Format

Format review

Pet Shop Boys – the brightest representatives of the British electronic

Foggy Albion is a motherland of really loud rock bands, mysterious indie-groups and original electronica projects. There is no doubt that a notable place in the list of the best dance bands of Great Britain is taken by the legendary Pet Shop Boys. These musicians started their professional career in early eighties of the previous century and managed to obtain hearts of millions of listeners all over the world. Vivacious and energetic composition of the duo felt quite abridged in the British islands, so Pet Shop Boys’s melodies flew over the Globe in no time. Music lovers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean enjoyed songs of the young band, which was incredibly good at combining melodiousness and pushiness, at the same time flavoring all that with incredibly interesting rhythmic patterns. Soon the musicians began creating quite original cover-versions of the famous songs of various artists. Curiously enough, but they succeeded in that sphere as well: their interpretation of Elvis Presley’s Always On My Mind got to the second place of the newspaper The Daily Telegraph chart. More than that, Pet Shop Boys even got to the Guinness Book of World Records as a band that released the biggest number of singles, which made appearance in the British TOP40, and that is just an unquestionable achievement. In brief, Pet Shop Boys did not waste their time. The duo’s discography includes an impressive number of excellent records, and the band issued another compilation album titled Format in 2012.

Meet your personal guide to the world of Pet Shop Boys: Format

If you are not acquainted with the creativity of that amazing band for some reason, then now you have a great opportunity to get to their most interesting and bright creations, also to various B-sides and just rare records. And the main point that one can do it easily, without tedious search, as soon as everything is presented on one long play: Format. It is opened by a track The Truck Driver And His Mate with thick and juicy electronic sound. It is followed by more melodious song Hit And Miss, and the duo has quite a lot of such melodious creations, in fact. Hit And Miss, for instance, had enough room for the guitar and soft bass. Then goes an amazing old school composition In The night 1995 with the traditional and distinctive for the past years ringing keyboards. The musicians could not ignore the song with quite a tricky and categorical title How I Learned To Hate Rock-And-Roll. Actually, it is simply unreal to give all the names of hits, as soon as the volume of the record is really big. We should give proper respect to that compilation, because not every collection proves to be so immense. Thus, Format included thirty eight songs with the total length of more than two hours!

Music of two decades

Format turned out to be capacious indeed and incredibly solid. In spite of such a big number of compositions, the record establishes a reputation of a monolithic creation. Even if we cannot call it an encyclopedia of electronic music in general, it still opens a full chapter of Pet Shop Boys’ art. In the period since the beginning of eighties to the middle of nineties Pet Shop Boys recorded a lot of songs, which were included into their studio albums later. However there was still much of material that did not become a part of the band’s official discography. Well, it goes without saying that these songs are desirable and called-for. Those who had not chance to get acquainted with the duo’s creativity will find plenty of interesting features in the sound and the concept itself, while the old fans will be amazed. Just imagine – the authentic sound from the twentieth century, and in such a quantity! Pet Shop Boys are considered to be one of the most influential musicians, who play in various styles, from house to new wave. Pet Shop Boys feel comfortable everywhere and it is easy to make sure of it: just listen to their songs of different periods of creativity. In that aspect Format is probably the best variant, because it represents a very rich material compilation.