-1986-2007- 4-cd Set: Pet Shop Boys - Disco 1-4

For four decades, Pet Shop Boys have been that second kind of band.

So turn off the lights. Turn up the subwoofer. And let the Pet Shop Boys take you from 1986 to 2007, one midnight at a time.

But nowhere is their dedication to the dancefloor more clear than in the Disco series. Spanning 1986 to 2007, the four albums—now collected in the sleek Disco 1–4 CD box set—aren’t just remix collections. They’re alternate universes. They’re what happens when Neil Tennant’s dry, observational wit meets the pounding, euphoric, sometimes melancholy machinery of the 12-inch single. Pet Shop Boys - Disco 1-4 -1986-2007- 4-CD Set

The Disco series is not for beginners. Start with Actually or Behaviour if you want songs. But once you’ve fallen for Pet Shop Boys, once you understand that their heart beats in 4/4 time, these albums become indispensable.

“Miracles” (Lemonade Mix) – wait, that’s not right. Let’s be accurate: “Miracles” (Eric Prydz Mix) is pure euphoria, building like a cathedral of lasers. And “Try It (I’m in Love with a Married Man)” – a cover of a lost disco classic – turns adultery into a thumping, breathless confession. For four decades, Pet Shop Boys have been

You get their remix of Madonna’s “Sorry” (which turns the original into something darker, more paranoid). You get their production for David Bowie (“Hallo Spaceboy”) – wait, that’s 1996. Revisiting the tracklist: Actually, Disco 4 features the Pet Shop Boys’ remix of “Integral” (a Fundamental track) and their collaboration with Sam Taylor-Wood (“I’m in Love with a German Film Star”), plus remixes they did for The Killers (“Read My Mind”) and Yoko Ono (“Walking on Thin Ice”).

Let’s walk through each disc.

Put the discs in chronological order, and you hear synth-pop turn into house, house turn into electroclash, electroclash turn into 2000s prog-house. But more than that, you hear two constants: Neil Tennant’s voice, always a little detached, always observing; and Chris Lowe’s iron-fisted commitment to the beat.

Disco set the template: take the album, tear it apart, rebuild it for 4 a.m. And let the Pet Shop Boys take you