| Introspective | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Pet Shop Boys | ||||
| Released | 11 October 1988 | |||
| Recorded | 1987/88 | |||
| Genre | Synthpop | |||
| Length | 48:08 | |||
| Label | EMI Manhattan (US/Canada) Parlophone |
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| Producer | Pet Shop Boys, Trevor Horn, Stephen Lipson, Lewis A. Martineé, David Jacob, Julian Mendelsohn | |||
| Pet Shop Boys chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Introspective | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Rolling Stone | [2] |
| Robert Christgau | (A-)[3] |
| Spin | [4] |
Introspective is the third studio album by the English electronic music group Pet Shop Boys. It was first released in 1988 and is the Pet Shop Boys' second-best-selling album, selling over 4.5 million copies worldwide. (Their fifth studio album, Very, sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.)
It is so named because "all the songs, although it's a dance album, are introspective". Perhaps the biggest changes in Pet Shop Boys' sound evident on this album are an increasing attention to orchestration using real orchestras, particularly so on the Trevor Horn-produced "Left to My Own Devices", which took months to produce.
Contents |
The album was also unusual in that it completely reversed the typical process by which pop/dance acts released singles. Instead of releasing an album of regular-length (3-5 minute) songs, then releasing more lengthy remixes of those songs on subsequent singles, Introspective was released as an LP consisting of songs that all lasted six minutes or more. Songs from the album that were released as singles were released as shorter, more radio-friendly mixes. Of the four tracks on the album that were released as singles—"Left to My Own Devices", "Domino Dancing", "Always on My Mind", (which was released prior to the album) and "It's Alright"—none of them were released as radio singles in the same form that they appeared on the album.
It is also notable that, of the six tracks on the album, only two were actually written specifically for this project—those being "Left to My Own Devices" and "Domino Dancing". "Always on My Mind" & "It's Alright" are both cover versions, "I Want a Dog" is a song that previously appeared as B-side of the single "Rent" & "I'm Not Scared" is their own version of a song they had previously written for Patsy Kensit's pop group, Eighth Wonder. "Always on My Mind" was re-recorded for this album, and mixed with "In My House", a new acid-house track on the album which expanded the lyrics to the former song.
Introspective was re-released in 2001 (as were the group's first six albums) as Introspective/Further Listening. The re-released version was digitally remastered and came with a second disc of B-sides and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release. Yet another re-release followed on 9 February 2009, under the title of Introspective: Remastered. This version contains only the 6 tracks on the original.
Neil Tennant, in a speech he later gave to the Oxford Union, said that he regretted releasing Introspective so soon after Actually as he felt that the 12" nature of the songs may have put some fans off the band, and that this probably impacted on the sales of Behaviour, the subsequent album which is critically regarded to be the Pet Shop Boys' finest album but commercially one of their least successful. Nevertheless, Introspective remains, according to Neil Tennant, the best-selling Pet Shop Boys album internationally. It peaked at #2 in the UK Albums Chart, behind U2's Rattle and Hum.
| Chart (1988) | Peak position |
Total weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Argentinean Albums Chart[5] | 1 | 50 |
| Australian Albums Chart[6] | 44 | 11 |
| Austrian Albums Chart[7] | 8 | 6 |
| Canadian Albums Chart[8] | 68 | 24 |
| German Albums Chart[9] | 2 | |
| New Zealand Albums Chart[10] | 15 | 6 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart[11] | 14 | 4 |
| Swedish Albums Chart[12] | 5 | 8 |
| Swiss Albums Chart[13] | 2 | 15 |
| UK Albums Chart[14] | 2 | 39 |
| U.S. Billboard 200[15] | 34 | 21 |