AMG Review of Introspective [Bonus CD]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

This is where things start to get interesting in Pet Shop Boys' reissue campaign, not because Introspective is one of their best recordings, but because the bonus disc is fascinating. Not that the "further listening" components of Please and Actually were boring, but they were tilted toward mixes. There are still a bunch of mixes here, all of them quite good, but there are also several non-LP songs -- including "Don Juan," "Losing My Mind," "What Keeps Mankind Alive?," "The Sound of the Atom Splitting," the Chris Lowe-sung "One of the Crowd," and the terrific "Your Funny Uncle" -- and, best of all, previously unreleased demos recorded for Dusty Springfield ("Nothing Has Been Proved") and Liza Minnelli ("So Sorry, I Said"), along with demos of "Don Juan" and "Domino Dancing." Springfield and Minnelli did record these songs, but it's fascinating to hear PSB's versions; they help form the heart of a further listening disc that plays as smoothly as the extended EP it accompanies.