Disco 2

The tracks on the CD were mixed into one long continuous megamix by DJ Danny Rampling. As a result, most of the tracks are in edited versions, having been cut off mid-way through in a crossfade into the following tracks (as a DJ might do while mixing music live). Some of the tracks were reduced by more than half of their original lengths in this way. In addition, some tracks were sped up or slowed down, in order to match the overall tempo of the mix.

A limited edition of the album was released in the United States which contained a second CD with B-sides and additional mixes.

Though the album is a DJ mix by Rampling, mention of this only appears on the inner sleeve.{{cite journal |last1=Wolk |first1=Douglas |title=Reviews |journal=CMJ New Music Monthly |date=January 1995 |page=39 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/CMJ/New-Music/CMJ-New-Music-1995-01.pdf |access-date=4 August 2024}} Considered one of EMI's autumn 1994 highlights, Disco 2 was promoted from its September release through to Christmas.{{cite journal |title=EMI's Autumn Highlights |journal=Music Week |date=24 September 1994 |page=28 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1994/Music-Week-1994-09-24.pdf |access-date=4 August 2024}} An earlier remix album, also titled Disco 2, was due for release in 1988 following the release of Actually (1987) and was to contain extended versions of Pet Shop Boys songs. The duo cancelled the album in protest at EMI including their cover of "Always on My Mind" – intended for inclusion on Disco 2 – on Now That's What I Call Music 11, against the duo's wishes.{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Alan |title=This Week's Chart |journal=Record Mirror |date=2 April 1988 |page=46 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/80s/88/Record-Mirror-1988-04-02-OCR.pdf |access-date=4 August 2024}}

{{Album ratings

| subtitle = Initial reviews (in 1994)

| rev1 = Accrington Observer

| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite journal |title=Record reviews...record reviews |journal=Accrington Observer |date=16 September 1994 |page=35 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/867524676/?match=1&terms=disco%202%20pet%20shop |access-date=4 August 2024}}

| rev2 = Christgau's Consumer Guide

| rev2score = {{Rating-Christgau|dud}}{{cite web |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Pet+Shop+Boys |title=Pet Shop Boys |first=Robert |last=Christgau |website=RobertChristgau.com |access-date=29 September 2011}}

| rev3 = Knoxville News Sentinel

| rev3score = {{Rating|3|5}}Campbell, Chuck (14 October 1994). "Pet Shop Boys Mix Up Hits On 'Disco 2'". Knoxville News Sentinel.

| rev4 = The Leader-Telegram

| rev4score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite journal |last1=Campbell |first1=Chuck |title=Pet Shop Boys show vitality |journal=The Leader-Telegram |date=23 October 1994 |page=4H |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/361667851/?match=1&terms=disco%202%20pet%20shop |access-date=4 August 2024}}

| rev5 = Music Week

| rev5score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine|first=Alan|last=Jones|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1994/Music-Week-1994-09-17.pdf#page=21|title=Market Preview: Mainstream - Albums|magazine=Music Week|date=17 September 1994|page=19|access-date=14 June 2025}}

| rev6 = NME

| rev6score = 4/10{{cite magazine |last=Dee |first=Johnny |date=10 September 1994 |title=Long Play: Hat Blokes Not Funny Anymore |magazine=New Musical Express |page=47}}

| rev7 = Select

| rev7score = {{Rating|2|5}}

}}

{{Album ratings

| subtitle = Retrospective reviews (after 1994)

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r653288 |label="Pet Shop Boys: Disco 2" |first=Stephen Thomas |last=Erlewine |access-date=29 September 2011}}

| rev2 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev2score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{cite book|author=Larkin, Colin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th edn) |publisher=Omnibus Press |location=London, UK |year=2011| chapter=Pet Shop Boys}}

| rev3 = The Great Rock Discography

| rev3score = 5/10

| rev4 = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| rev4score = 6/10{{cite book|editor1-last=Weisbard |editor1-first=Eric |editor1-link=Eric Weisbard |editor2-last=Marks |editor2-first=Craig |year=1995 |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide|chapter= Pet Shop Boys|publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |isbn=0-679-75574-8|pages=294–295}}

}}

In his review of Disco 2, Johnny Dee of NME wrote that it "works as a party album, an album you can leave on for an hour of comedy dances, trancing and Italo house-style raving while you and your mates get drunk", and considered it passable as a budget-priced remix album. However, he believed it to be disappointing as a follow-up to Very, criticising how many of the tracks "endlessly repeat one stuttering phrase", and also considered the interspersed samples of Absolutely Fabulous characters Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone to be "very poor".{{cite journal |last1=Dee |first1=Johnny |title=Hat Blokes Not Funny Anymore |journal=NME |date=10 September 1994 |page=47}} Believing that the Pet Shop Boys were the only popular pop act to treat their dancefloor remixes as "more than just something to stick on those CD2-out-next-Tuedsay things", Andrew Harrison of Select commented on the high expectations for Disco 2 – built by the first Disco album and Introspective (1988). Nonetheless, he deemed it more like a Pet Shop Boys edition of the Journeys by DJ mixtape series, and believed that Rampling had lost the drama and humour of the original tracks, as well as "the songs, which PSB remixes never normally fully abandon". He recommended that readers buy the Very twelve-inch singles instead.{{cite journal |last1=Harrison |first1=Andrew |title=New Old Albums |journal=Select |date=October 1994 |page=111}}

Douglas Wolk of CMJ New Music Monthly wrote that, on release, Disco 2 was the highest-profile DJ-centred mix CD available. He believed that the album's lengthy flow of "mixes and dubs" is "almost too smooth and clean to bear. You may move your hips, but you won't feel the urge to grind them into anything." Music Week called it both a "belated follow-up" to Disco and a "47-minute megamix" which should sell well.{{cite journal |title=The Essential Music Week Stocking Guide |journal=Music Week |date=17 September 1994 |page=19 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1994/Music-Week-1994-09-17.pdf |access-date=4 August 2024}} A reviewer for Accrington Observer called it the "second stomping disco album from the kings of the remixes" and believed that the Pet Shop Boys' distinctive sound had been reworked for a "must buy" set. Reviewing Disco 2 for St. Louis Post-Dispatch, J.D. Considine enjoyed the inclusion of two songs unavailable of otherwise, and praised how the remixes are "more like re-inventions" than mere repackages of the original versions, "sometimes just changing the original's mood, sometimes reducing the whole to a few essential hooks". Though believing those who favour Tennant's dry tenor would feel let down, as his voice is wholly absent from some tracks, he concluded that the album's "beat-savvy production and disco-ready megamix format make it a party unto itself."{{cite journal |last1=Considine |first1=J.D. |title=Upbeat |journal=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=14 October 1994 |page=8G |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/142348499/?match=1&terms=disco%202%20pet%20shop |access-date=4 August 2024}}

In The Herald-Sun, Howard Cohen said the album's lengthy mix of "techno, Eurodisco and house" remixes was "perfect for clubs but can be stultifying at home", adding that some remixes rendered the original versions unrecognisable. Ultimately, he wrote that Disco 2 is "fine for the young and energetic who can keep up with the mega-beats-per-minute mixes".{{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Howard |title=Pet Shop Boys want you to tap your feet |journal=The Herald-Sun |date=30 October 1994 |page=45 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/791990822/?match=1&terms=disco%202%20pet%20shop |access-date=4 August 2024}} The Leader-Telegram reviewer Chuck Campbell opines that it proves the duo's "post-'88 viality and their adaptability to change with fashion", and commented on how DJs could play the album and "take a 47 minute break", due to the lack of segues. However, he believed some fans may be "overwhelmed by Tennant's nasal singing" over such a length. In a short review, Jonathan Takiff of The Philadelphia Daily News included Disco 2 in a list of albums to ignore and quipped: "Don't quit your night job, boys."{{cite journal |last1=Takiff |first1=Jonathan |title=Forget It |journal=The Philadelphia Daily News |date=30 September 1994 |page=60 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/187167367/?match=1&terms=disco%202%20pet%20shop |access-date=4 August 2024}} Reviewing the "Yesterday I Was Mad at You" single, released to promote the remix album, Hitmakers described Disco 2 as "ultra hip" and added that Junior Vasquez' remix is "on fire," while the Jam & Spoon mix is "totally cool".{{cite journal |title=Mix Show Disc-overy Club |journal=Hitmakers |date=23 September 1994 |page=46 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Hitmaker/94/Hitmakers-1994-09-23.pdf |access-date=4 August 2024}}

In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Disco 2 as "more long-winded" than the first Disco album, "suffering not only from too many pointless remixes, but a surprising lack of cohesiveness, making it for devoted fans only."{{cite web | url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/disco-2-mw0000118680 | title=Disco 2 - Pet Shop Boys | Album | AllMusic | website=AllMusic }} In a review of its follow-up Disco 3 (2003), Drowned in Sound{{'s}} Mark Reed dismissed Disco 2 as an "unimaginatively-titled medley" of techno remixes.{{cite web |url=http://drownedinsound.com/releases/3224/reviews/6098-pet-shop-boys-disco-3 |title=Pet Shop Boys: Disco 3 |first=Mark |last=Reed |date=14 February 2003 |website=Drowned in Sound |access-date=30 September 2011 |archive-date=17 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117070253/http://drownedinsound.com/releases/3224/reviews/6098-pet-shop-boys-disco-3 |url-status=dead }} Martin C. Strong, writing in The Great Rock Discography (2006), commented that Disco 2 and the B-sides collection Alternative (1995) mark period in which the duo kept a "fairly low profile" following the release of Very. He rated Disco 2 five out of ten, the same as Disco and higher than Disco 3.{{cite book |last1=Strong |first1=Martin C. |title=The Great Rock Discography |date=2006 |publisher=Canongate Books |location=Edinburgh |isbn=1-84195-827-1 |chapter=Pet Shop Boys |page=813}} In Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s (2000), Robert Christgau rated the album a "dud".{{cite book |title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |chapter=Pet Shop Boys |date=2000-10-15 |publisher=Macmillan Publishing |isbn=9780312245603}}

1. "Absolutely Fabulous" (Rollo Our Tribe Tongue-In Cheek Mix) – 0:29
2. "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" (Beatmasters Extended Nude Mix) – 4:15
3. "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" (DJ Pierre Wild Pitch Mix) – 2:59
4. "Go West" (Heller & Farley Project Mix) – 3:40
5. "Liberation" (E Smoove 12" Mix) – 6:09
6. "So Hard" (Morales Red Zone Mix) – 2:48
7. "Can You Forgive Her?" (Rollo Dub) – 4:03
8. "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" (Junior Vasquez Fabulous Dub) – 4:54
9. "Absolutely Fabulous" (Rollo Our Tribe Tongue-In Cheek Mix) – 6:01
10. "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" (Coconut 1 12" Mix) – 2:12
11. "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" (Jam & Spoon Mix) – 5:01
12. "We All Feel Better in the Dark" (Brothers in Rhythm After Hours Climax Mix) – 5:21 *Mislabeled. This is actually the Ambient Mix

1. "Decadence" – 3:55
2. "Some Speculation" – 6:33
3. "Euroboy" – 4:28
4. "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" (RAF Zone Dub Mix) – 5:37
5. "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" (7" Mix) – 4:45{{cite web |url=http://www.psb-discography.com/ |title=Pet Shop Boys discography |access-date=2007-10-01 }}

{{Certification Table Top|caption=Sales for Disco 2}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Brazil|nocert=yes|salesamount=50,000|salesref={{cite news |last=Fucuta |first=Brenda |url=http://memoria.bn.br/docreader/DocReader.aspx?bib=030015_11&pagfis=155930|title=Discografia marcada pela 'dance music' |newspaper=Jornal do Brasil |language=pt |issue=245 |date=9 December 1994 |page=38 |via=National Library of Brazil}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|nocert=yes|type=album|salesamount=131,000|salesref={{cite magazine |last=Caulfield |first=Keith |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/58342/ask-billboard |title=Ask Billboard: Pet Shop Shopping |magazine=Billboard |date=23 May 2006 |access-date=5 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520051754/https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/58342/ask-billboard |archive-date=20 May 2018}}}}

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