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Introspective In 1998 the Pet Shop Boys filled in the gap between Actually, a real tour de force, and Behavior, an absolutely horrible album with the six-song EP Introspective. I guess the first thing you'd expect to find here would be hints, dark signs and portents of the evil that was to come. Unfortunately, I can't really say that. While Introspective does have some problems, in most respects, it doesn't at all preview Behavior in any way known to man except very briefly in the last song. In fact, the only explanation for Behaviour has to be some kind of otherworldly one. Perhaps the boys were kidnapped by aliens and replaced with clones that had extremely poor taste? Or perhaps some sort of demonic possession is to blame? I certainly can't say. However, Introspective was already disappointing in some ways compared to both Please and Actually. There was a shift in style, somewhat. I guess it had to be expected. Depeche Mode changed their sound library about this time to the more guitar-friendly and rough-edged synthesizer sound, and Erasure dropped their smoothly polished sound for a more electric, bleepy sound. The Pet Shop Boys also let go of their very polished sound to a certain extent, for a sound that was heavier and slightly lusher. Another big problem with this EP is the fact that it was so dang Detroit house influenced. All of the songs are extremely long, usually eight or nine something minutes. Frankly, very few songs can get away with being this long, and the single versions of all of these songs are much better (which also makes the purchase of Discography more important, even if you have everything else up to then.) "Left to My Own Devices," for example, is very long considering what it is, a mostly spoken song that tries to recapture a little of "West End Girl"'s spirit, but adding to that a slightly more upbeat atmosphere and sweeping orchestrations. In theory, this sounds like a great idea, but the spoken parts of PSB (even on "West End Girls" as far as I'm concerned) lack energy and conviction, and end up falling flat. After this, we come to the odd "I Want a Dog" which has clever lyrics, but is otherwise boring. Luckly, at only six and a quarter minutes long, it's the shortest song on the EP by more than a full minute. A little more satisfying is the hit single "Domino Dancing," although I don't think the song is good enough to rate an almost eight minute remix. Although the boys have said that the song is supposed to be a Latin-type song, I can see very little Latin influence. The beat isn't particularly Latin, and adding trumpet sounds hardly makes it Latin either. Also, I lived in South America for many years, and I can testify that pretty much all of the Latin music I ever heard has considerable more energy and vida than this song does, which always sounded kinda flat and formulaic. "I'm Not Scared" is the first song I think I can recommend in good conscious. It's not a wonderful song, but at least nothing's wrong with it either, and it is slightly clever and catchy at times. "Always On My Mind/In My House" should have been the best song on the CD, since it certainly was a wonderful hit single from the time, and the song has a lot of merit. Unfortunately, the song is ruined here by the house-like bridge which features "rap" vocals and a ridiculous base-line. Luckily, I have the CD single, so I can get a good extended remix of the song if I want it. Otherwise, the Discography greatest hits collection version is good enough. The final song on the EP is the extremely long "It's Alright" which does feature a few disco-ish influences. However, it seems to preview Eurodisco more than real disco. It doesn't have very good vocals, especially the backing vocals, and the beat is very cheesy as well, and the lyrics are sappy enough to make you retch. Overall, the EP isn't really that recommendable, I'm afraid. It has it's good moments, but most of these are recaptured in a more attractive form in the greatest hits collection, which also features some new versions of other Pet Shop Boys songs, like "Heart" and "Suburbia" as well as songs you can't get anywhere else, like "Where the Streets Have No Name." Overall, I'd recommend skipping both this disk and Behavior, which is even worse, and catching the good songs from those on the greatest hits.