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This 2005 U.K. double CD features 27 tracks personally selected by the duo and issued to celebrate their 20th year as recording artists. This installment of the BACK TO MINE mix series presents a special two-disc collection by the Pet Shop Boys. Keyboardist Chris Lowe compiles the first set, which begins with tracks much in the vein of the Boys' own synth-pop, including Savage's "Don't Cry Tonight" and Mr. Flagio's "Take a Chance." As the disc progresses, the songs get more eclectic, most notably with Queen's melodramatic "The Show Must Go On" and "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love," a smooth closing ballad by one-time Pet Shop collaborator Dusty Springfield. Frontman Neil Tennant's set goes even further afield, blending together ambient, electronica, classical, and pop. Fairmont's dreamy techno tune "Traum" opens the disc, followed by "Pulse Pause Repeat," a hauntingly minimal track by Harold Budd, Ruben Garcia, and Daniel Lentz. Later, Springfield appears again, this time with the gentle, string-laden "Goin' Back," and Tennant wraps things up with Emil Gilels's spare, solo-piano rendition of Edvard Grieg's "Melodie Opus 47 No. 3." Although none of the songs on either disc should surprise Pet Shops Boys fans, the duo's BACK TO MINE outing does reinforce the pair's impeccable taste.
