Actually

Release

Actually was released on 7 September 1987 by record label Parlophone in the UK and EMI Manhattan in the United States and Canada. In TV commercials (in the UK, at least) for the release, Lowe and Tennant were shown in black tie, blank-faced against a white background. The former seems unimpressed by a radio DJ-style Alan 'Fluff' Freeman voiceover listing their previous hits and the new LP's singles, while the latter eventually 'gets bored' and yawns, with the image then freezing to create, roughly, the album's cover shot.

Actually spawned four UK Top 10 singles: the No. 1 lead-off single "It's a Sin", "Rent", "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" – a duet with fellow Parlophone artist Dusty Springfield which peaked at No. 2 in both the UK and US and led to a major resurgence of interest in Springfield's earlier work – and another UK No. 1 in April 1988 with a remixed version of the song "Heart".

During this period the Pet Shop Boys also completed a full-length motion picture called It Couldn't Happen Here. Featuring songs by the duo, it was most famous for containing the video for "Always on My Mind" (starring Joss Ackland as a blind priest), which—while not on Actually—was released as a single during this period.

Actually was re-released in 2001 (as were most of the group's albums up to that point) as Actually/Further Listening 1987–1988. The re-released version was not only digitally remastered but came with a second disc of B-sides, remixes done by the Pet Shop Boys and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release. Yet another re-release followed on 9 February 2009 under the title of Actually: Remastered. This version contains only the 10 tracks of the original release. With the 2009 re-release, the 2001 2CD re-release was discontinued. Actually has sold over 4 million copies to date.

Reception

Actually has been well received by critics.

Robert Christgau gave the album an A– grade, writing "this is actual pop music with something actual to say—pure commodity, and proud of it."

In his retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that Actually is the album "[where] the Pet Shop Boys perfected their melodic, detached dance-pop".

Legacy

Actually is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

In 2006 Q magazine placed the album at No. 22 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s". In 2012 Slant listed the album at No. 88 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".

Although not released as a single, the track Shopping is frequently featured as background music in British television news and current affairs programs dealing with retail business issues and as bumper music on home shopping shows. This is despite the fact that the song is actually a critique of privatisation in Britain under Margaret Thatcher, and has little to do with actual shopping. Tennant later remarked:

The Eighties were [sic] very concerned with buying and selling. However I couldn't think of anything particularly interesting to say about shopping so the words are about the government selling off nationalised industries. We were obviously against it. At the time it was oppressive in London – there were these flaming adverts saying "Tell Sid", the campaign for the government gas sell-off. When this album came out many people, including ourselves, took the whole album to be loosely about Thatcherism, because you have this song, about nationalised industries, you have poverty in "King's Cross", you have AIDS in "It Couldn't Happen Here". "Shopping" is also the other song ...

Furthermore, despite Tennant voting for Labour in the 1987 election, he reflected in 2006 his hope that Thatcher would prevail regardless, so as not to "ruin" an album "about Thatcherism".

Track listing

All tracks written by Pet Shop Boys (Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe), except as noted.

Personnel