Introspective

Introspective is the fourth album, the third of entirely new music, by the UK electronic music group Pet Shop Boys. It was first released on October 11, 1988 and is the Pet Shop Boys' best-selling album, selling over 4.5 million copies worldwide.

It is so named because "all the songs, although it's a dance album, are introspective". Perhaps the biggest changes in Pet Shop Boys' sound evident on this album are an increasing attention to orchestration using real orchestras, particularly so on the Trevor Horn-produced "Left to my own devices," which took months to produce.

The album was also unusual in that it completely reversed the typical process by which pop/dance acts released singles: Instead of releasing an album of regular-length (3-5 minute) songs, then releasing more lengthy remixes of those songs on subsequent singles, "Introspective" was released as an LP consisting of songs that all lasted six minutes or more. Songs from the album that were released as singles were released as shorter, more radio-friendly mixes.

Of the four tracks on the album that were released as singles – "Left to my own devices," "Domino dancing," "Always on my mind," and "It's alright" – none were released as radio singles in the same form that they appeared on the album.

It is also notable that, of the six tracks on the album, only two were actually written specifically for this project - those being "Left to My Own Devices" and "Domino Dancing." "Always on My Mind" and "It's Alright" are cover versions, and "I Want a Dog" and "I'm Not Scared" are re-recordings of earlier Pet Shop Boys tracks.

Introspective was re-released in 2001 (as were the group's first six albums) as Introspective/Further Listening . The re-released version was digitally remastered and came with a second disc of B-sides and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release.

Neil Tennant, in a speech he later gave to the Oxford Union, said that he regretted releasing Introspective so soon after Actually as he felt that the 12" nature of the songs may have put some fans off the band, and that this probably impacted on the sales of Behaviour, the subsequent album which is critically regarded to be the Pet Shop Boys' finest album but commercially one of their least successful. Nevertheless, Introspective remains, according to Neil Tennant, the best-selling Pet Shop Boys album internationally.