Discography: The Complete Singles Collection

1	West End Girls 3:59
2	Love Comes Quickly 4:18
3	Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) 3:38
4	Suburbia 4:04
5	It's a Sin 5:01
6	What Have I Done to Deserve This? 4:19
7	Rent 3:33
8	Always on My Mind 3:55
9	Heart 4:17
10	Domino Dancing 4:18
11	Left to My Own Devices 4:48
12	It's Alright 4:20
13	So Hard 4:00
14	Being Boring 4:51
15	Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You) 4:32
16	Jealousy 4:14
17	DJ Culture 4:14
18	Was It Worth It? 4:22

Barnes & Noble

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe merged seemingly disparate elements -- cold, hard-edged techno pop with classic songwriting technique and biting humor -- to create some of the most substantial and invigorating music of the mid and late '80s. All of their top U.K. singles are present on Discography. The compilation tracks their career from "West End Girls," their first big hit in 1985, through their October '91 single, "DJ Culture." Their songs are brilliantly structured, and the lyrics, though occasionally diminished by Tennant's deadpan delivery, are often ingenious. Consider the chorus from "Rent": "Look at my hopes/Look at my dreams/The currency we've spent/I love you/You pay my rent." In addition to their originals, Discography contains two controversial covers, their synthesizer-heavy updating of Elvis Presley's "Always on My Mind" and their remake of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name," which interpolated the lounge classic "I Can't Take My Eyes off of You." Elvis and U2 fans were scandalized, but for the Pet Shop Boys it was just another episode of taking elements that shouldn't match and making it fashionable. Martin Johnson

All Music Guide

Most of the Pet Shop Boys' albums are well-crafted and thoroughly intriguing in their own right, but dance-pop is a medium that is driven by hit singles. Discography collects all the duo's numerous hit singles, including a handful of non-album tracks, in their original 7" single mix, which occasionally varies from the album version, particularly in the case of the Introspective material. Presented chronologically, the singles not only demonstrate the band's increasing musical sophistication, they illustrate what fine songwriters Tennant and Lowe are. These 18 songs form one of the most consistent and innovative bodies of work of its era. Some of the production techniques have dated slightly, but the music has remained impressive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine