Most recent updates: May 11, 2008

This Week's PSB Survey

Which of the following statements come closest to expressing your opinion of the track "Here Comes the Bear" (aka "It's the Bear")? I haven't heard it yet. I love it! It's a fantastic track! It's pretty good—I like it. Honestly, it's better than I thought it would be. It's OK—worth hearing a few times, but probably no more than that. I'm not sure about it, but it may grow on me. It's an interesting and worthwhile experiment, but not entirely successful. It really only has its release for a good cause and Chris's involvement to recommend it. I don't much care for it. I dislike it intensely! I have mixed feelings about it. None of these statements comes close to expressing my opinion. (If you choose this option, please feel free to use the "Comments" feature on the "Current Results" page to share your alternate opinion.) Current Results

What This Website Is All About

This website has no "official" connection to the Pet Shop Boys. It merely presents my own personal commentary—often including attempted explanations and interpretations—on the songs of my favorite contemporary pop band. Of course, this commentary has often been influenced by what the Pet Shop Boys themselves, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, have said about their music and by what others have previously written. Nevertheless, many of the observations I make here are original with me.

By no means am I suggesting that these are the "only" or "correct" interpretations. In fact, it's typical of great art, even great pop art, to lend itself to multiple interpretations. And I do consider the Pet Shop Boys to be the creators of great pop art. So you can take or leave my interpretations as you wish. If you disagree, please don't take offense. Rather, enjoy the fact that we're both fans of music rich enough to invite different interpretations.

The songs are covered in order of their first appearance on Pet Shop Boys albums. If a song has appeared on more than one album, it's discussed only with the album on which it first appeared. (That's why, for example, "I Want a Dog" and "We All Feel Better in the Dark" aren't discussed with the other tracks on Alternative—because they had previously appeared on Introspective and Disco 2, respectively.) I'm American, so I use U.S. spellings as opposed to British spellings—although I use the British spelling of Behaviour since that album's 2001 reissue used the U.K. spelling worldwide, including the U.S.

Finally, despite my best efforts, I have no doubt that I'm guilty of at least some factual errors. I recognize this fact and apologize in advance for any that may have slipped past me. I'll certainly correct any errors that come to my attention.

All songs discussed at length on this website were written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe unless otherwise noted.

This website will be most attractive and legible when viewed on a full screen at 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 screen resolution and Medium browser text size. In addition, this site makes extensive use of javascript; if your browser program isn't configured to use javascript or activescript, some features will not work properly.

This site was originally posted on March 16, 2001, and was most recently revised on May 11, 2008.

Honored by Yahoo! as a "Pick of the Week" (April 9, 2001)
and a "2001 Pick of the Year" (December 31, 2001)

Wayne Studer is the author of Rock on the Wild Side: Gay Male Images in Popular Music of the Rock Era (1994: Leyland Publications).

Number of page hits since March 16, 2001:

Copyright © 2001-2008 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary; it is therefore believed that they constitute Fair Use under U.S. copyright law.