What we know so far about PSB15 (aka the next album):
Burning the Heather was originally going to be saved and used as the guiding framework for the next album but was released instead on Hotspot
Produced by James Ford, who notably recently produced Jessie Ware's two albums, Depeche Mode's Memento Mori, and Blur's The Ballad of Darren. Neil also has been an outspoken fan of his group The Last Shadow Puppets
Two albums worth of songs were written over quarantine, including a song about Rudolf Nureyev, and a song about the pandemic titled "Living in a lonely time". Additionally, there are several songs written from the Super era that have not yet been released
Neil bought a keyboard and learned how to use GarageBand to write songs himself
Neil stated in Classic Pop that the next album would be "...very tuneful, less super-electronic sounding. Strings will be returning. It's more autobiographical, looking back."
They started work on the album in March 14, 2023 and posted a photo likely of James Ford's studio. The photo showcases a xylophone, bell pepper shaker, multiple keyboards and synthesizers, reel-to-reel tape machines, a guitar, a hammered dulcimer, and others
In April 2023, strings and brass were recorded at The Church Recording studio in London
Recording for the album likely ended before they went back on tour at the end of May 2023
Neil supposedly told a fan that the album would be out in Spring, possibly April 2024
Things that might influence the album:
Over quarantine, Neil watched a lot of 1940s film noir
Their BBC Radio Takeover in 2021 and song selections - Chris usually is the one who decides on their albums' directions, so his choices might hint at that
Lost EP saw the release of four songs from the Super era that had previously been unreleased. Given they were released as an EP and not saved for the next album might hint that they wouldn't have fit the musical or thematic style of the next album (too electronic?)
During quarantine, Neil started a project of digitizing his diaries, which might explain why the next album might be more autobiographical
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And you wait 'til later
'Til later tonight
You wait 'til later, 'til later
'Til later tonight
'Cause tonight always comes...
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So I wanted to look through some pictures of the PSB's Nightlife album set, and to my grimace, a lot of the results in every page had them in awful quality and captioned, despite I wanted them textless in the first place.
My obsessive ass spent nearly an hour still searching until I found some Russian forum having raw scans of the album set without captions, but the scans themselves had awful contrast and washed out colors, plus unsolvable grain all over them. In a fit of frustration, I had to spent a few hours of my life cleaning and color correcting these pictures to the best of my abilities with Photoshop until I was satisfied with the result.
There is a lot to be desired, as I'm still learning about image cleanup and tools to properly conduct quality restoration, but this is the best I've gotten so far. Last one was NOWHERE to be found in full condition and without captions, so AI upscale was needed for it as well.
Maybe I'll remake this set to an optimized state sometime this year, once I've learned enough and better about image cleanup.
So here's this at the moment.
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I get the intent of this…and it is well researched and makes sense based on the time of its publication…but in my professional opinion (cue my maniacal/“Chris Lowe” laughter)… it gives the impression that PSB is a “choose your own adventure” or traditional board game with a linear path. To me it is more like “Trivial Pursuit,” you will have your favorite albums, put to truly appreciate/“win” the game, you must experience it all…possibly several times over.
That being said, “Relentless” and “Alternative” are two of my favorites so…I think my criticism can only be so harsh….so returns my maniacal/“Chris Lowe” laughter…
…also, no one better come for my dear “Bilingual”…..
…clearly I lost control of my own rant…
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