Format, Pet Shop Boys' new B-sides collection, shows how clever artists can make pop gold from a single's flipside
The one-word titles of Pet Shop Boys albums always repay a second look and so it proves with Format, the name of their second volume of B-sides, covering 1995-2009. The B-side is a means of expression that owes its existence to outmoded formats: first the vinyl disc that needed both sides filling, then the CD single, which doubled or tripled the demand for extra music. During the 90s, when formatting went into overdrive, chart positions could be decided by how many fan-baiting bonus tracks you could scatter across multiple vinyl and CDs.
The rise of the download has put paid to that. Any artist with a surplus of material would be advised to save it for the deluxe reissue or website giveaways. But, though it began as a quirk of formatting and became an often cynical marketing ploy, for more than 40 years the B-side could also be a way of thinking about music: a parallel universe of creativity.
No comments:
Post a Comment