The Pet Shop Boys' first album reveals a grittier, hungrier sound than most of their subsequent work. There's an urgent kind of narrative running through Please, from the escapist theme of the opening "Two Divided By Zero" through the seedy "West End Girls" to the tender "Tonight Is Forever" and the cautionary "Violence"; later on, "I Want A Lover" and "Later Tonight" get down and dirty before "Why Don't We Live Together" brings things, pleading, to a close. There's an appealingly edgy neediness to most of the tracks, verging at times on desperation, which is gradually whittled down through second and third albums Actually and Introspective and is largely missing from later albums.

Its four singles--seminal geek-rap "West End Girls", the you-can't-escape-lurve "Love Comes Quickly" and anti-Thatcherite anthems "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)" and "Suburbia"--still sound pretty fresh today. The album's other six and a bit tracks, while clearly of their time, still sound good 15 years on.

Add to all this an 11-track bonus disc of B-sides and remixes and this reissue is an essential purchase for anyone wanting to expand their PSB collection, or to hear, fascinated, just how far the band's sound has evolved over the years. --Rikki Price