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Past PSB Survey Results - 2017 Surveys

This page presents the results of surveys I've conducted in the year 2017. The results of surveys conducted in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 , 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020 appear on separate pages.

The response in each survey that received the most votes is highlighted in bold red. I usually list the responses in descending order according to the number of votes, but in a few cases I've decided that the results may be clearer or more meaningful if I list them in some other order. Incidentally, I do vote in my own surveys—and, yes, I vote only once. More often than not, what I vote for doesn't come in first place. In the results below, the symbol ¤ appears after the item(s) that I voted for in each survey.

Survey 838 - Week of December 31, 2017
The "PSB highlight" of 2017 (378 voters)

What, in your opinion, has been the "PSB highlight" of 2017?

49.7% - The reissues of Nightlife, Release, Fundamental, Yes, and Elysium with Further Listening bonus discs ¤
16.9% - The April 2 show at Royal Albert Hall with Johnny Marr and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
14.3% - Pet Shop Boys receiving the NME Godlike Genius Award
14.3% - The continuation of the Super Tour and/or any particular Super Tour show(s)
02.6% - The release of the 2017 Annually book
01.3% - Something else not listed here*
00.8% - The release of the "Undertow" single with bonus tracks

*Among the "something else" items noted by voters:

"Weirdness of the website and all the countless interviews…. My interest was the interest in my remix versions.…"

"Listening to 'Ring Road' for the first time.…"

Survey 837 - Week of December 24, 2017
Song from the Beatles' 1 to cover? (284 voters)

Please consider the songs from the popular Beatles hits compilation album 1. Assuming the Pet Shop Boys were going to record a remake of one of them, which one would you most like for them to cover?

Please note that, because voters could make more than one choice, the percentages total to considerably more than 100%.

17.6% - Eleanor Rigby
10.9% - The Long and Winding Road
08.8% - Penny Lane
06.0% - We Can Work It Out
05.6% - Paperback Writer
05.6% - Lady Madonna ¤*
05.3% - Hello, Goodbye
04.9% - All You Need Is Love
04.2% - Come Together
03.2% - Yesterday
03.2% - Hey Jude
02.8% - I Want to Hold Your Hand
02.8% - Let It Be
02.8% - Something
02.5% - A Hard Day's Night
02.1% - Help!
01.8% - Ticket to Ride
01.4% - Can't Buy Me Love
01.4% - Day Tripper
01.4% - Yellow Submarine
01.4% - The Ballad of John and Yoko
01.1% - From Me to You
01.1% - Eight Days a Week
01.1% - Get Back
00.7% - She Loves You
00.4% - I Feel Fine
00.0% - Love Me Do

*You might wonder why I didn't pick "Penny Lane" despite the fact that, as I've noted elsewhere on this site, it's my all-time favorite Beatles song. It's simple—it's largely because it's my all-time favorite Beatles song that I'd prefer PSB not to cover it. But I can definitely "hear" a fully synthesized, high-energy PSB rendition of "Lady Madonna"; I think it could turn out terrific. Besides, I'd love to see the sort of music video they might create for it: perhaps a tribute to and/or parody of Ms. Ciccone herself.

Survey 836 - Week of December 17, 2017
The most "dated" PSB music videos (256 voters)

Which of the Pet Shop Boys' music videos are, in your opinion, the most "dated," or which ones have "aged" most badly? (Please choose up to three. You may choose fewer than three if you wish, but no more than that.)

Please note that, because voters could make more than one choice, the percentages total to considerably more than 100%.

31.3% - Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) - Version 2 ¤
22.3% - Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) - Version 1
19.9% - Paninaro ¤*
14.1% - "I honestly don't think any of them have become 'dated' or have 'aged' in the least!"
11.3% - Liberation
09.0% - Left to My Own Devices
07.0% - Go West
07.0% - Absolutely Fabulous
06.6% - Yesterday, When I Was Mad
06.3% - I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing
06.3% - Heart
05.9% - Always on My Mind
05.5% - Love Comes Quickly
05.5% - DJ Culture
04.7% - West End Girls
04.3% - New York City Boy
03.9% - Suburbia
03.9% - How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?
03.9% - Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)
03.9% - Was It Worth It?
03.5% - Paninaro '95
03.5% - Before
03.5% - London
03.1% - Domino Dancing
03.1% - So Hard
03.1% - Can You Forgive Her?
03.1% - Home and Dry
02.7% - It's a Sin
02.7% - Jealousy
02.7% - A Red Letter Day
02.3% - Rent
02.0% - I'm with Stupid
02.0% - Flamboyant
02.0% - Thursday
01.6% - Se A Vida E (That's the Way Life Is)
01.6% - I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More
01.6% - Did You See Me Coming?
01.2% - What Have I Done to Deserve This?
01.2% - Single-Bilingual
01.2% - It's Alright
01.2% - Somewhere
01.2% - Minimal
00.8% - Being Boring
00.8% - You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk
00.8% - Numb
00.8% - Together
00.8% - Winner
00.8% - Vocal
00.4% - I Get Along
00.4% - Integral
00.4% - Love etc.
00.4% - Leaving
00.4% - Twenty-something
00.0% - Miracles
00.0% - All Over the World
00.0% - Invisible
00.0% - Axis

*Regarding my own votes – In my opinion, only two PSB videos have truly become "dated" or have "aged badly": "Paninaro" and the second video for "Opportunities."

Survey 835 - Week of December 10, 2017
The Rating Project: Recently released songs (203 voters)

Please rate each of the previously "unrated" songs on the bonus "Further Listening" discs accompanying the recent reissues of the Pet Shop Boys albums Yes and Elysium on a scale of 0 to 10 as they compare with other PSB songs (0 = "one of the worst PSB songs ever"; 5 = "an average PSB song"; 10 = "one of the very best PSB songs ever").

Track (Listed from Highest Average Rating to Lowest)	Average Rating	% of voters rating 10	% of voters rating 0	Most frequent rating	Wayne's Rating ¤
In Slow Motion	6.688	13.9%	0.6%	5	5
She Pops	5.399	5.2%	2.9%	6	4
Wings and Faith	4.132	1.3%	2.5%	5	2
The Dumpling Song	3.018	1.8%	13.3%	1	1

To see where these tracks fall in relation to other songs in the PSB catalog, please visit the overall "Rating Project" page.

Survey 834 - Week of December 3, 2017
Is that Chris spelling "Happiness" the second time? (233 voters)

One of my site visitors notes that during the opening seconds of the Pet Shop Boys song "Happiness," Neil is of course the one who first spells out "H-A-P-P-I-N-E-S-S" – but he believes that immediately afterward, it's Chriswho spells it out the second time. I've never read anything about this anywhere else, either within or outside the PSB camp. So I'm wondering what you think. Do you believe it's Chris who spells out "happiness" the second time during the opening moments of the song?

53.2% - No, I don't think it's Chris. I believe it's still Neil, though perhaps "digitally altered."
18.5% - Yes, I do believe it's Chris who spells out "happiness" the second time!
18.0% - Despite my familiarity with the song, I'm undecided—I'm just not very sure about it one way or the other. ¤
10.3% - I'm not familiar enough with the song to have an opinion about this.

And now for the truth of the matter: as it turns out, the majority of voters are correct. Mid-way through this poll, I received an email from my very reliable contact within the PSB organization, who revealed that Chris's voice is not heard in "Happiness." It's definitely still Neil spelling out the title the second time—and every time—in the song. It's just some studio/digital processing that's making his voice sound different in certain instances, and that includes the second "H-A-P-P-I-N-E-S-S" that was the subject of this survey.

Survey 833 - Week of November 26, 2017
"Unperformed" songs you'd most like to hear live - Final Run-off (327 voters)

The following 16 songs were the top vote-getters in my previous three polls, in which I asked my site visitors to choose, from among the Pet Shop Boys songs that they have never performed live in concert during the period 1985–2007 (in three batches), the ones that they would most like them to perform live at some point in the not-too-distant future. So now I'm asking you to consider them one last time, only now to narrow them down to the "Top 3." What are the three songs from this group that you most want to hear PSB perform live in concert? (You may choose fewer than three if you wish, but no more than that.)

Note: There were 16 songs in this poll rather than just 15 because there had been a tie for fifth place in one of the three preceding surveys. Also, because voters this time could choose up to three songs, the percentages total to more than 100%—closer to 300%.

28.7% - I Want to Wake Up
24.5% - The Resurrectionist ¤
23.9% - Miserablism
23.2% - The End of the World
21.7% - It Always Comes as a Surprise ¤
20.5% - I Want a Dog
19.9% - Radiophonic
19.6% - Delusions of Grandeur
18.3% - Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend
18.0% - A Different Point of View
17.1% - I Didn't Get Where I Am Today ¤*
15.3% - Up Against It
12.2% - The Samurai in Autumn
11.3% - Always
08.9% - Hit and Miss
08.9% - Somebody Else's Business

*Regarding my own votes – This was an unusually difficult choice for me, as I suspect it was for many if not most voters. I found it quite challenging to narrow my choices down to just three. If I could have made five choices, it would have been much easier. My additional two would have been "The End of the World" and "Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend," which were edged out by my final three choices by the narrowest of margins. Of course, I have only myself to blame; I made the rules, after all.

Survey 832 - Week of November 19, 2017
"Unperformed" songs you'd most like to hear live - Part 3 (343 voters)

The following are all songs that the Pet Shop Boys released during the period 2002–2007 but which, as far as I know, they have never performed live in concert. Which five would you most like to hear them perform live, perhaps during their next concert tour? (You may choose fewer than five if you wish, but no more than that.)

Note: Because voters could choose up to five songs, the percentages total to considerably more than 100%—closer to 500%.

46.9% - The Resurrectionist ¤
40.5% - I Didn't Get Where I Am Today ¤
34.1% - Somebody Else's Business ¤
33.8% - Always
31.2% - The Samurai in Autumn
30.6% - Bright Young Things
28.0% - I Made My Excuses and Left ¤
21.6% - Twentieth Century
21.3% - Between Two Islands
17.2% - If Looks Could Kill
16.9% - She's Madonna
14.3% - Time on My Hands
12.8% - E-mail
12.5% - Nightlife
12.0% - A Powerful Friend ¤
10.8% - Blue on Blue
09.3% - Transparent
08.2% - I Cried for Us
07.3% - Girls Don't Cry
07.3% - Party Song
07.3% - Alone Again, Naturally
06.1% - Searching for the Face of Jesus
01.7% - Transfer

Note: I had originally included "Fugitive" among the choices in the poll, but I was quickly reminded by several voters that it has indeed been performed by the Pet Shop Boys in concert and therefore didn't really qualify for inclusion. So I removed it from the choices roughly 8 hours after the poll had started. Nevertheless, during that 8 hours it had become the #1 choice among voters. Of course, after I removed it from among the options, its "ranking" quickly fell. I offered the voters who had selected it the opportunity to "re-vote" by telling me which alternate song they would like to switch their "Fugitive" vote to. Only one voter, however, took me up on this offer. As a result, "Fugitive" wound up with a final percentage of 12.5%—a higher percentage than several songs that remained among the choices throughout—despite its having been an option for only about 8 hours.

Survey 831 - Week of November 12, 2017
"Unperformed" songs you'd most like to hear live - Part 2 (355 voters)

The following are all songs that the Pet Shop Boys released during the period 1996-2001 (with the exception of two earlier selections [marked with an asterisk * below] that I had accidentally omitted from the previous week's poll) but which, as far as I know, they have never performed live in concert. Which five would you most like to hear them perform live, perhaps during their next concert tour? (You may choose fewer than five if you wish, but no more than that.)

Note: Because voters could choose up to five songs, the percentages total to considerably more than 100%—closer to 500%.

42.5% - It Always Comes as a Surprise ¤
38.6% - Up Against It
36.1% - Radiophonic ¤
34.4% - Delusions of Grandeur ¤
30.7% - Hit and Miss
28.5% - Single ¤
24.2% - Don Juan*
23.1% - The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On ¤
17.7% - Metamorphosis
17.5% - Decadence*
16.3% - Saturday Night Forever
16.1% - In Denial
14.9% - Break 4 Love
12.1% - How I Learned to Hate Rock 'n' Roll
11.5% - Lies
09.0% - The View from Your Balcony
08.7% - Electricity
08.7% - The Ghost of Myself
07.9% - Confidential
07.9% - Boy Strange
07.6% - The Only One
07.3% - Betrayed
07.0% - The Calm Before the Storm
05.6% - Sail Away
05.1% - Falling
03.7% - Scremaing
03.3% - Silver Age
02.8% - Je T'Aime… Moi Non Plus

Survey 830 - Week of November 5, 2017
"Unperformed" songs you'd most like to hear live - Part 1 (482 voters)

The following are all songs that the Pet Shop Boys recorded and released during their first decade of success (up through 1995) but which, as far as I know, they have never performed live in concert.* Which five would you most like to hear them perform live, perhaps during their next concert tour? (You may choose fewer than five if you wish, but no more than that.)

Note: Because voters could choose up to five songs, the percentages total to considerably more than 100%—closer to 500%. Six songs rather than five are highlighted below as the "winners" because there was a tie for fifth place.

40.0% - I Want to Wake Up
38.8% - Miserablism
35.9% - The End of the World ¤
30.1% - Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend ¤
27.6% - I Want a Dog
27.6% - A Different Point of View
26.3% - Too Many People ¤
23.0% - One Thing Leads to Another ¤
22.2% - That's My Impression
20.5% - Forever in Love
20.1% - It Must Be Obvious
19.3% - A New Life
18.9% - A Man Could Get Arrested
18.0% - Hey, Headmaster
16.8% - You Know Where You Went Wrong
14.5% - Was That What It Was?
13.3% - Hit Music
12.7% - Jack the Lad
12.2% - One and One Make Five ¤
09.3% - One of the Crowd
06.4% - Postscript
05.8% - KDX 125
03.3% - My Head Is Spinning
03.3% - We Came from Outer Space
03.1% - What Keeps Mankind Alive?
01.7% - If Love Were All

*I realized after I had started this poll and there had already been a large number of voters that I had overlooked two songs that qualified for inclusion under the criteria of this survey: "Decadence" and "Don Juan." I will therefore include those two among the choices in a follow-up poll that asks the same question about a later group of songs.

Survey 829 - Week of October 29, 2017
Favorite synthpop duos other than PSB (435 voters)

Aside from the Pet Shop Boys, who are your favorite synthpop duos? (Select all that apply.)

51.7% - Erasure ¤*
45.7% - OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)
35.4% - Tears for Fears ¤
33.8% - Eurythmics
31.7% - Yaz / Yazoo
30.3% - The K.L.F.
26.2% - Soft Cell
24.6% - Röyksopp
19.5% - Air
19.1% - Goldfrapp
17.7% - Sparks
15.9% - Wham! ¤
15.9% - Yello
15.4% - Everything But the Girl
15.2% - Communards
13.6% - Hurts
10.8% - The Other Two
10.6% - "Some other synthpop duo(s) not listed here"
10.3% - Blancmange
09.7% - La Roux
06.4% - The Knife
05.1% - The Buggles
04.8% - Suicide
04.6% - Justice
03.0% - Crystal Castles
02.5% - Naked Eyes
02.3% - Sleaford Mods
01.6% - Purity Ring
01.4% - Daft Punk ("write-in" votes)
01.4% - Electronic ("write-in" votes)
01.2% - Modern Talking ("write-in" votes)
01.2% - The Sound of Arrows ("write-in" votes)
00.9% - The Beloved ("write-in" votes)
00.7% - Chemical Brothers ("write-in" votes)
00.7% - EC80R
00.7% - Orbital ("write-in" votes)
00.7% - 2raumwohnung ("write-in" votes)
00.5% - Cobra Killer
00.5% - Inner City ("write-in" votes)
00.5% - Kap Bambino
00.5% - Leftfield ("write-in" votes)
00.5% - Marsheaux ("write-in" votes)
00.5% - Quarks ("write-in" votes)
00.5% - Shizuo
00.5% - Underworld ("write-in" votes)
00.5% - Zombie Zombie

The following duos each received one "write-in" vote (0.2%):

Act

Banderas

Empathy Test

Flight Facilities

Foretaste

Man 2 Man

One 2 One

Orlando

Parralox

Spray

Thieves

Wolke

*Regarding my own favorites, please don't think that just because I don't designate someone as one of my "favorites," it means I dislike them. On the contrary, I like quite a few of these artists, such as Eurythmics; I just don't count them among my favorites. My inclusion of Wham! among my favorites is by virtue of my great fondness for George Michael. If I were judging solely on the basis of Wham! as a duo, however, I'm not so sure I would indeed grant them "favorite" status. Then again, I do have most of studio albums—even if does boil down to just two out of three—so maybe so.

In addition to the artists listed above, several others were mentioned in the "Comments," but what the writers said about them didn't seem to indicate that they were among their "favorites":

AlunaGeorge

Cassius

Chase & Status

The Count & Sinden

The Devils

Disclosure

Fujiya & Miyagi

Gorgon City

Motorbass

Reese Project

2 Bears

VCMG

Survey 828 - Week of October 22, 2017
Favorite PSB song titled "I Want…" (436 voters)

Which Tennant-Lowe song whose title begins with the words "I Want" is your favorite?*

39.9% - I Want to Wake Up
28.7% - I Want a Dog
23.6% - I Want a Lover
07.8% - I Want You Now ¤

*This perhaps curious question was inspired by my recollection of a comment from quite some time ago by a record reviewer who attached special significance to the fact that the first three studio albums by the Pet Shop Boys—Please, Actually, and Introspective—as well as the album that they then produced for Liza Minnelli, Results, each includes a track written by them with a title that begins with the words "I Want." He seemed to think it suggested something about their being selfish and acquisitive, or some such nonsense. That memory made me want to ask this question. Silly question though it may have been,my site visitors seemed to like it.

Survey 827 - Week of October 15, 2017
Video impact on single appreciation - Part 2 of 2 (220 voters)

For each of the following Pet Shop Boys singles, would you say that its music video enhances (+) your enjoyment and/or appreciation of the song, detracts (–) from it, or has no significant effect (=) one way or the other?

Note: Songs/videos are listed in descending order based on the "Enhances" figures, in case of a tie, then the one with the lower "Detracts" figure is listed first. The percentages for the videos don't total to 100% on account of abstentions. The highest figure for any given song/video appears in bold red text. The highest figure for any given category appears with a pale red background.

Enhances

Detracts

No Effect

I Don't Know What You Want But…

¤ 77.7%

5.0%

14.5%

Flamboyant

¤ 67.3%

3.6%

24.1%

Love etc.

¤ 67.3%

12.7%

18.2%

Se A Vida É (That's the Way Life Is)

¤ 66.8%

7.7%

20.5%

Single-Bilingual

¤ 62.3%

6.8%

25.0%

Axis

¤ 60.5%

4.5%

30.5%

I'm with Stupid

59.1%

¤ 16.4%

21.8%

Miracles

55.0%

5.9%

¤ 33.6%

New York City Boy

¤ 49.5%

13.6%

32.7%

Twenty-something

43.6%

¤ 21.4%

32.7%

You Only Tell Me You Love Me…

¤ 42.3%

7.7%

45.5%

Minimal

¤ 39.5%

12.3%

43.6%

Invisible

39.7%

16.9%

¤ 36.1%

Together

¤ 37.7%

18.2%

37.3%

Vocal

35.9%

19.1%

¤ 40.0%

Thursday

35.5%

17.7%

¤ 44.5%

London

¤ 35.0%

22.3%

36.8%

Integral

34.1%

16.8%

¤ 42.7%

A Red Letter Day

¤ 30.0%

26.4%

37.3%

Numb

27.3%

18.2%

¤ 47.7%

Before

21.8%

18.6%

¤ 52.7%

Somewhere

20.5%

22.7%

¤ 51.8%

I Get Along

20.0%

21.8%

¤ 53.2%

Leaving

18.2%

18.2%

¤ 56.4%

Winner

16.8%

45.0%

¤ 33.6%

All Over the World

15.5%

18.2%

¤ 56.8%

Did You See Me Coming?

¤ 14.5%

23.6%

54.5%

Home and Dry

13.6%

¤ 60.9%

22.7%

Survey 826 - Week of October 8, 2017
Video impact on single appreciation - Part 1 of 2 (242 voters)

Enhances

Detracts

No Effect

Can You Forgive Her?

76.0%

3.3%

¤ 18.2%

West End Girls

¤ 75.2%

0.8%

23.6%

Go West

¤ 75.2%

8.3%

16.1%

Being Boring

74.8%

5.4%

¤ 18.6%

Domino Dancing

¤ 70.7%

6.6%

21.5%

What Have I Done to Deserve This?

¤ 70.2%

5.8%

21.9%

It's a Sin

¤ 69.8%

4.1%

24.8%

Heart

¤ 69.0%

11.6%

17.8%

Suburbia

¤ 67.4%

3.3%

26.4%

I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing

¤ 63.6%

14.0%

20.2%

DJ Culture

¤ 56.6%

5.8%

34.3%

So Hard

¤ 56.6%

7.4%

33.5%

Jealousy

¤ 51.7%

13.6%

31.4%

Yesterday, When I Was Mad

¤ 50.8%

20.7%

26.9%

Liberation

¤ 50.4%

16.5%

31.4%

How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?

¤ 47.5%

14.0%

36.4%

Absolutely Fabulous

¤ 47.5%

17.8%

31.0%

Rent

46.3%

13.2%

¤ 37.2%

Opportunities (Version 2)

40.1%

¤ 16.1%

38.4%

Always on My Mind

38.4%

¤ 23.1%

37.2%

It's Alright

37.6%

19.4%

¤ 41.7%

Where the Streets Have No Name…

37.6%

19.8%

¤ 39.7%

Was It Worth It?

¤ 35.5%

15.3%

44.2%

Paninaro '95

¤ 34.7%

22.3%

38.8%

Opportunities (Version 1)

34.3%

16.5%

¤ 45.0%

Left to My Own Devices

26.0%

¤ 32.6%

38.8%

Love Comes Quickly

23.6%

14.9%

¤ 56.2%

Survey 825 - Week of October 1, 2017
Would you "invest in PSB"? (260 voters)

Would you be willing to "invest in PSB" if they were to offer shares or bonds for sale in their past and/or future catalog? Which of the following statements comes closest to expressing how you feel about this?

43.1% - "No, even if I could afford it." ¤*
16.5% - "Maybe, but it all depends on the terms and conditions. Like any investment, I would have to do my 'due diligence' research first (such as by reading the prospectus)."
12.7% - "I might make a very small investment (if a very small one were permitted), but I certainly wouldn't invest very much."
10.0% - "I probably couldn't afford it—but if I could, I probably would 'invest in PSB.'"
09.6% - "Yes, I probably would, assuming I could afford it (and I suspect I could)."
05.8% - "Yes, I would definitely invest as much as I could!"
02.3% - "I have a very different opinion from any of those expressed above."**

*If you're surprised by my own vote that I wouldn't 'invest in PSB' even if I could afford it, it's actually pretty simple: I would consider doing so a conflict of interest. If I were to invest in them, I would feel obliged to put an end to this website. If I were financially bound, so to speak, to the Pet Shop Boys, then the opinions I express here would immediately become suspect as to their objectivity and validity. To what extent would the potential of profiting financially from sales of "PSB product" influence what I write (or don't write) here? Even if I could maintain my own objectivity, how could could I prove it to others. No, I enjoy maintaining this website too much to give it up out of financial motivations. There are lots of other things in which I can invest.

**Several voters stated, as their alternate viewpoint, that they would simply prefer that the Pet Shop Boys never do this sort of thing. Actually, I agree; I hope they never do, too. But given the premise of the question—what I would do if they were to do such a thing—I went ahead and made the choice that I note above. Another voter noted that people already "invest in PSB" in a manner of speaking simply by buying their music. Again, I agree, although this question specifically deals with a very different and far less metaphorical form of "investment."

Survey 824 - Week of September 24, 2017
How often do you hear PSB on the radio? (334 voters)

About how often, on the average, do you hear any Pet Shop Boys songs on the radio these days (meaning, over the course of the past year or so)?

35.9% - "I never (or hardly ever) listen to the radio"
21.3% - "Maybe once every few months"
14.7% - "No more than once or twice a month"
12.0% - "Once a week or so"
09.3% - "Several times a week" ¤*
05.7% - "Never, or at least hardly ever, despite listening to the radio quite often"
01.2% - "Every single day, or close to it!"

*Regarding my own vote – Before I started subscribing to satellite radio (Sirius/XM) about six years ago, I would have fallen squarely in the "Maybe once every few months" camp. That's how rarely PSB music is played on U.S. terrestrial radio nowadays, at least where I live. But I've found a couple satellite stations that play PSB songs regularly, most notably the Sirius/XM station "1st Wave," which focuses on "classic alternative" music from the late 1970s to around 1990. They play the Boys routinely, though only (with very rare exceptions) their hit singles from the eighties.

Survey 823 - Week of September 17, 2017
Favorite multi-video PSB singles music video director (367 voters)

Based on how much you like and/or appreciate the music videos they've directed, who is your favorite director from among those who have directed two or more of the music videos for the Pet Shop Boys' singles? To put it another way, who, in your opinion, has done the finest job of directing multiple videos for PSB singles?

35.7% - Howard Greenhalgh ¤
Can You Forgive Her?; Go West; I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing; Liberation; Yesterday, When I Was Mad; Absolutely Fabulous; Paninaro '95; Before; Single-Bilingual; A Red Letter Day; New York City Boy; Miracles
30.2% - Eric Watson (with or without Andy Morahan)
Opportunities (Version 1); West End Girls; Love Comes Quickly; Suburbia; What Have I Done to Deserve This?; Domino Dancing; Left to My Own Devices; It's Alright; So Hard; Jealousy; DJ Culture; Was It Worth It?
12.5% - Bruce Weber
Being Boring; Se A Vida É; I Get Along
09.8% - Derek Jarman
It's a Sin; Rent
05.2% - Jack Bond
Always on My Mind; Heart
04.4% - Pedro Romhanyi
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More; You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk
02.2% - Liam Kan
How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?; Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)

Survey 822 - Week of September 10, 2017
The Rating Project: Recently released songs (189 voters)

Please rate each of the previously "unrated" songs on the bonus "Further Listening" discs accompanying the recent reissues of the Pet Shop Boys albums Nightlife, Release, and Fundamental on a scale of 0 to 10 as they compare with other PSB songs (0 = "one of the worst PSB songs ever"; 5 = "an average PSB song"; 10 = "one of the very best PSB songs ever").

Track (Listed from Highest Average Rating to Lowest)	Average Rating	% of voters rating 10	% of voters rating 0	Most frequent rating	Wayne's Rating ¤
Dancing in the Dusk	6.600	8.1%	0.6%	8	4
Reunion	6.276	5.5%	1.8%	6	5
One-Way Street	5.969	3.7%	0.6%	5	5
Believe/Song for Guy	5.709	7.3%	4.2%	5	2
Ring Road	5.684	3.8%	1.3%	5	7
The Night Is a Time to Explore Who You Are	5.384	2.7%	1.4%	5	5
Kazak	5.340	5.7%	1.9%	5	2
Alone Again, Naturally	5.321	3.1%	5.7%	4	1
No Excuse	5.245	2.7%	4.8%	5	4
Playing in the Streets	4.918	4.1%	2.0%	5	3
Motoring	4.599	1.2%	3.1%	5	6

To see where these tracks fall in relation to other songs in the PSB catalog, please visit the overall "Rating Project" page.

Survey 821 - Weeks of August 27 and September 3, 2017
The "most seasonal" PSB studio albums (421 voters)

Which PSB studio album do you feel is the most "summery"? Most "autumnal"? Most "wintry"? Most "vernal" (spring-like)?

Albums are listed below in chronological order. As always, the majority or plurality vote for a particular season appears in bold red text. (In other words, that album received the most votes for that season.) In addition, the plurality vote for any given album appears with a pale red (pink) background. (In other words, that season received the most votes for that album.)

Album	The "most summery"	The "most autumnal"	The "most wintry"	The "most vernal"
Please	1.2%	1.0%	3.8%	7.1%
Actually	1.0%	3.3%	3.6%	3.8%
Introspective	5.9%	2.4%	1.7%	4.5%
Behaviour	0.2%	51.3%	22.6%	3.6%
Very	13.1%	1.2%	1.9%	¤ 28.7%
Bilingual	¤ 51.8%	0.0%	0.2%	4.3%
Nightlife	0.2%	5.0%	10.5%	1.9%
Release	0.5%	16.6%	¤ 21.4%	5.0%
Fundamental	0.7%	3.8%	13.8%	1.2%
Yes	7.6%	1.2%	1.7%	15.4%
Elysium	1.4%	¤ 11.4%	13.3%	7.1%
Electric	10.9%	0.2%	1.7%	5.7%
Super	4.5%	1.0%	0.7%	7.8%

In case you're wondering about my personal rationale for my own choices (indicated as always by the ¤ symbols), I picked:

Bilingual as "most summery" on account of its general "Latin" feel and the song "Se A Vida E" (arguably the "most summery" song the Boys have ever recorded);
Elysium as "most autumnal" because its overall style and tone struck me as suggesting artists looking toward the end of their career (which, however, the albums that followed seem to have undercut), just as autumn itself is characterized by decline, pointing to the end of the year;
Release as "most wintry" (despite its "floral packaging") because it has, at least to me, a somewhat "cold" feel overall, not to mention the song "Birthday Boy" with its Christmas setting and coda sampling "In the Bleak Midwinter"; and
Very as "most vernal" because its general style is so vibrant and uplifting, as well as the fact that it had the effect of thoroughly revitalizing the Pet Shop Boys' career following the commercial and critical disappointment (the latter subsequently reversed) of Behaviour and the apparent "career summarizing" suggested by the immediately preceding Discography.

Finally, one of my site visitors wondered whether there would be any correlation between the majority/plurality vote for any given album and the time of year when that album was released. To that end, I provide the following table. If there's indeed an apparent correlation, I indicate it by highlighting that row in pink. Of course, of necessity I have to base my assessments on one hemisphere or the other, and since the Pet Shop Boys themselves, the majority of fans, and I myself all live in the northern hemisphere, I'm using that as the basis of seasonal determinations here:

Album	When released	Majority/plurality vote in this poll
Please	March 24, 1986	spring
Actually	September 7, 1987	spring
Introspective	October 11, 1988	summer
Behaviour	October 22, 1990	autumn
Very	September 27, 1993	spring
Bilingual	September 2, 1996*	summer
Nightlife	October 8, 1999	winter
Release	April1, 2001	winter
Fundamental	May 22, 2006	winter
Yes	March 18, 2009**	spring
Elysium	September 5, 2012	winter
Electric	July 12, 2013	summer
Super	April 1, 2016	spring

*Although many people think of September as "autumn," the first two-thirds of September is still summer in the northern hemisphere.

**March 18 is still winter in the northern hemisphere; spring won't begin for another two or three days. Note that, by this reckoning, Yes doesn't make it into spring, but Please had just made it in under the wire.

Survey 820 - Weeks of August 13 and 20, 2017
The final singles from PSB studio albums (420 voters)

Each of the following songs was the final single released from its respective studio album. For each of them, please select the statement with which you most strongly agree. (Note: Admittedly, some of the "final singles" listed below are debatable. But there's the rub—they're debatable. If you disagree with the choice I made, please keep in mind that someone else would disagree if I'd gone with the song that you consider the "final single.")

The following songs are listed in descending order, from high to low, according to the percentages of the responses in the first category, "It was a good choice…." Note that the percentages for each song don't necessarily total to 100% on account of abstentions.

Final single	Album	It was a good choice for the final single	It should have been an earlier single, not the last	It shouldn't have been a single at all	I don't agree with any of these statements
Heart	Actually	¤ 69.5%	18.8%	8.3%	1.4%
It's Alright	Introspective	¤ 67.6%	8.8%	19.8%	1.9%
Suburbia	Please	¤ 66.9%	25.0%	3.8%	2.6%
Jealousy	Behaviour	¤ 60.7%	11.9%	23.3%	1.0%
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk	Nightlife	¤ 55.7%	18.1%	20.7%	3.3%
Yesterday, When I Was Mad	Very	45.2%	15.5%	¤ 31.4%	4.1%
A Red Letter Day	Bilingual	¤ 41.2%	31.7%	23.6%	1.7%
Thursday	Electric	¤ 41.0%	37.9%	17.6%	2.6%
Memory of the Future	Elysium	¤ 37.1%	26.9%	28.3%	5.5%
London	Release	¤ 33.8%	17.4%	43.1%	*4.3%
All Over the World	Yes	¤ 30.7%	30.7%	31.9%	4.0%
Integral	Fundamental	28.1%	¤ 47.9%	15.7%	**6.0%
Undertow	Super	27.9%	23.3%	¤ 40.0%	6.9%

*At least two voters stated that they don't consider "All Over the World" to have been a single at all. I agree that it's a debatable point, but it's not cut-and-dried, which is why I included it. I generally tend to err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion.

**At least one voter stated that he feels the album version of "Integral" would have been a great choice for a single, but that the remix that actually was the single was deeply disappointing.

Survey 819 - Weeks of July 30 and August 6, 2017
A non-singles "Best of PSB" album (658 voters)

If you were to compile an "alternate universe Pet Shop Boys best-of collection" consisting of one non-single from each of their studio albums, plus one track from each of the four discs of their two b-sides collections and one (non-single) song from Disco 3, for a total of 18 songs, which 18 would you choose?

In order to do justice to the results of this poll, I'm going to display the results in a couple different ways. First, here are the top vote-getters from each album—in other words, the 18 songs that would, by popular vote, constitute this non-singles "Best of the Pet Shop Boys" album:

"Two Divided by Zero" from Please
"King's Cross" from Actually ¤
"I'm Not Scared" from Introspective ¤
"This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave" from Behaviour
"Dreaming of the Queen" from Very
"In the Night" from Alternative (Disc 1)
"Shameless" from Alternative (Disc 2) ¤
"It Always Comes as a Surprise" from Bilingual ¤
"Closer to Heaven" from Nightlife ¤
"Here" from Release
"Positive Role Model" from Disco 3 ¤
"Fugitive" from Fundamental
"The Way It Used to Be" from Yes
"Delusions of Grandeur" from Format (Disc 1)
"After the Event" from Format (Disc 2)
"A Face Like That" from Elysium ¤
"Fluorescent" from Electric
"Burn" from Super

Now here are the complete results for each album. On account of scattered abstentions, the percentages for most of the albums do not total to 100%. You might also note something extremely rare in my polls: because of the unusually large number of voters this time (more than 500), some voter percentages differ by as little as one-tenth of one percent:

Please
39.7% - Two Divided by Zero
28.1% - Tonight Is Forever ¤
11.2% - I Want a Lover
10.9% - Why Don't We Live Together?
05.2% - Later Tonight
04.6% - Violence

Actually
41.0% - King's Cross ¤
21.0% - One More Chance
16.0% - It Couldn't Happen Here
13.4% - I Want to Wake Up
06.1% - Shopping
02.6% - Hit Music

Introspective
73.6% - I'm Not Scared ¤
24.2% - I Want a Dog

Behaviour
45.4% - This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave
20.1% - My October Symphony
17.6% - The End of the World ¤
07.0% - Only the Wind
05.6% - Nervously
03.8% - To Face the Truth

Very
26.0% - Dreaming of the Queen
24.0% - The Theatre
14.3% - Young Offender
12.9% - A Different Point of View
10.0% - One in a Million ¤
07.0% - To Speak Is a Sin
04.4% - One and One Make Five
00.8% - Postscript

Alternative (Disc 1)
14.9% - In the Night
14.7% - Paninaro
13.4% - Do I Have To?
13.1% - I Get Excited (You Get Excited Too)
12.8% - Your Funny Uncle ¤
05.2% - You Know Where You Went Wrong
04.1% - A New Life
04.0% - Jack the Lad
03.8% - That's My Impression
03.8% - Don Juan
03.5% - Was That What It Was?
02.9% - A Man Could Get Arrested
01.5% - One of the Crowd
01.1% - The Sound of the Atom Splitting

Alternative (Disc 2)
22.9% - Shameless ¤
14.9% - Miserablism
11.2% - We All Feel Better in the Dark
08.1% - Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend
07.2% - It Must Be Obvious
07.1% - Too Many People
06.4% - Losing My Mind
05.6% - Some Speculation
05.3% - Hey, Headmaster
04.9% - Decadence
02.1% - Euroboy
01.4% - Music for Boys
00.8% - What Keeps Mankind Alive?
00.8% - If Love Were All

Bilingual
25.7% - It Always Comes as a Surprise ¤
22.5% - Discoteca
16.9% - Up Against It
15.7% - The Survivors
07.0% - Metamorphosis
05.8% - Saturday Night Forever
04.3% - Electricity

Nightlife
27.7% - Closer to Heaven ¤
23.1% - For Your Own Good
14.9% - Radiophonic
10.3% - In Denial
07.9% - Happiness Is an Option
05.5% - Footsteps
04.1% - Vampires
02.6% - Boy Strange
02.4% - The Only One

Release
25.8% - Here
18.4% - The Samurai in Autumn
15.0% - Birthday Boy ¤
13.5% - Love Is a Catastrophe
08.7% - E-mail
08.7% - You Choose
07.3% - The Night I Fell in Love

Disco 3
31.9% - Positive Role Model ¤
24.0% - Somebody Else's Business
23.3% - Try It (I'm in Love with a Married Man)
08.8% - Time on My Hands
08.7% - If Looks Could Kill

Fundamental
29.2% - Fugitive
27.7% - The Sodom and Gomorrah Show ¤
10.0% - I Made My Excuses and Left
07.8% - Luna Park
07.4% - Indefinite Leave to Remain
06.2% - Psychological
05.9% - Twentieth Century
03.8% - Casanova in Hell
01.1% - God Willing

Yes
46.8% - The Way It Used to Be
22.6% - Pandemonium
07.6% - More Than a Dream
07.1% - This Used to Be the Future
07.0% - King of Rome ¤
03.5% - Building a Wall
02.4% - Vulnerable
02.1% - Legacy

Format (Disc 1)
21.4% - Delusions of Grandeur
16.4% - Sexy Northerner
12.2% - Hit and Miss
11.6% - The Truck-Driver and His Mate ¤
08.5% - The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On
05.3% - The Ghost of Myself
04.4% - The View from Your Balcony
04.1% - Betrayed
03.0% - Confidential
02.6% - Lies
02.0% - How I Learned to Hate Rock 'n' Roll
02.0% - The Calm Before the Storm
01.7% - Screaming
01.1% - Silver Age
01.1% - Casting a Shadow
00.6% - Disco Potential

Format (Disc 2)
14.9% - After the Event
13.7% - I Didn't Get Where I Am Today ¤
12.3% - The Resurrectionist
09.3% - Always
08.8% - Bright Young Things
08.1% - We're the Pet Shop Boys
06.4% - Between Two Islands
04.9% - Friendly Fire
04.7% - In Private
02.9% - We're All Criminals Now
02.4% - Up and Down
02.0% - Nightlife
01.7% - Blue on Blue
01.5% - Transparent
01.5% - Gin and Jag
01.4% - No Time for Tears
01.2% - Girls Don't Cry
00.8% - Party Song
00.6% - Searching for the Face of Jesus
00.2% - The Former Enfant Terrible

Elysium
36.9% - A Face Like That ¤
19.6% - Requiem in Denim and Leopardskin
18.2% - Invisible
05.5% - Breathing Space
05.0% - Everything Means Something
04.3% - Your Early Stuff
04.3% - Give It a Go
02.1% - Ego Music
02.1% - Hold On

Electric
29.2% - Fluorescent
27.8% - Inside a Dream
24.5% - The Last to Die ¤
13.4% - Bolshy
03.8% - Shouting in the Evening

Super
44.5% - Burn
20.5% - The Dictator Decides
11.2% - Inner Sanctum
09.0% - Into Thin Air ¤*
05.2% - Sad Robot World
04.6% - Happiness
02.9% - Groovy
01.1% - Pazzo!

*My own vote from Super was a very close call. I was tremendously torn between "Burn" and "Into Thin Air." I finally settled on "Into Thin Air" because, of the two, I think it's the finer artistic achievement, but even now a very big part of me wanted to vote for "Burn" instead—which I firmly believe that, under other circumstances, could have been another #1 dance hit for PSB.

Survey 818 - Weeks of July 16 and 23, 2017
PSB album causing greatest "cogntive dissonance" (379 voters)

Which Pet Shop Boys album, if any, caused you—or perhaps still causes you—the greatest "cognitive dissonance" or something like it? Or, to put it another way, which PSB album is the most unlike what you would have expected from them?

24.8% - Release
15.8% - "I can honestly say that no PSB album has caused me anything like 'cognitive dissonance.'"
09.5% - The Most Incredible Thing
08.4% - Disco 2
07.7% - Elysium
04.2% - Behaviour
04.2% - Bilingual
04.2% - Battleship Potemkin
03.7% - Super
02.6% - Fundamental
02.4% - Electric
01.6% - Introspective
01.6% - Concrete
01.3% - Disco 4
01.3% - A Man from the Future*
01.1% - Very
01.1% - Closer to Heaven
00.8% - Discography ¤**
00.8% - Relentless
00.8% - Nightlife
00.5% - Please
00.3% - Actually
00.3% - Alternative
00.3% - Disco 3
00.3% - PopArt
00.3% - Yes
00.3% - Ultimate
00.0% - Pandemonium
00.0% - Format
00.0% - Disco

*As I noted in the notes accompanying this poll, I included the still unreleased (and, according to the Boys, still "under development") A Man from the Future among the choices because it has, at least in its original form, been widely heard by many if not most of my site visitors.

**Surprised by my own vote for Discography? Allow me to explain. It was the very first Pet Shop Boys album I ever bought. I was rather unfamiliar with them (having heard only about a half-dozen of their early singles that were major hits in the United States) and bought Discography in late 1992 simply as part of my research at the time into music having to do in one way or another with gay men, their experiences, and their viewpoints. (Yes, even before Neil had "come out," I had heard enough about PSB to believe that familiarity with at least some of their songs would be useful to my research.) I really didn't expect particularly to like it. But I was amazed by it. It was so much better than I had been led to believe, and most of the best songs were, in my opinion, the ones I had never even heard before—especiallly the incredible "Being Boring." It not only set me on the path to big-time PSB fandom, but it also helped open my eyes and ears to music of other artists I had similarly dismissed up to that point—artists like Depeche Mode, Erasure, New Order, Tears for Fears, among others. In short, Discography was a huge musical turning point for me, forcing me to confront and ultimately to abandon some of my preconceived notions about British synthpop. And, of course, helping to turn me into a PSB fan, which was cemented by the release the following year of Very. There was no going back after that.

Survey 817- Weeks of July 2 and 9, 2017
A five-song PSB dance set (431 voters)

If you were asked by a DJ friend to create an "awesome, kick-ass" five-song dance set—with the emphasis on dance since people should actually be dancing to the set that you put together—that consists of Pet Shop Boys songs that appeared on the Billboard Dance Club Chart (with a few "added exceptions"), which five PSB tracks would you choose for your dance set?

Please note that because each voter placed five votes, the total of the percentages is roughly 500%.

39.2% - Vocal ¤
35.0% - Burn ¤
26.9% - New York City Boy
25.5% - Always on My Mind
20.4% - It's a Sin
20.0% - Inner Sanctum
17.6% - Axis ¤
17.2% - Domino Dancing
16.2% - Left to My Own Devices
15.3% - The Pop Kids
14.6% - Go West
14.4% - Paninaro '95
14.2% - West End Girls
10.4% - Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)
10.0% - I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing
09.4% - Paninaro
09.3% - Sexy Northerner
09.0% - In the Night
08.6% - So Hard
08.4% - Break 4 Love
08.1% - Heart
08.1% - Before
07.7% - It's Alright
07.8% - Minimal
07.2% - Thursday
07.2% - Say It to Me
07.0% - Love etc.
06.7% - Was It Worth It? ¤
06.5% - Yesterday, When I Was Mad
06.0% - Absolutely Fabulous ¤
05.8% - Music for Boys
05.8% - I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More
05.6% - Did You See Me Coming?
05.3% - Suburbia
05.1% - Can You Forgive Her?
05.1% - Se A Vida E (That's the Way Life Is)
04.9% - Love Is a Bourgeois Construct
04.6% - Undertow
03.9% - Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)
03.7% - To Step Aside
03.5% - I Want a Dog
03.5% - Some other song not listed here*
03.0% - Together
02.6% - I'm Not Scared
02.6% - DJ Culture
02.6% - Somewhere
01.9% - What Have I Done to Deserve This?
01.9% - A Red Letter Day
01.6% - Love Comes Quickly
01.6% - That's My Impression
01.6% - Leaving
01.4% - Being Boring
01.2% - I'm with Stupid
01.2% - We're the Pet Shop Boys
00.9% - How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?
00.9% - She's Madonna
00.9% - Memory of the Future
00.7% - Rent
00.7% - Liberation
00.7% - Home and Dry
00.5% - Beautiful People
00.5% - Winner

*Other songs specifically suggested by voters:

The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On

Euroboy

I Want to Wake Up

Positive Role Model

Survey 816- Weeks of June 18 and 25, 2017
Are you buying the reissues? (523 voters)

Are you planning to buy (or perhaps have already pre-ordered) the upcoming reissues of Nightlife, Release, and Fundamental with "Further Listening" bonus discs?*

*Please note that because, depending on the option(s) they chose, voters could potentially make more than one choice, the percentages below do not add up to 100%.

71.5% - Yes, I'm buying all of them! ¤
09.4% - I'm undecided at this time.
09.0% - No, I won't buy any of them.
08.8% - If it's an option to do so, I'll buy only digital copies of certain tracks (such as those previously unreleased). Otherwise I'll do one of the other things listed here.
05.2% - I'll buy one or two, but not all three. I'll buy:

02.7% (51.9% of this subset) - Nightlife

02.7% (51.9% of this subset) - Fundamental

01.3% (25.9% of this subset) - Release

Survey 815- Weeks of June 4 and 11, 2017
Which PSB album has the best three-song "opening salvo"? (540 voters)

Which Pet Shop Boys studio album has, in your opinion, the strongest "opening salvo"—that is, the best sequence of three successive songs to start the album? (These may not necessarily be your favorites, but rather the three that "work best" together and make for the most memorable or effective album opening.)

18.1% - Nightlife: "For Your Own Good," "Closer to Heaven," and "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More"
17.4% - Please: "Two Divided by Zero," "West End Girls," and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"
16.3% - Very: "Can You Forgive Her?" "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing," and "Liberation" ¤*
10.2% - Introspective: "Left to My Own Devices," "I Want a Dog," and "Domino Dancing"
08.9% - Behaviour: "Being Boring," This Must Be the Place I Waited years to Leave," and "To Face the Truth"
08.0% - Bilingual: "Discoteca," "Single," and "Metamorphosis"
06.5% - Actually: "One More Chance," "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" and "Shopping"
06.3% - Electric: "Axis," "Bolshy," and "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct"
03.5% - Yes: "Love etc." "All Over the World," and "Beautiful People"
02.2% - Super: "Happiness," "The Pop Kids," and "Twenty-something"
01.1% - Fundamental: "Psychological," "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show," and "I Made My Excuses and Left"
00.9% - Release: "Home and Dry," "I Get Along," and "Birthday Boy"
00.6% - Elysium: "Leaving," "Invisible," and "Winner"

*As you can see, I voted for Very. But it was a tough one. I came very close to voting for Nightlife myself. Despite the fact that it's nowhere near the top of my list of favorite PSB studio albums, I have to admit it has a killer "opening salvo." Clearly a plurality of voters agree.

Survey 814- Week of May 28, 2017
Neil's best "female persona" in a song (298 voters)

Neil has noted on many occasions that he sometimes writes lyrics and sings them from a "female perspective." In other words, when he sings those songs, he's adopting the role of a female narrator. Of the following songs—regarding each of which Neil has specifically stated that his lyrical persona is a woman—in which one do you think Neil has done the best or most "convincing" job of portraying a female narrator or perhaps even of expressing a "feminine" point of view?

38.9% - Rent ¤
20.8% - I'm Not Scared
09.4% - "I actually don't think he does a good job of conveying a female pesona or 'perspective' in any song!"
06.4% - A New Life
05.7% - Vulnerable
05.0% - For Your Own Good
04.0% - Pandemonium
03.7% - Footsteps
02.0% - I Want a Lover
01.7% - Beautiful People
01.3% - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi
01.0% - Some other song not listed here*

*"Only the Wind" was cited by one voter as an alternate choice (saying that he had always thought of it as "Neil singing as if a woman in a domestic abuse situation"), but none of the other voters who picked this option suggested any other specific songs. Another prospective voter, however, said that he had chosen to abstain because he felt that "only women can rate how well Neil portrays a female persona."

Survey 813- Week of May 21, 2017
Most spent on a PSB-related item aside from concerts (266 voters)

Not counting concert tickets and/or associated "VIP Meet 'n' greets," what is the highest price you've ever paid for a Pet Shop Boys-related item?*

*Of necessity, all currency equivalents/conversions listed below are very rough approximations that may not coincide with the actual equivalencies either at the time of the transaction, the time of the poll, or at this particular time.

31.6% - Above $25 but no more than $50 / £39 / €45 / ¥5,560
15.0% - Above $100 but no more than $150 / £116 / €135 / ¥16,690
14.3% - Above $50 but no more than $75 / £58 / €68 / ¥8,340 ¤
13.5% - No more than $25 / £19 / €23 / ¥2,780
09.4% - Above $75 but no more than $100 / £77 / €90 / ¥11,125
05.3% - Above $300 but no more than $500 / £386 / €450 / ¥55,615
04.9% - More than $500 / £386 / €450 / ¥55,615
03.4% - Above $200 but no more than $300 / £232 / €270 / ¥33,370
02.6% - Above $150 but no more than $200 / £154 / €180 / ¥22,250

Survey 812 - Weeks of May 7 and 14, 2017
Favorite series of three sequential PSB singles (523 voters)

What is your favorite three-song sequence of consecutive singles by the Pet Shop Boys?*

*The choices of singles and their sequences is based on U.K. releases, not including songs in which "Pet Shop Boys" are not identified by name as the primary artist.

10.5% - "It's a Sin" - "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" - "Rent"
09.6% - "Can You Forgive Her?" - "Go West" - "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing"
06.5% - "Domino Dancing" - "Left to My Own Devices" - "It's Alright"
05.9% - "West End Girls" - "Love Comes Quickly" - "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"
05.9% - "Suburbia" - "It's a Sin" - "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"
05.2% - "So Hard" - "Being Boring" - "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)"
05.0% - "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" - "Suburbia" - "It's a Sin"
04.8% - "Heart" - "Domino Dancing" - "Left to My Own Devices"
04.2% - "Rent" - "Always on My Mind" - "Heart"
04.2% - "Always on My Mind" - "Heart" - "Domino Dancing"
03.3% - "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" - "Rent" - "Always on My Mind"
03.3% - "Left to My Own Devices" - "It's Alright" - "So Hard"
03.3% - "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More" - "New York City Boy" - "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk"
02.3% - "It's Alright" - "So Hard" - "Being Boring"
02.1% - "Go West" - "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" - "Liberation" ¤
02.1% - "Vocal" - "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct" - "Thursday"
01.9% - "Love Comes Quickly" - "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" - "Suburbia"
01.5% - "Was It Worth It?" - "Can You Forgive Her?" - "Go West"
01.5% - "Axis" - "Vocal" - "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct"
01.5% - "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct" - "Thursday" - "The Pop Kids"
01.3% - "Being Boring" - "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" - "Jealousy"
01.1% - "A Red Letter Day" - "Somewhere" - "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More"
00.8% - "Jealousy" - "DJ Culture" - "Was It Worth It?"
00.8% - "Integral" - "Love etc." - "Did You See Me Coming?"
00.8% - "Love etc." - "Did You See Me Coming?" - "All Over the World"
00.8% - "Leaving" - "Memory of the Future" - "Axis"
00.8% - "Memory of the Future" - "Axis" - "Vocal"
00.6% - "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" - "Jealousy" - "DJ Culture"
00.6% - "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" - "Liberation" - "Yesterday, When I Was Mad"
00.6% - "Liberation" - "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" - "Paninaro '95"
00.6% - "Se A Vida E (That's the Way Life Is)" - "Single-Bilingual" - "A Red Letter Day"
00.6% - "I Get Along" - "Miracles" - "Flamboyant"
00.6% - "Miracles" - "Flamboyant" - "I'm with Stupid"
00.6% - "Flamboyant" - "I'm with Stupid" - "Minimal"
00.6% - "Thursday" - "The Pop Kids" - "Twenty-something"
00.6% - "Twenty-something" - "Say It to Me" - "Undertow"
00.4% - "DJ Culture" - "Was It Worth It?" - "Can You Forgive Her?"
00.4% - "Paninaro '95" - "Before" - "Se A Vida E (That's the Way Life Is)"
00.4% - "Single-Bilingual" - "A Red Letter Day" - "Somewhere"
00.4% - "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" - "Home and Dry" - "I Get Along"
00.4% - "I'm with Stupid" - "Minimal" - "Numb"
00.4% - "Minimal" - "Numb" - "Integral"
00.4% - "All Over the World" - "Together" - "Winner"
00.4% - "Winner" - "Leaving" - "Memory of the Future"
00.2% - "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" - "Paninaro '95" - "Before"
00.2% - "Home and Dry" - "I Get Along" - "Miracles"
00.2% - "Numb" - "Integral" - "Love etc."
00.2% - "Did You See Me Coming?" - "All Over the World" - "Together"
00.2% - "The Pop Kids" - "Twenty-something" - "Say It to Me"
00.0% - "Before" - "Se A Vida E (That's the Way Life Is)" - "Single-Bilingual"
00.0% - "Somewhere" - "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More" - "New York City Boy"
00.0% - "New York City Boy" - "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" - "Home and Dry"
00.0% - "Together" - "Winner" - "Leaving"

Survey 811 - Week of April 30, 2017*
Opinions of the "Undertow" single tracks (315 voters)

How much do you like (or dislike) each of the tracks recently released on CD, 12-inch vinyl, and/or digitally as part of the "Undertow" single?

	Love it!	Like it	Neutral	Don't like it	Hate it!	Haven't heard it
"Undertow" - Tuff City Kids Remix	15.9%	¤ 42.9%	21.9%	4.8%	2.5%	12.1%
"Left to My Own Devices" - Super Version	30.8%	¤ 38.4%	12.1%	6.0%	1.9%	10.8%
"Burn" - Baba Stiltz Remix	3.2%	8.9%	14.0%	21.6%	¤ 37.1%	15.2%
"Undertow" - Tuff City Kids Dub	4.4%	11.1%	14.3%	8.3%	3.2%	¤ 58.7%

*This survey actually started one day late, on May 1.

Survey 810 - Weeks of April 16 and 23, 2017
Favorite series of three sequential PSB albums (507 voters)

What do you consider to be the best series of three sequential Pet Shop Boys studio albums?

26.2% - Introspective - Behaviour - Very
21.1% - Actually - Introspective - Behaviour
18.9% - Behaviour - Very - Bilingual ¤
16.2% - Please - Actually - Introspective
05.3% - "I like Electric and Super so much and have so much confidence in the Boys' collaboration with Stuart Price that I predict that the 'Price trilogy' of Electric, Super, and their next album will be their best series of three."
03.7% - Very - Bilingual - Nightlife
02.4% - Release - Fundamental - Yes
01.8% - Yes - Elysium - Electric
01.6% - Elysium - Electric - Super
01.4% - Fundamental - Yes - Elysium
00.8% - Bilingual - Nightlife - Release
00.6% - Nightlife - Release - Fundamental

I think it's worth noting that the top three choices are the very three that include Behaviour.

Survey 809 - Week of April 9, 2017
Additional bonus tracks on re-reissues? (359 voters)

If the PSB albums reissued in 2001 (Please through Bilingual) are reissued again in 2017 along with the reissues of more recent albums (Nightlife through Elysium), would you like for those older albums to include any rare or previously unavailable bonus tracks that were not included with the 2001 reissues?*

*Shortly after I started this poll I learned that the 2001 reissues will indeed be re-reissued along with the new reissues in 2017. But no word yet on whether they'll include any bonus tracks not included with their previous release, so this poll remained quite "valid."

49.0% - Yes! I'm always in favor of them releasing rare or previously unavailable tracks, and I'll gladly buy those albums again to get them!
15.3% - It depends on what those tracks are. For instance, previously unreleased songs, yes; but just more remixes of familiar songs, no. ¤
13.1% - No, because I'll then feel obliged to buy those albums again, and I don't feel I should have to do that.
10.9% - Yes, although I probably won't buy those albums again just to get them.
04.2% - No, because I refuse to buy those albums again, so that will result in my "missing out" on those tracks.
03.3% - I don't own any (or at least all) of the 2001 reissues, so it doesn't matter to me. I'll buy them regardless.
02.8% - I have a very different opinion from any of those described above.**
01.4% - I really don't care about it one way or the other.

**Alternate viewpoints shared by voters included:

"I just think the reissues of the reissues are unnecessary. Firstly I'm disturbed that Please to Bilingual will sit on my shelves with two reissues each and the subsequent albums will have only one.… And I can't help but wonder what still languishes in the vaults that's worth hearing/releasing that didn't appear on the first set of reissues. I'll buy them all though. Obviously."

"If they release them digitally as well, on iTunes or whatever, I will probably just download any 'new' tracks, rather than buy another physical copy."

"New masters would be worth the money, not a repress from the 2001 master."

"I'm not sure how much those Further Listening 2001 sets are going for these days, but for those fans who aren't willing to pay (the possibly) exorbitant prices for them, it would be a good thing to have the exact same editions re-released with more affordable prices. But more than anything, I commend the Boys for having interest in making these new sets in the first place, and their record company actually being reciprocal in the process."

"It'd be a major bummer if they didn't. "

"It depends on the number of new songs. If they are adding unreleased material, they better do it well and add third CDs to the sets. If it's just one or two unreleased songs, it'll feel like a rip-off."

Survey 808 - Week of April 2, 2017
On PSB taking a public stand on Brexit and/or other political issues (340 voters)

Recently the Pet Shop Boys posted a "Pet Text" on their official website promoting a "National March to Parliament," part of the U.K. "Stop Brexit" movement. Although they didn't state their opinion on the matter in the Pet Text itself, it's obvious from past statements they've made that they aren't in favor of Brexit (the U.K. leaving the European Union). Besides, if they weren't opposed to Brexit, they surely wouldn't have promoted the march on their website. So that inspires the question— Which of the following statements comes closest to expressing how you feel about the Pet Shop Boys apparently taking a political stand in this way?

51.5% - "In general, musicians have as much right to support political causes as anyone else, and the Pet Shop Boys should be commended for taking public stands on important issues like this." ¤
18.5% - "I'm opposed to Brexit, so I'm very pleased with what they did."
07.9% - "They're musicians, not politicians. In general, they should keep their political views to themselves."
06.5% - "I don't care one way or the other about what the Pet Shop Boys have said or done in relation to Brexit."
05.0% - "Although I support Brexit, I respect the Pet Shop Boys for promoting their viewpoint on such an important matter."
04.1% - "I don't care one way or the other about the Pet Shop Boys taking a political stand on any issue, period."
02.9% - "Although I'm opposed to Brexit myself, I would prefer if the Pet Shop Boys didn't take a public stand on such issues."
01.8% - "I support Brexit, so I'm appalled at what they did."
01.8% - "I have a very different opinion from any of those described above."*

*Alternate viewpoints shared by voters included:

"The Pet Text on the PSB website was signed by Neil not by both of the boys. So we can assume Neil is against Brexit, but we don't know whether Chris is for or against it."

"I am fine with them having an opinion on things of importance, but trying to get things reversed is another thing that to me is a step too far."

"Whilst I can respect that they are entitied to their view I do find it sad that they cannot live with the decision which was democratically voted for."

"If they have a political statement to make and provide such a statement with catchy, excellent songs, I'm in (for the music)."

"I would respectfully say that the Pet Shop Boys don't have a great track record in backing political causes. I appreciate that their political interventions are few and far between and they are not a "preachy" band (thank God)."

Survey 807 - Week of March 26, 2017
5-star ratings of PSB albums compared to rock/pop albums in general (243 voters)

Please rate each of the Pet Shop Boys' albums on a scale of 0 stars (a "bomb') to 5 stars as they compare with all the other pop/rock albums you're familiar with, regardless of the artists.

The following results are arranged in order of the average voter rating on a 5-point/star scale, with the album earning the highest average listed first. The plurality (mode) response for each album is highlighted in pink. Abstentions did not count toward calculating the averages. The PSB hits collections and albums in which the Boys were not the primary performer (such as Closer to Heaven and Disco 4) were not included in this survey.

Album

Average

💣
0 stars

★
1 star

★★
2 stars

★★★
3 stars

★★★★
4 stars

★★★★★
5 stars

Abstain

Behaviour

4.388

1.7%

0.8%

1.7%

8.8%

¤ 27.1%

60.0%

1.2%

Very

4.356

0.8%

0.8%

1.7%

10.9%

30.1%

¤ 55.6%

1.6%

Actually

4.222

0.8%

0.4%

2.1%

15.1%

¤ 35.6%

46.0%

1.6%

Introspective

4.076

0.8%

0.4%

5.9%

20.8%

¤ 27.1%

44.9%

2.9%

Please

3.889

0.4%

2.1%

3.0%

26.8%

¤ 37.9%

29.8%

3.3%

Alternative

3.717

1.3%

5.3%

8.0%

20.8%

¤ 35.0%

29.6%

7.0%

Yes

3.711

0.9%

3.0%

7.2%

26.0%

¤ 39.1%

23.8%

3.3%

Electric

3.697

0.9%

2.6%

9.4%

28.6%

¤ 30.3%

28.2%

3.7%

Fundamental

3.622

0.9%

2.6%

7.8%

33.0%

¤ 33.5%

22.2%

4.2%

Bilingual

3.430

1.7%

3.8%

10.2%

34.0%

¤ 34.5%

15.7%

3.3%

Super

3.350

2.1%

5.6%

16.2%

28.6%

¤ 26.1%

21.4%

3.7%

Format

3.307

0.5%

6.5%

14.4%

31.6%

¤ 34.4%

12.6%

11.5%

Nightlife

3.086

3.4%

7.3%

16.3%

32.6%

¤ 30.9%

9.4%

4.1%

Pandemonium

3.078

2.0%

¤ 10.8%

17.6%

30.4%

25.5%

13.7%

16.0%

Disco

3.037

2.7%

8.2%

¤ 21.0%

31.5%

23.7%

12.8%

9.9%

Relentless

2.995

4.6%

¤ 8.3%

20.4%

31.0%

20.8%

14.8%

11.1%

Elysium

2.974

3.4%

11.5%

15.8%

34.2%

¤ 23.5%

11.5%

3.7%

Concrete

2.793

4.5%

¤ 11.6%

19.7%

35.4%

21.7%

7.1%

18.5%

Release

2.738

3.9%

12.9%

23.6%

32.6%

¤ 19.3%

7.7%

4.1%

Disco 3

2.527

8.6%

10.9%

28.2%

¤ 29.5%

16.8%

5.9%

9.5%

Battleship Potemkin

2.471

7.4%

¤ 17.2%

28.4%

23.5%

15.2%

8.3%

16.0%

The Most Incredible Thing

2.201

10.6%

¤ 20.6%

25.9%

27.0%

12.7%

3.2%

22.2%

Disco 2

1.326

¤ 33.9%

25.2%

21.6%

14.2%

3.7%

1.4%

10.3%

Album

Average

0 stars
(bomb)

1 star

2 stars

3 stars

4 stars

5 stars

Abstain

Survey 806 - Week of March 19, 2017
5-star ratings of PSB albums compared to each other (393 voters)

Please rate each of the Pet Shop Boys' albums on a scale of 0 stars (a "bomb') to 5 stars as they compare with each other—that is, just with other PSB albums, not with albums by any other artists.

Album

Average

💣
0 stars

★
1 star

★★
2 stars

★★★
3 stars

★★★★
4 stars

★★★★★
5 stars

Abstain

Very

4.468

0.3%

0.3%

1.8%

8.3%

28.9%

¤ 60.5%

1.5%

Behaviour

4.381

0.5%

0.8%

1.6%

12.7%

26.2%

¤ 58.3%

1.8%

Actually

4.348

0.3%

0.3%

1.5%

10.8%

¤ 36.6%

50.5%

1.3%

Introspective

4.164

0.3%

0.5%

2.6%

16.1%

¤ 40.3%

40.3%

2.0%

Please

3.997

0.5%

0.5%

3.6%

19.7%

¤ 45.2%

30.4%

2.0%

Alternative

3.916

0.5%

1.6%

6.0%

22.6%

¤ 36.0%

33.2%

6.6%

Yes

3.798

0.5%

0.8%

6.5%

25.4%

¤ 44.0%

22.8%

2.8%

Electric

3.789

1.0%

2.3%

7.3%

¤ 22.7%

39.2%

27.4%

2.5%

Fundamental

3.648

0.8%

1.3%

6.3%

33.1%

¤ 41.1%

17.4%

2.3%

Super

3.516

1.0%

3.9%

10.2%

¤ 29.1%

38.7%

17.0%

2.8%

Bilingual

3.488

0.3%

2.9%

9.9%

34.5%

39.7%

¤ 12.8%

2.6%

Format

3.358

1.7%

3.7%

11.8%

¤ 34.9%

35.8%

12.1%

9.7%

Relentless

3.290

1.4%

3.4%

¤ 17.6%

33.8%

29.8%

13.9%

10.4%

Pandemonium

3.241

1.8%

¤ 5.7%

13.0%

36.7%

31.6%

11.1%

15.5%

Disco

3.148

1.6%

¤ 8.8%

14.3%

36.3%

26.4%

12.6%

7.4%

Nightlife

3.142

0.8%

4.7%

17.6%

¤ 41.3%

27.4%

8.2%

3.3%

Concrete

2.979

2.1%

¤ 7.2%

18.3%

42.3%

23.1%

6.9%

15.3%

Elysium

2.932

2.6%

7.6%

21.6%

¤ 36.1%

26.3%

5.8%

3.3%

Disco 3

2.740

2.5%

9.5%

¤ 27.1%

36.9%

20.4%

3.6%

8.9%

Release

2.738

2.9%

10.6%

23.5%

¤ 40.2%

18.3%

4.5%

3.8%

Battleship Potemkin

2.701

4.5%

¤ 12.7%

21.5%

37.8%

16.6%

6.9%

15.8%

The Most Incredible Thing

2.303

7.2%

20.0%

¤ 27.8%

29.7%

10.9%

4.4%

18.6%

Disco 2

1.437

¤ 30.4%

24.2%

23.7%

15.6%

5.3%

0.8%

8.7%

Album

Average

0 stars
(bomb)

1 star

2 stars

3 stars

4 stars

5 stars

Abstain

Survey 805 - Week of March 12, 2017
Favorite narrative "character" in a PSB song (334 voters)

Which of the following "characters" (other than himself) portrayed by Neil in the lyrics of Pet Shop Boys songs is your favorite—not necessarily your favorite song among them, or even the character you might like the most as a person, but the one in which you find the character the most interesting and memorable as expressed in the lyrics?

17.7% - The reluctant autocrat in "The Dictator Decides"
12.9% - The kept woman (or rent boy, depending on your perspective) in "Rent"
08.7% - The rejected lover (based on Cynthia Lennon) in "I Made My Excuses and Left"
08.4% - The bewildered Russian composer in "My October Symphony"
08.4% - The sardonic Victorian graverobber in "The Resurrectionist" ¤
07.8% - The glib, hapless Euro-businessman in "Single"
06.9% - The AIDS-haunted surviving partner in "Dreaming of the Queen"
05.4% - The crass aspiring hitmaker in "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"
05.4% - The naive (but not too native) teenaged fan in "The Night I Fell in Love"
05.1% - The middle-aged Internet hookup in "Gin and Jag"
03.9% - The AWOL Russian soldier longing for a better life in "London"
03.9% - Tony Blair—or not—in "I'm with Stupid"
03.3% - Some other character (other than Neil himself) in some other PSB song*
02.4% - The bitter lip-synching drag queen in "Electricity"

*Other narrative characters nominated by voters included:

The clever, funny, and a bit sad erstwhile lover in "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct"

The gay/bisexual man bullied by his female lover in "Can You Forgive Her?"

The "carefree yet calculating, simple and profound" narrator of "Give It a Go"

The newly "out" narrator of "Metamorphosis" (assuming he's not interpreted as being Neil himself)

The narrator of "Try It (I'm in Love with a Married Man)": [Even though Neil and Chris didn't write it] "I am intrigued by the song even though I can't identify with the situation, wouldn't want to be in the situation, and don't know why someone in that position would want to sing about it."

"Zazou [in 'In the Night']. Even though it's a group, rather than an individual character per se."

"I'd like to hear The Truck-Driver's mate's side of the story."

"The point of view of the character in 'King's Cross' I've always found fascinating."

"The 'Delusions of Grandeur' guy" (again assuming he's not interpreted as Neil himself)

Survey 804 - Week of March 5, 2017
Favorite non-single cover songs by PSB (387 voters)

Of the following songs written and originally recorded by other artists that have been covered by the Pet Shop Boys in officially released studio versions that have not been released as a single (though b-sides are OK), which three are your favorites?*

*Because voters could make more than one choice, the percentage figures total to well over 100%.

40.6% - Losing My Mind ¤
38.0% - Try It (I'm in Love with a Married Man)
36.7% - We're the Pet Shop Boys
34.9% - The Last to Die ¤
24.3% - I Started a Joke
24.0% - Viva la Vida
22.7% - My Girl
15.5% - Sail Away
08.3% - Glad All Over
08.3% - I Cried for Us ¤*
08.0% - Alone Again, Naturally
08.0% - If Love Were All
07.5% - What Keeps Mankind Alive?
05.7% - Je T'Aime… Moi Non Plus

*This third choice of mine was actually rather difficult. My first two, "Losing My Mind" and "The Last to Die," were pretty easy, but for my third I was terribly torn between "I Cried for Us" and several others—namely, "Glad All Over," "I Started a Joke," and "Try It (I'm in Love with a Married Man)." But, forced to choose, I settled on "I Cried for Us." Ask me again a month or two from now, however, and I may have a different third choice.

Survey 803 - Week of February 26, 2017
Influence of Neil's Catholic background on PSB songs (334 voters)

On more than one occasion Neil has described himself as a "lapsed Catholic." To what extent do you believe his Roman Catholic background has been a theme of or influence on the Pet Shop Boys' songs?

40.7% - I think it's been an important theme or influence, but not really "predominant." ¤
39.8% - I think it's been a noticeable theme or influence, but not really an "important" one.
09.6% - I think it's been a tremendous theme and/or influence—among the most predominant ones in their work.
06.6% - I don't think it's been very much of a theme or influence at all.
02.4% - I'm not really sure or I have no opinions about this one way or the other.
00.9% - I have a very different opinion from any of those described above.*

*Among the alternate opinions shared by voters:

"I think it was an early influence on some of the songs from Please – Behaviour, but less so now."

"I'd say Neil's Catholic influence manifests itself in songs of great quality rather than quantity."

Survey 802 - Week of February 19, 2017
Opinions of PSB songs the Boys themselves don't like (397 voters)

Of the PSB songs that I've so far been able to identify as those that one or both of the Boys themselves apparently dislike (the subject of one of my "PSB Lists"), which ones are:

your own personal favorite,
your own least favorite,
the one that surprises you the most that one or both of them dislike, and
the one that strikes you as "most quintessentially PSB"?

Note: The percentage figures below are based on the total number of voters. Because some voters did not make any choices in one or more categories, the percentages in each category do not total 100%.

Your own personal favorite:

33.0% - So Hard
15.6% - A Red Letter Day
10.8% - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi
08.3% - A Different Point of View ¤
07.3% - Hit and Miss
06.8% - Was That What It Was?
04.8% - The Loving Kind
04.5% - The View from Your Balcony
04.3% - Metamorphosis
03.0% - Hell
00.8% - What Keeps Mankind Alive?

Your least favorite:

41.8% - What Keeps Mankind Alive? ¤
11.6% - Hell
11.1% - Metamorphosis
07.1% - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi
07.1% - The Loving Kind
06.5% - The View from Your Balcony
04.0% - Was That What It Was?
03.0% - A Different Point of View
02.3% - Hit and Miss
01.5% - A Red Letter Day
01.3% - So Hard

The most surprising:

36.8% - So Hard ¤
12.8% - A Red Letter Day
08.6% - Hit and Miss
08.1% - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi
06.8% - A Different Point of View
05.5% - What Keeps Mankind Alive?
04.8% - Was That What It Was?
03.8% - The Loving Kind
03.5% - Metamorphosis
03.5% - The View from Your Balcony
02.8% - Hell

The most "quintessentially PSB":

37.8% - So Hard
22.9% - A Red Letter Day ¤
10.6% - A Different Point of View
07.3% - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi
06.5% - Was That What It Was?
02.8% - The View from Your Balcony
02.0% - Hit and Miss
01.8% - Hell
01.8% - Metamorphosis
01.5% - The Loving Kind
00.0% - What Keeps Mankind Alive?

Survey 801 - Week of February 12, 2017
Opinion of "Let's Get Lost" (309 voters)

Which of the following statements comes closest to expressing your opinion of "Let's Get Lost" by the Pretenders featuring Neil Tennant as guest vocalist with Chrissie Hynde?

33.0% - "It's OK. It's really not the sort of thing I generally care for, but I don't dislike it." ¤
30.4% - "It's good. I like it."
11.2% - "It's not very good. I don't like it."
08.7% - "It's brilliant! I love it!"
07.1% - "I haven't heard it, or at least heard it enough to form an opinion about it."
06.8% - "I've heard it, but I really don't have any feelings about it one way or the other."
02.3% - "It's awful! I strongly dislike it!"
00.6% - "I have a very different opinion from any of those expressed here."*

*Among the alternate opinions shared by voters:

"I'm pretty sure that if Neil was not on this track, it would have passed me by unnoticed. It's an average track; neither good nor poor, in my opinion."

"It's not as bad as I was expecting, but nothing special either."

"Needs more cowbell."

Survey 800 - Week of February 5, 2017
1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd singles from that imaginary album (340 voters)

As in last week's poll, imagine the following twelve highly rated Pet Shop Boys single b-sides had instead been released for the first time as tracks on a new PSB studio album. Which three of them do you believe would make the best singles from such an imaginary album, and in what order do you think it would be best for those imaginary singles to be released?

First single	Second single	Third single
29.4% - Shameless ¤ 25.3% - Fugitive 15.0% - Paninaro 05.6% - After the Event 05.6% - Delusions of Grandeur 04.7% - The Truck-Driver and His Mate 03.5% - Too Many People 03.2% - The Resurrectionist 02.6% - Miserablism 02.4% - Hit and Miss 01.8% - Always 00.9% - Your Funny Uncle	17.9% - Fugitive 14.4% - Shameless 12.1% - Paninaro 08.5% - After the Event 07.9% - Too Many People ¤ 07.1% - Miserablism 06.8% - The Resurectionist 06.5% - The Truck-Driver and His Mate 05.9% - Hit and Miss 05.6% - Always 05.6% - Delusions of Grandeur 01.2% - Your Funny Uncle	10.3% - Miserablism 10.0% - Hit and Miss ¤ 10.0% - Paninaro 09.7% - Fugitive 09.4% - Shameless 09.1% - Always 08.5% - Delusions of Grandeur 07.6% - The Resurrectionist 07.1% - After the Event 07.1% - Too Many People 05.3% - The Truck-Driver and His Mate 05.0% - Your Funny Uncle

As for the overall vote for being "imaginarily" released as a single at all (whether first, second, or third):*

53.2% - Shameless ¤
52.9% - Fugitive
37.1% - Paninaro
21.2% - After the Event
20.0% - Miserablism
19.7% - Delusions of Grandeur
18.5% - Too Many People ¤
18.2% - Hit and Miss ¤
17.6% - The Resurrectionist
16.5% - Always
16.5% - The Truck-Driver and His Mate
07.1% - Your Funny Uncle

*Note that these final percentages total to considerably more than 100%—actually, roughly 300%—because each voter could pick up to three songs as imaginary singles.

Survey 799 - Week of January 29, 2017
The relative quality of an imaginary album (336 voters)

Below I've listed twelve of the highest-rated Pet Shop Boys single b-sides (at least based on the results of my Rating Project), which total in length to about 50 minutes. Now imagine that these songs had never been heard before and have just now been released as a brand new PSB studio album. These tracks are listed in alphabetical order, which doesn't necessarily correspond to the order in which they would appear on this imaginary album. For the purposes of this poll, you may re-order them as you see fit:

After the Event
Always
Delusions of Grandeur
Fugitive
Hit and Miss
Miserablism

Paninaro
The Resurrectionist
Shameless
Too Many People
The Truck-Driver and His Mate
Your Funny Uncle

Based on this list of songs, how, in your estimation, would this imaginary album compare to the Boys' other studio albums? But please keep in mind that how good an album is overall largely depends not only on how good the individual songs are, but also on how well they "fit together."

32.4% - It would be an above-average PSB album.
32.1% - It would be one of their best albums, but not their very best.
16.1% - It would be an average PSB album. ¤*
11.3% - It would be a below-average PSB album.
03.3% - It would be their all-time best studio album!
02.1% - It would be their all-time worst studio album!
01.5% - It would be one of their weakest albums, but not their very worst.
01.2% - I'm not familiar enough with these songs to make a choice.

*The rationale for my own vote—and I suspect others who voted this way feel pretty much the same—is that, while I think this is an astounding set of songs taken individually, I really don't feel they would "work together" well as a studio album. So I would consider it "average" for PSB—not bad by any means, but not nearly on a par with their best albums taken as a whole.

Survey 798 - Week of January 22, 2017
Farthest from their musical comfort zone (419 voters)

This poll consisted of two questions. First—

Which Pet Shop Boys studio album do you think takes them them farthest from their musical "comfort zone"? To put it another way, on which studio album do you think they took the biggest musical risks, edging the farthest away from what they generally do best and are most familiar with?

67.3% - Release ¤
10.3% - Elysium
07.6% - Bilingual
04.3% - Behaviour
02.9% - Electric
01.9% - Yes
01.4% - Introspective
01.2% - Nightlife
01.0% - Very
01.0% - Super
00.5% - Please
00.5% - Fundamental
00.2% - Actually

And the second closely related question (330 voters)—

So far, which major PSB/Tennant-Lowe "special project" do you believe also takes them farthest from their "comfort zone"? (I'm only counting what I consider to be "major" projects, excluding remixes and one-time collaborations, such as their work with Eighth Wonder, Boy George, David Bowie, Pete Burns, Jean-Michel Jarre, and others).

55.8% - The ballet The Most Incredible Thing
20.6% - The film score Battleship Potemkin
11.2% - The song-cycle/suite A Man from the Future ¤
07.9% - The musical Closer to Heaven
02.1% - The bonus album Relentless
01.5% - Something else not listed here*
00.6% - Liza Minnelli's Results album
00.3% - Dusty Springfield's Reputation album

*One voter suggested their theatrical-release film It Couldn't Happen Here as an alternate choice. Another suggested their pre-concert "Meet & Greets"; that really doesn't strike me as a "special project," but who am I to disagree?

Survey 797 - Week of January 15, 2017
Will there and should there be a fourth Super single? (383 voters)

How do you feel about the prospect of a fourth single from Super (the first three being "The Pop Kids," "Twenty-something," and "Say It to Me")? Do you think there should be one? And do you think there will be one?

42.0% - "I think there should be a fourth single, but I don't think there will be one." ¤*
28.7% - "I don't think there should be a fourth single, nor do I think there will be one."
19.1% - "I think there both should be a fourth single and will be one."
06.0% - "I really don't have any feelings about this one way or the other."
04.2% - "I don't think there should be a fourth single, but I think there will be one."

*Regarding my own vote – I'll be very surprised if we see any more singles from Super. But if we do, I'll be very pleasantly surprised, especially if it's "Burn." I've thought from the very start that it should have been a single, and I have little doubt that it would have extended the Boys' run of #1 U.S. Dance Club hits.

Survey 796 - Week of January 8, 2017
Three favorite recent single b-sides (399 voters)

What are your three favorite post-Format* Pet Shop Boys single b-sides/bonus songs?

*I included among the choices a few single bonus tracks that were actually released before Format but weren't included in that collection. Because voters could make up to three choices, the percentages total to more than 100%. Voters could, however, vote for fewer than three if they wished, so the total comes to less than 300%.

39.8% - Fugitive
33.8% - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi ¤
27.3% - In His Imagination ¤
16.0% - Wiedersehen
15.5% - Viva la Vida/Domino Dancing (medley)
15.0% - I Started a Joke
14.8% - One Night
13.8% - Listening
13.3% - The Way Through the Woods
12.3% - My Girl
10.3% - In Bits
09.8% - Hell
08.8% - A Cloud in a Box
07.0% - Entschuldigung!
06.8% - Baby
06.5% - One Hit Wonder
06.0% - Odd Man Out ¤
05.8% - No More Ballads
05.5% - Glad All Over
05.0% - I Cried for Us
04.8% - The Dead Can Dance
03.5% - The White Dress
03.0% - Get It Online
01.3% - Inside

Survey 795 - Week of January 1, 2017
The most "apt" PSB album title (396 voters)

Which Pet Shop Boys studio album* has, in your opinion, the most "apt" title? To put it another way, which of the following titles do you believe most accurately describes or reflects the album's musical, lyrical, thematic, and/or stylistic content?

*For the purposes of this survey, I included Relentless, Alternative, and Format among the choices, although they're generally not considered "studio albums."

24.7% - Very ¤
16.2% - Electric
08.8% - Nightlife
08.3% - Behaviour
08.3% - Alternative
06.3% - Introspective
04.8% - Yes
04.3% - Fundamental
04.0% - Bilingual
03.5% - Relentless
02.3% - Actually
02.3% - Elysium
02.0% - Release
01.8% - Super
01.5% - Please
00.8% - Format

All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2020 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Nielsen Business Media, Inc.

	Enhances	Detracts	No Effect
I Don't Know What You Want But…	¤ 77.7%	5.0%	14.5%
Flamboyant	¤ 67.3%	3.6%	24.1%
Love etc.	¤ 67.3%	12.7%	18.2%
Se A Vida É (That's the Way Life Is)	¤ 66.8%	7.7%	20.5%
Single-Bilingual	¤ 62.3%	6.8%	25.0%
Axis	¤ 60.5%	4.5%	30.5%
I'm with Stupid	59.1%	¤ 16.4%	21.8%
Miracles	55.0%	5.9%	¤ 33.6%
New York City Boy	¤ 49.5%	13.6%	32.7%
Twenty-something	43.6%	¤ 21.4%	32.7%
You Only Tell Me You Love Me…	¤ 42.3%	7.7%	45.5%
Minimal	¤ 39.5%	12.3%	43.6%
Invisible	39.7%	16.9%	¤ 36.1%
Together	¤ 37.7%	18.2%	37.3%
Vocal	35.9%	19.1%	¤ 40.0%
Thursday	35.5%	17.7%	¤ 44.5%
London	¤ 35.0%	22.3%	36.8%
Integral	34.1%	16.8%	¤ 42.7%
A Red Letter Day	¤ 30.0%	26.4%	37.3%
Numb	27.3%	18.2%	¤ 47.7%
Before	21.8%	18.6%	¤ 52.7%
Somewhere	20.5%	22.7%	¤ 51.8%
I Get Along	20.0%	21.8%	¤ 53.2%
Leaving	18.2%	18.2%	¤ 56.4%
Winner	16.8%	45.0%	¤ 33.6%
All Over the World	15.5%	18.2%	¤ 56.8%
Did You See Me Coming?	¤ 14.5%	23.6%	54.5%
Home and Dry	13.6%	¤ 60.9%	22.7%

Album	Average	💣 0 stars	★ 1 star	★★ 2 stars	★★★ 3 stars	★★★★ 4 stars	★★★★★ 5 stars	Abstain
Behaviour	4.388	1.7%	0.8%	1.7%	8.8%	¤ 27.1%	60.0%	1.2%
Very	4.356	0.8%	0.8%	1.7%	10.9%	30.1%	¤ 55.6%	1.6%
Actually	4.222	0.8%	0.4%	2.1%	15.1%	¤ 35.6%	46.0%	1.6%
Introspective	4.076	0.8%	0.4%	5.9%	20.8%	¤ 27.1%	44.9%	2.9%
Please	3.889	0.4%	2.1%	3.0%	26.8%	¤ 37.9%	29.8%	3.3%
Alternative	3.717	1.3%	5.3%	8.0%	20.8%	¤ 35.0%	29.6%	7.0%
Yes	3.711	0.9%	3.0%	7.2%	26.0%	¤ 39.1%	23.8%	3.3%
Electric	3.697	0.9%	2.6%	9.4%	28.6%	¤ 30.3%	28.2%	3.7%
Fundamental	3.622	0.9%	2.6%	7.8%	33.0%	¤ 33.5%	22.2%	4.2%
Bilingual	3.430	1.7%	3.8%	10.2%	34.0%	¤ 34.5%	15.7%	3.3%
Super	3.350	2.1%	5.6%	16.2%	28.6%	¤ 26.1%	21.4%	3.7%
Format	3.307	0.5%	6.5%	14.4%	31.6%	¤ 34.4%	12.6%	11.5%
Nightlife	3.086	3.4%	7.3%	16.3%	32.6%	¤ 30.9%	9.4%	4.1%
Pandemonium	3.078	2.0%	¤ 10.8%	17.6%	30.4%	25.5%	13.7%	16.0%
Disco	3.037	2.7%	8.2%	¤ 21.0%	31.5%	23.7%	12.8%	9.9%
Relentless	2.995	4.6%	¤ 8.3%	20.4%	31.0%	20.8%	14.8%	11.1%
Elysium	2.974	3.4%	11.5%	15.8%	34.2%	¤ 23.5%	11.5%	3.7%
Concrete	2.793	4.5%	¤ 11.6%	19.7%	35.4%	21.7%	7.1%	18.5%
Release	2.738	3.9%	12.9%	23.6%	32.6%	¤ 19.3%	7.7%	4.1%
Disco 3	2.527	8.6%	10.9%	28.2%	¤ 29.5%	16.8%	5.9%	9.5%
Battleship Potemkin	2.471	7.4%	¤ 17.2%	28.4%	23.5%	15.2%	8.3%	16.0%
The Most Incredible Thing	2.201	10.6%	¤ 20.6%	25.9%	27.0%	12.7%	3.2%	22.2%
Disco 2	1.326	¤ 33.9%	25.2%	21.6%	14.2%	3.7%	1.4%	10.3%
Album	Average	0 stars (bomb)	1 star	2 stars	3 stars	4 stars	5 stars	Abstain