Customer Rating:  
Summary: Pet Shop Boys, Seriously
Comment: After the lush ad rich singles on Introspective, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe switched gears and made a low-key album that actually was introspective. "Behavior" tightened up the song lengths, reigned in the sarcastic irony (somewhat) and - to a great extent - made a coming out record. "Behavior" is almost Steely Dan-ish in its quality, a full-bore attempt to be taken seriously.
Which is why starting off the album with the cool, tongue-in-cheek "Being Boring" is so perfect. Addressing the night-life chaos of the 70's and 80's, Neil fast-forwards to the 90's and the sudden realization that AIDS has wiped the slate of friends and associates....as he wistfully notes:
"We were always looking back, hoping that
you could always rely on a friend."
From there, we take looks at the hell of boarding school ("This Must Be The Place I Waited Years to Leave"), relationships gone sour ("Jealousy") and the pratfalls of becoming famous (the dance-hit "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously"). But the overall tone of the album is low-key, and some of the best songs here reflect that. In particular, the aging Russian Writer's lament "My October Symphony." It's given the same orchestra power of "Left to my Own Devices" but loses the disco pulse, as the vodka-sotted writer wonders if all those songs he wrote for his great cause are all just worthless words, since the revolution went bust. It plays with the notions of ideology and creation, and the ethical dilemma of what you compose vs what you believe. It's one of the best songs on the CD.
Once Chris and Neil had this out of their systems, they took a brief hiatus. The excellent Discography: The Complete Singles Collection was released in the interim, then their masterpiece Very three years later. I consider "Behavior" and "Very" to be a continual work, almost like a double album, Tenant and Lowe's creative high water mark. Get them both, and the versions with the bonus discs where possible.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Being boring indeed
Comment: The lead track, "Being Boring," has engendered affection over the years, but it is unmistakably ironic that a song with that title leads off an album of mostly plodding, sleepy, electro-elevator music. Most of the songs are boring. You'd have to be a hardcore PSB fan to find this a good album. For everyone else, this is the single for "Being Boring" and "How Can You," and all the rest are B-sides.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Album Ever
Comment: This album truly is a classic. The songs are well written and the more you listen to them the more they mean something to you. I bought the album when it first came out and would listen to it every night when I went to bed. It is the kind of album I put on and just want to lose myself in. It's all about growing up and living life - brilliant!
It doesn't have the disco edge of other PSB albums, but the moods in it are amazing. Being Boring is probably one of the best pop songs ever written, and the video is fantastic. Lines like "we were never being boring, we had too much time to find for ourselves...", "I never dreamt that I would get to be the creature that I always meant to be, but I thought in spite of dreams, you'd be sitting somewhere here with me..." - just leave you with chills!
If you are a PSB fan already or just discovering them for the first time you have to have this album as it truly is the best thing they have ever done - and I am probably one of their biggest fans, so it is coming on good authority!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour-Great Behaviour
Comment: No one tops this band live. "My October Symphony" is absolute super-rock,in its best fashion;as is the entire CD.We are not looking at a few guitars but backing by an entire orchestra,we love the strings. This is BIG SOUND at it's best. Who doesn't appreciate Tennant and Lowe for their musical genius? "Being Boring",which this CD is not, shows us how their wide range of ability can transend to musical heights. Check out "Very" as well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the album (and bonus CD mixes), 1 star for the 'remastering'
Comment: I just picked up this 2CD "remastered" edition and although the packaging and the bonus CD with mixes/b-sides/rarities are top notch, the new mastering job is awful. Being a long-time PSB fan, I've owned the original edition of 'Behavior' (I.E. not remastered) for years and I've always thought that it, along with all the other albums, were very well produced and sounded just superb---and I still do. Unfortunately this edition's sound quality is notably inferior when you do a direct comparison to the original release. As with most music production today, this release has been highly compressed (louder overall volume at the cost of sound quality) which has resulted in a lackluster presentation.
In conclusion, if you're buying this edition for the extra mixes (yes, they really are great!) and are not too picky about audio quality, you'll be more than satisfied. If, on the other hand, you're buying it for the so-called 'remastering', move on and pick up he original release, it sounds far better.
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