter does nonetheless make for a bold and in many ways quite admirable statement. Too bad it occurs within such an otherwise regrettable video.

3. I Get Along

The Bruce Weber schtick—more or less random videography focusing on beautiful young people who look like they've just stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog—was marvelous more than a decade before for "Being Boring," and still quite nice several years later for "Se A Vida É." But by this time it was starting to get old. Or maybe it's just me—getting old, that is. Regardless, I tend to hit the Skip button on my remote. Besides, the video's storyline (what little of one there is) just seems so pointless.

4. Rent

Love the song, but the video bores me to tears. Sorry.

5. Paninaro

I appreciate the do-it-yourself aesthetic, I really do. But just because Neil and Chris are brilliant songwriters and recording artists doesn't make them brilliant video directors and filmographers. And they know it, too, which is why they made only one video like this. I appreciate that even more.

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