Customer Reviews

Results

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Liza and the Pet Shoppers...what a perfect match. Even more so than the Boys' dalliance with Dusty Springfield ("What Have I Done To Deserve This," "Nothing Has Been Proved," etc.), this collaboration is dance drama fit for a queen. With the help of two great club singles/videos (the mock-harrowing "Losing My Mind" and the ultra-campy "Don't Drop Bombs") and a stylistic groove as sharp as Liza's nails, "Results" more than lived up to it's title.

The Sondheim cover is pure brilliance, guaranteed to win over the most jaded "Cabaret" fan as well as the Pet Shop purists. Tanita Tikaram's "Twist In My Sobriety" is beyond twisted in it's big beat incarnation here. The old Yvonne Elliman chestnut, "Love Pains," is an amusing but effective choice; the (non-album) remix by Steve "Silk" Hurley is a Pop-House classic in it's own right.

Neil and Chris provide Liza with plenty of original material of varying tempos: the slow-burning self-immolation of "So Sorry I Said," to the skittering Euro-Hip Hop beats of "I Want You Now." With all the arch sentiments and intricate arrangements in evidence, it's nice to realize that "Results" rates fairly low on the "Pretentious Meter." Sure, Liza slurs and emotes like her life depends on it, but her sincerity is straight-faced; you never get the impression that she's slumming for the sake of a hit album.

"I Can't Say Goodnight" closes the album on a wistful metropolitan note, complete with saxophone solo and traffic noise. If you close your eyes, you can almost see Liza exiting Studio 54, sable in hand. "See you, Bianca....thanks again, Jerry......sweet dreams, Andy."

-Mic

This is THE desert-island-disc of all-time, for me. It was amazing then and amazing now. You can listen to this album straight thru and never have to skip a song...IT'S THAT GOOD. And, I need to mention it is the perfect marriage of Liza Minnelli with the Pet Shop Boys producing...Kudos to Julien Mendelsohn's production, too. The opening track "I Want You Now" is a solid opening shot...beautiful strings, great rhythm and a certain drama (without being TOO dramatic!). The next track, "Losing My Mind" was the 1st single and is one of the best tracks ever on any album. That song segues into another uptempo number "If There Was Love". There are ballads, also, most notably "So Sorry, I Said" which could really fit on any Liza Minnelli album. "Don't Drop Bombs" is a sonic masterpiece. "Twist In My Sobriety" is a new take on Tanita Tikaram's song and also resurrects the "Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S" rap/chant quite effectively. "Rent" is a nice reworking of a Pet Shop Boys tune. "Love Pains" is the closet thing to a disco song on the album (and I've heard/think it is a remake of one!) Finally there is another splendid ballad "Tonight Is Forever" (another PSB remake) and the concluding, romantic "I Can't Say Goodnight".
Also to be noticed is the great album art (both on the front and back covers). This album is such a treat and though it was considered a brave new direction for Liza when it first came out, it certainly is a wonderful breakthrough and career triumph. PS: I'd like to mention I have the accompanying videotape album and that is every bit as wonderful. If you can find a copy DO SNAP IT UP also!

Despite being released over a decade ago, this CD still sounds fresh and alive. Produced by the Pet Shop Boys, 'Results' is filled with a trippy dance vibe that holds the album together. It has a number of uptempo, PSB-style disco classics (Losing my mind, and the excellent Love pains), interspersed with mellower tunes (So sorry I said, Rent), and a couple of electronic oddities (Don't drop bombs, Twist in my sobriety). As a whole, the album works very well, with Liza's lispy voice complementing the electronic beats perfectly. I'm glad I discovered this CD, although I'm sorry to have found this hidden gem earlier. Buy this CD, you won't regret it...

Everywhere I go, Results goes with me. It all started when I saw a feature about this recording in Vogue. I still remember a quote from the article by Liza regarding her curious partnership with the Pet Shop Boys, "...we're joined at the hip now..." That quote demonstrates my affection for Results. After ten years, the material sounds fresh and makes me yearn for more like it. Granted, parts of the orchestration reflect production styles of the very late eighties, but what goes around always comes round again...This disc never fails to please. "If There Was Love" fantastically incorporates a Shakespeare sonnet in its interlude. This danceable cut is a staple item in my dj collection. "So Sorry, I Said" is a beautiful, haunting ballad. I feel this cut would make for an excellent current remix candidate to introduce Liza to a new generation of fans. Visible Results, the video companion to this album (also recommended) contains the lush music video for "So Sorry..." and could be slightly reedited into a fierce dance cut. Can you say 'Hex Hector,' anyone? There's money to be made... In short, the other cuts demonstrate Minnelli's outstanding vocal prowess married to the Pet Shop Boys' marvelous production skills and pop sensibility. Your friends and family will hate you, for you will play this recording often...Highly, highly recommended!

Liza has always been an American icon. She is also an icon for many people who like her style, her voice and attitude. More than 12 years ago Liza made this album with the European Disco guys Pet Shop Boys. This cd is eternal. I consider it a Disco Classic. The melding of her particularly great voice with the up-beat rythm of the PSB is the greatest combination. Even over the years, this cd is a must for any PSB, Liza or Disco fan. My favorite songs? the classic LOSING MY MIND. Also, the sad sounding SO SORRY, I SAID. The crazy rythm in DON'T DROP BOMBS. Her own version of RENT. Her voice is crystal clear that combined with the disco-ball rythm will keep your feet separate from the ground. In 2 words: GET IT

Most people will have discovered this album through one of two avenues: a) an avid love of Ms Liza Minnelli's work, or b) an avid love of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe's output as the Pet Shop Boys. I am somewhat of an exception to the rule, discovering 'Results' after professing my love for Dusty Springfield's 1990 comeback album 'Reputation'. 'Reputation' is one of my favourite records of all-time, and after annoucning my undying devotion to the Pet Shop Boys-produced side of the LP I was brutally attacked by a friend as to why I hadn't yet purchased 'Results'.

Admittedly, I was cautious. 'Reputation' is, in my humble opinion, an absolutely flawless record. The recipe is as old as sliced bread - take a well known 'diva', combine them with the hippest producers of the day, shake and stir. (It still happens today, see Cher's affiliation with the Metro boys that gave her a #1 hit in the form of 'Believe'). However reading all these reviews of 'Results' being not as polished as 'Reputation', I was very hesitant. And after all, Liza Minnelli is a broadway singer... she couldn't handle a dance record.

Could she?

The resounding answer is yes, and how. I should have known better than to condemn her theatrical background - heck, the Pet Shop Boys are the masters of musical theatre, they just express it in nice, 3 and a half minute packages. If you thought Dusty went a little 'dark' on the PSB-produced tracks 'Daydreaming' and the acid-trip 'Occupy Your Mind', then listening to 'Results' will make you re-think your evaluation of those songs. The whole album screams 'emotional torment', from the paranoia of the Stephen Sondheim dance cover (!) 'Losing My Mind' to the somewhat ironically titled 'Twist In My Sobriety', considering Liza's 'problems' with alcohol abuse. Never mind the inspiration, these two songs are absolute stunners, delivered with a few 'nudge nudge, wink winks' from Liza and/or the PSB's - I'm never really sure how seriously Liza took these tunes.

Add a couple of other absolute dancefloor killers (namely 'Don't Drop Bombs' and 'Love Pains', which screams we're-going-to-write-another-'In-Private') and the 'up-tempo' half of the record is rounded out. Obviously not wanting to alienate her more 'traditional' audiences, there are a few gorgeous orchestral ballads included as well. 'Rent' is delicious and far superior to the PSB's original (although Liza can't quite deliver the line 'I love you, you pay my rent' with the same wit of Neil Tennant), 'So Sorry I Said' is beautiful, and 'Tonight Is Forever' is quite possibly one of the best ballads Liza has ever recorded. The climax is ... well ... climactic, to say the least!

I am so glad I gave this CD the light of day. It is very much like the PSB-produced tunes on Dusty's 'Reputation', and of the exact same quality, except perhaps the sound is a little darker and Liza's voice is of course a lot more dramatic. I'd also recommend checking out the VHS which accompanied this; entitled 'Visible Results' it features the superbly dark clip to 'Losing My Mind' (it's almost scary in parts), the camp-as-anything clip for 'Don't Drop Bombs', and a rather stunning video version of 'So Sorry I Said'.

Liza's latest release was called 'Liza's Back', but nothing will quite top the comeback of all comebacks that was this stunning release. Top 'results', indeed!

A pop match made in heaven: Liza Minnelli's on-stage theatrics and antics meet the eccentricly haunting musical genius of the Pet Shop Boys. The material runs the gamut and blends everything from Stephen Sondheim to a trippy Tanita Tikaraim cover resulting in a tour-de-force performance by the inimitable Liza. This is the perfect meeting of the at-the-time trendy new-wavish electronica sound and production of the Pet Shop Boys with the ever theatrical technique of Liza Minnelli. Though the album failed to capture much in the way of attention in the U.S., it was successful in England and spawned three Top Fourty hits.

Liza's vocals are at their most understated although are nonetheless impactful awash in the electronica. In "I Want You Now", breathy Liza eventually gives way to baritone Liza then to a howling Liza, "I cried to you for help" as the texture of added strings climaxes and Liza demands, "I won't take no for an anSA" (spelling intended due to her affectation in her delivery). Liza is adept at wrapping her voice around every word with the proper inflection and intonation and using that voice to great effect at the proper moment to convey the most apt emotion within the context of each number and she can keep up with the sweeping Pet Shop Boys production which seems destined for her.

"Losing My Mind" is a beats-per-minute update of "What Have I Done To Deserve This" in which Liza plays the role of paranoid housewife. As an interesting yet totally unrelated sidebar, the common framework within which one would imagine many of the settings for quite a few songs would be WWII London or right after WWII, should Liza have ever put this on stage. "If There Was Love", in which Liza speculates if that would be enough to end all the world's ills,we see the world-weary and resigned Liza some time before she fell into the depths of her health crisis. She suavely recites an apt Shakespearean sonnet as the keyboards fake a rainstorm against Courtney Pine's sax solo. This was very innovative considering current artists such as Ruth-Ann of Olive or Beth Gibbons of Portishead's proclivity to fashion themselves in their songs as detached and disaffected vocalists.

"Don't Drop Bombs" continues the sonically enlightening thread and the war theme as well using it as a metaphor for one unwelcome and sudden heartache after another in a relationship. This may be the campiest cut on the set, but even here Liza pulls it off with brilliantly convincing effect. Incidentally, the scratching courtesy of C.J Macintosh in the refrain recalls the chorus of "Abracadabra" by Steve Miller.

Ahead of its time and sadly undervalued by many savvy in the trends of various types of electronica, "Results" is a must-have. This album and its video companion predate Annie Lennox's diva by about three years and rather strangely it forshadowed Annie's project "Diva" and its accompanying video compilation. Take a look at the video for "So Sorry I Said" and then the video of "Why". Further two people integral to "Results" played on on "Diva": the aforementioned Macintosh and Peter-John Vitesse. Liza, as one of the penultimate divas, made it fashionable and acceptable to make eccentrically compelling music that could be paired equally with stimulating stage-theatrics on video and Annie was a willing and successful participant in that trend-setting period.

When "Results" was released in 1989, it was unfairly trashed by critics who dismissed Minnelli as a past-her-prime vocalist desperate to jump on the top 40 bandwagon. They couldn't be more wrong. "Results" is a fabulous album that transformed Liza into a disco diva. The album's tracks are unmistakedly PSB, but Minelli gives them personality and depth. The opener "I Want You Now" ends any and all speculation as to whether Minnelli can pull it off on the dancefloor, and the groove doesn't let up for the rest of the disc. Minnelli purists will be horrified, but everyone else including PSB fans should pick this winner up. Results guaranteed.

.......and it holds up beautifully today. "Results" is still so vibrant and original that there is a BRAND-NEW REMIX of its most spectacular track ("Losing My Mind") now making the rounds in dance clubs some THIRTEEN YEARS LATER (Liza Minnelli's amazing comeback in 2002 and her upcoming VH1 series of course may have contributed to the "Results" resurgence).

If you go for Cher's dance stuff, you will love this, and Minnelli's robust voice doesn't need to be tweaked electronically to achieve irresisitble...."results" (nothing against Cher--these divas are apples and oranges).

Due for a remastering, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen very soon, hopefully with some bonus tracks!

WONDERFUL ALBUM! THE PET SHOP BOYS COMPELETLY UNDERSTAND WHAT BECOMES THIS DIVA MOST. LOSING MY MIND IS PROBABLY THE MOST FABULOUS SONG SHE HAS EVER DONE. DRAG QUEENS WORLDWIDE SHOULD REJOICE. LOVE PAINS AND DON'T DROP BOMBS ARE ALSO WONDERFUL. THIS IS WHAT MAKES HER A STAR!!!