No Static at All: A Behind the Scenes Journey Through Radio and Pop Music

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Customer Review: Same as “Pop Back To The 70s”: BE WARNED!
*Contributor’s Note* Please don’t be fooled (as I was), this is another example of a Jive Bunny album being re-released under a different title. With the exception of a different sleeve, this is an exact copy of an earlier album, “Pop Back To The 70s”. After almost a decade of sampling hits from the 50s & 60s, Jive Bunny moves to the decade that musical taste forgot! Split into four elongated megamixes, this particular CD begins with a ‘Glam Rock’ mix featuring snippets from all the top ‘tunes’ from that era. Yeah, you’ve heard them all before, but the mixing treatment given to the songs adds a little freshness. Mix 2 concentrates on the ‘disco’ boom of the mid-late 70s. Some tracks may not be ‘classics’, yet you’ll have no doubt heard each and every one of them. Mix 3 is a brilliant ‘pop’ mix, featuring the likes of “Love Is In The Air” (recently covered by ‘Milk & Sugar feat JPY), “Baker Street”, “Living Next Door To Alice” and “Beautiful Sunday”. However, the fourth megamix, ‘Euro Pop’, is absolutely PANTS! As the title suggests, it samples ten European hits of the 70s, and in all fairness, it isn’t even worth playing, never mind writing about! “Pop Back In Time To The 70s” is worth buying for all you nostalgia buffs out there, but it’s certainly not an album you’ll play time and time again. (Incidentally, mixes one, two and three also appear in shorter versions on the Jive Bunny CD, “Hop Around The Clock”). Jon.
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Managing–sort of–to keep within the Pet Shop Boys tradition of one-word album titles, the moniker of this latest best-of, PopArt, is typical of the band–arrogant and somewhat pretentious yet also tongue-in-cheek and slyly self-aware. All the 35 tracks on these two CDs are indeed both pop and art and rather than being in chronological order have been split in fairly arbitrary fashion across a “Pop” and, erm, an “Art” disc. The band are doubtless well aware that much heated discussion will take place among fans about which track belongs where, and indeed, as evidenced on the commentary of the accompanying DVD, squabbled about the splits themselves when compiling this release.

Philosophical debates aside, this is an absolutely essential collection for anyone who enjoys the Pet Shop Boys’ unique mix of bittersweet poignancy, archness and occasional high camp–or indeed for any discerning pop (or art) fan. Encompassing almost all their single releases (only “Was It Worth It?” and “How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?” are missing), this is a glorious retrospective of one of Britain’s finest pop institutions. Let’s hope there are another 35 singles half this good for a quadruple box set in another 18 years’ time. –Rikki Price
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Customer Review: All their hits & more
This great two disc album from the Pet Shop Boys contains thirty five of the duos greatest songs. All of the Pet Shop Boys biggest hits, such as `Go West’ and `West End Girls’ are included as well as some that I hadn’t heard before buying this album but they are all very enjoyable. My favourite song from the album though is the relatively resent `Flamboyant’ and in all honesty it was this song that encouraged me to get the album in the first place. The one slight criticism of this album is that all of the truly great songs from the Pet Shop Boys could have easily fitted onto one CD rather but this is only a slight annoyance and even the songs presented here that are less that stunning are still a cut above much of the music released today. This album is great and would be of most interest to people who like the Pet Shop Boys but do not have own of their music.
Customer Review: Pop gold
Every track a classic, not a weak song on the album. Totally recommend for your IPOD/MP3 for the gym
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A singles band if ever there was one, the hits on Pop make the duo of Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure sound like the Rogers & Hammerstein of synth-pop disco. With the exception of The Circus and The Innocents albums, most of Erasure’s full lengths house only a few brief moments of brilliance, the rest of the songs being limp and uninspired. But putting songs like “Blue Savannah” with its sweeping loveliness, the haunting “Ship of Fools,” and the campy, raucous “Love to Hate You” all on the same disc shows that when Erasure is on, they shine like a thousand-carat tiara. The energetic and electronic disco is front and center here with “Oh L’Amour” and the audience participation number “Stop!,” but the beautifully crafted “Sometimes” shows the band’s true potential. The irrepressible melody line is punctuated by an acoustic riff and a melancholy trumpet solo that actually has to do its best to keep up with Bell’s warm lament. An indispensable collection. –Steve Gdula
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Customer Review: POP,POP AND MORE POP
At last all Erasure on one cd, 3 tracks to miss are HEAVENLY ACTION,WHO NEEDS LOVE LIKE THAT(BOTH REMIXES), all other tracks on the album are very good. A LITTLE RESPECT stands out as my best song on the album, AM I RIGHT a very close 2nd. The boys now show us all what fantastic song writers they are with this album. hopefully they will release a new album with all there greatest hits from their first hit WHO NEEDS LOVE LIKE THAT to there latest SUNDAY GIRL…….we wait and see
Customer Review: Unexpectedly Passionate, Romantic, and Bitter
I’m not often enthusiastic about club-dance-techno-pop bands, most of which seem determined to copy each other to the point of exhaustion. But I’ll make an exception for Erasure, which has a great deal more going for it than the vast majority of music you’re likely to hear the next time you hit the dance floor. Chief among the band’s assets is vocalist Andy Bell, who has a remarkably rich and passionate voice–but Erasure does not rely on Bell pure and simple. It is the combination of Bell’s vocals, a bouncy beat, and the often unexpectedly thoughtful and frequently bitter lyrics that do the trick. The result is a consistent sound that crackles with a sensuous passion, and at its best creates one memorable cut after another. POP! suffers from the usual failings of every compilation album, which is to say that it generally goes for the obvious choice even when a lesser-known selection is clearly superior. But even so, it offers a solid overview of Erasure, from the purely danceable to the disquietingly emotional playing against the dancefloor rhythm. “Ship of Fools,” “Chains of Love,” and “A Little Respect” are perhaps the side of Erasure that are most recognized–but when the selections turn to such intense and lyrically sharp selections as “Drama” and “Love to Hate You,” you know that you’ve stumbled into something special. The compilation, in my opinion, saves the best for last, running a gamut from the intensely passionate and romantic “You Surround Me,” to the purely elegant “Blue Savannah,” to angry “Chorus,” to the moody and introspective “Am I Right”–the latter of which may well be single finest thing in this collection. As a garnish, the collection finishes up with a very enjoyable cover of Abba’s “Take A Chance.” But whichever you happen to prefer, it’s all good stuff. Recommended. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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Pro Evolution Soccer 2 Pro Evolution Soccer was the best footy game ever, and what you want to know is: does this sequel better it? Thankfully, it does. The first thing that strikes you about Pro Evolution Soccer 2–an anglicised version of the Japanese Winning Eleven 6–is how much faster it is, not just in terms of the pace of your players but also their ability to turn more sharply when receiving the ball. In another clear attempt to up the tempo of the game, which some more arcade-orientated gamers complained was too slow and fiddly, players now recover much more quickly when they lose the ball–so there’s no waiting around for them to have a slice of orange before they deign to take part in the match again. And they need to be a bit sharper on their pins because it’s now much more difficult to tackle and conversely you have a lot more control when dribbling the ball. There are other minor changes, such as a slightly odd new horizontal camera option, but basically this is bigger, better and more. Just in case you’ve forgotten, that’s bigger, better and more of the best football game ever, so if you like your footy you really will want to be purchasing this. –David Jenkins
Customer Review: Hey Bobby, what is the french for va-va-voom?
If Championship Manager is (if you don’t count the recent debacle) the pinnacle of footy management games, then this surely has to be its on-the-pitch equivalent. I’ve been lobbying for this series since its modern inception on the PSone, as have many of the more well informed gamers out there. Even if there have been some cack versions - the original PES (I thought) was shocking - it’s always been better than Fifa.

In fairness, Fifa 2003 actually isn’t that bad. So at least they’ve raised the bar, to about five-a-side height. Unfortunately for Fifa’s motley crew, PES 2 is the best football game ever and this time consumers have noticed. For the first time since the two footballing franchises have clashed, Konami’s PES game has outsold EA’s Fifa contender. It’s not hard to see why

Every year Konami just tinkers a little bit with the game engine in their quest for perfection. Mostly they get it right but occasionally things do go wrong. My mine gripe with PES (1) was the woeful first-time touches players had, generally dribbling control was pretty dire too. Inaccurate passing didn’t help things along either, even five yard efforts seem an impossibility. And then there was the artificial intelligence, it was Casio calculator stuff. Players on your team wouldn’t move into space and the computer cynically hacked you down whenever possible. Basically it did everything in its power to irritate you.

But to my delight they’ve sorted it all out again with PES 2. The controls are responsive, the players can now control the ball, and passing plays are fluid and gratifying. You feel as though you’re controlling the game this time rather than it controlling you. You can hold onto the ball, wait for options, fire it back to the defence, try and take on the opposition through quick feet. It feels far more open, as it should do.

Single player gaming is much improved and the Master League (a bit like Championship Manager, but you play rather than watch the matches) provides a long and tough challenge - one that you keep coming back too. A diverting training game is included too. It’s not exactly a tutorial eye-opener on how to play the game, but the tasks are entertaining and challenging as mini-games in their own right. To get the most out of PES 2, though, grab a couple of extra controllers, find some mates who are pretty rubbish at it and then spend the rest of the evening wiping the floor with them.

The great thing about PES 2 is that novice players can pick up the game quite quickly and be at least a challenge to other, more seasoned players. This isn’t because the game’s simple with no depth - on the contrary, it has that in abundance - it’s because the A.I. levels out the playing field. It brings players back into position, provides obvious passing outlets, gives the goalkeepers excellent but sensible abilities. A player never feels out of his depth even in such a game with thousands of different ways to play the game and score.

There are a few things about the engine I would like to see improved upon. Fouls are still committed too regularly, mostly on an accidental basis - and in a follow up to that, you’re a bit stranded with free-kicks around the box as a simple pass will negate your entire defence. Defenders still seem to get a far superior bonus when going up for headers (so crossing isn’t as important as it should be), there still isn’t the flexibility in long balls that there should be and default formations always seem to adopt a defensive posture - although this can be rectified through the comprehensive formation and strategy editor.

The silly discrepancies still remain too. Commentary is pathetic but hilarious at the same time (the Trevor Brooking heavy breathing sound is a moment to savor). Real player names are inconsistent too. Full England players but no Brazilians and the Dutch secret service pose as the mighty Netherlands (Oranges 007 anyone?). And why is there still no option to replay random moments from the game at the time of your choosing? Silly, but forgivable.

Aesthetically there isn’t much difference compared to the original Playstation 2 game. In some ways you could argue that this is nothing more than a patch for PES. As patches go, though, it just about fixes every major issue the original had. If you’re only interested in fancy graphics, real player names and face-value style then you’ll probably already have Fifa. For football connoisseurs, though, there is only one choice.

With quick reference to Pro Evolution 3. Yes, that is a better game but one that demands some attention and effort to get over its annoying habits. PES 2 is more accessible and easier to play in the first instance but patience in PES 3 has higher rewards.
Customer Review: You Call this shit a game?
i slept overnight at the GAME store waiting for this so called game……….as soon as i laid my hands on this obnoxious title of a gme i was thrilled beyond words. My playstation quickly gobbled up the title as it was switched on……….. i was greeted with the QUEEN classic WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU
unfortuantly the game didnt live up to the actual song
i enjoyed my first game against ARSENAL who played against the legendary triple entente champions MANCESTER UNITED
The games a farce a plothole in the cosmic universe
shameful
outrageous
down right rip off

No Static at All: A Behind the Scenes Journey Through Radio and Pop Music