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| “Introspective”
is the band’s third studio album, launched on October of 1988 as an unusual
format including just 6 extended version tracks with a minimum of 6 minutes
length. The artwork was designed by Mark Farrow and PSB and the iconic
sleeve appeared when Farrow was looking for colour combinations to use
and decided that the colour palette was exactly what he and Christophe
Gowabs were looking for. |
| Every format
released uses a different colour combination for the album cover with
seven stripes and a rectangular black box with the name of the band and
the title of the album, but the vinyl sleeve was always the main combination.
The back cover was all in black with tracks and titles at the bottom on
white type, same format used in the back cover of the remixed 12” vinyl
of “Heart”, early the same year. The inner-sleeve photography by Eric
Watson shows Neil & Chris wearing yellow t-shirts matching the background
colour and carrying a Yorkshire terrier little dog. |
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“Introspective”
was the first album in the history of the band with special editions
for collectors. The first, and probably most common edition, it’s a
3x12” limited edition where the artwork contains only six stripes instead
of seven, as the regular artwork, matching the number of tracks of the
album and an external bellyband with the copy “INTROSPECTIVE / PET SHOP
BOYS / LIMITED EDITION” in the front and the copy “A LIMITED EDITION
OF THREE 12 INCH SINGLES” in the back.
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| Each vinyl
is housed in a single coloured die-cut sleeve showing the 6” big labels
on each disc, each side includes only one track and the labels are personalised
according to each song: Side A includes “Left to my own devices” showing
the same photo of the single taken by Michael Roberts; side B includes
“I want a dog” with an exclusive photo of Chris taken by Eric Watson;
side C includes “Domino Dancing” with the same photo used on the 12” Remix
Single taken by Peter Andreas during their visit to Miami with the famous
“The Carlyle” hotel on the back; side D includes “I’m not scared” with
an exclusive photo of Neil taken by Michael Roberts with an historical
reference to Shostakovich; side E includes “Always on my mind” with Eric
Watson’s photo used on the US promos of the single release; and finally
side F includes “It’s alright” with a photo of Neil & Chris holding a
baby taken by Cindy Palmano. |
| There’s
another similar and more limited version printed in clear vinyl and made
for EMI Music executives, only 10 sets were made and now a days this item
is valued in £1,500 and is considered one of the 10 most rare and expensive
Pet Shop Boys’ items. Another collector’s edition, limited and numbered,
was released in the US and titled “Club Mixes”, including 4 out of 6 tracks
of the regular album, 2 exclusive remixes of “Left to my own devices”
and 2 exclusive remixes of “Always on my mind” all 4 made by Shep Pettibone,
and finally the ‘Base Mix’ of “Domino Dancing”. Most of the international
releases used the original artwork with the coloured stripes, the Argentinean
version translated the title in the front to spanish so it reads “Introspectivo”
and the Colombian version included a bright red coloured vinyl. |
