Pet Shop Boys' 'Bilingual' At 16: Hit And Miss

Many Pet Shop Boys albums have been released in the fall, and several of them have arrived in September, including Actually, Very, Bilingual and the duo's upcoming LP Elysium. Today actually marks the 16-year anniversary of their sixth studio album Bilingual, which was released in the UK on September 2, 1996 (and in the US a day later).

Bilingual was an album I personally struggled to enjoy when it came out, though I did try for a good year or so. Very — which I've talked about at length before — arrived when I was still an impressionable teenager, a year away from going off to university. It was bright and exciting. Bilingual was darker and, in typical fashion, the PSBs had veered off in a completely different direction, musically. I was now starting my final year of college and, I think, feeling a bit divided over where I belonged — I felt exhausted after 17 years of education and eager to see it end; but I was also unsure of what the "real world" would be like.

Anyway, there was a record store on my university's campus called Vibes, and I stood in line at midnight to buy Bilingual. I stayed up till about 2 a.m. playing it in my room — a single, as it were — in my residence hall. Overall, I think I was hoping the album was going to be Very 2. Which, of course, it wasn't.

Oh, well — "A Red Letter Day" and "Up Against It" were, at least, instant classics to my ears, and I later grew to really enjoy tracks like "The Survivors", "It Always Comes As A Surprise" and "To Step Aside." And now, 16 years later, I think I've even found some appreciation — some — for lead single "Before."