The album cover was originally going to feature a painting by Scottish artist Alison Watt who had just won the National Portrait Gallery supported John Player Portrait Award.[7] The group traveled to Glasgow, along with photographer Eric Watson and designer Mark Farrow to meet her. Sittings for the painting would have taken three weeks, so instead photos were taken of the duo in different poses. After a few weeks, Watt submitted the painting, but Lowe was unhappy with how he looked in it. The painting was reworked and although Tennant was pleased with it, Lowe still had reservations.[7] It was decided that the painting wasn’t right for the album and shelved it. The painting was bought by Tennant.[7]
While shooting the video for What Have I Done to Deserve This?, photographer Cindy Palmano was commissioned to take photographs of them for a Smash Hits cover. She placed them in front of a waist high piece of reflective metal, with a similar sheet behind them.[7] The photo where Neil is yawning was the favourite and Smash Hits were keen to use it as a front cover. Eric Watson then took some photos, however it was thought these weren’t strong enough for the album cover, but were used for the inner sleeve.[7] The group then decided that Palmano’s photo for Smash Hits was the best choice. The edition of Smash Hits was due to go to press the following day. They persuaded Smash Hits to release Palmano’s photograph and agreed to do a hastily arranged photo session for them. [8]
Inspired by Jean-Paul Goude’s design for Grace Jones album Slave to the Rhythm, Mark Farrow tightly cropped the photo to remove the reflective background and just have the duo on a plain white background.[8] Chris Lowe was, and remains, unhappy with the cover. However it has come to be seen as the defining image of them.[8]
Actually was released on 7 September 1987 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and by EMI Manhattan in the United States and Canada. In television commercials for the release, Lowe and Tennant were shown in black tie, blank-faced against a white background. The former seems unimpressed by a radio DJ-style Alan 'Fluff' Freeman voiceover listing their previous hits and new singles from Actually, while the latter eventually "gets bored" and yawns, with the image then freezing to create, roughly, the album's cover shot. Actually has one of only two Pet Shop Boys album covers (the other being Please) where Lowe's face is shown completely unobscured—and not wearing either his trademark baseball cap or sunglasses.
Actually spawned four UK top 10 singles: the number-one single "It's a Sin", "Rent", "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"—a duet with fellow Parlophone artist Dusty Springfield, which peaked at number two in both the UK and US and led to a resurgence of interest in Springfield's earlier work—and another UK number one in April 1988 with a remixed version of the song "Heart".[9]
During this period Pet Shop Boys also completed a full-length motion picture called It Couldn't Happen Here.[9] Featuring songs by the duo, it was most famous for containing the video for "Always on My Mind" (starring Joss Ackland as a blind priest), which—while not on Actually—was released as a single during this period.
Actually was re-released in 2001 (as were most of the duo's albums up to that point) as Actually/Further Listening 1987–1988.[10] The reissue was digitally remastered and included a second disc of B-sides, remixes done by Pet Shop Boys and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release. Another re-release followed on 9 February 2009 under the title of Actually: Remastered, containing only the 10 tracks of the original release. With the 2009 re-release, the 2001 two-disc reissue was discontinued. On 2 March 2018, a new remastered two-disc Actually/Further Listening edition was released; the content remains the same as the 2001 edition.
Actually was well received by critics. In December 1987, Robert ChristgauofThe Village Voice praised it as "actual pop music with something actual to say—pure commodity, and proud of it."[20] In his retrospective review, Stephen Thomas ErlewineofAllMusic said that Actually is the album where "the Pet Shop Boys perfected their melodic, detached dance-pop."[11]
Actually is featured in the 2005 musical reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die,[21] and has been recognised in various other "must-listen" lists. In 2006, Q magazine included Actually in its list of the "40 Best Albums of the '80s" at number 22.[22] In 2012, Slant Magazine ranked the record at number 88 on its list of the "100 Best Albums of the 1980s".[23] In 2020, Rolling Stone placed Actually at number 435 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[24]
Although not released as a single, the track "Shopping" is frequently featured as background music in British television news and current affairs programmes dealing with retail business issues and as bumper music on home shopping shows. This is despite the fact that the song is actually a critique of privatisation in 1980s Britain, and has little to do with actual shopping.[25] "Shopping" was also used in a season 1 episode of the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. "King's Cross" served in the Japanese media as a commercial song to the Aurex's (owned by Toshiba) cassette tape recorder model XDR.
^ abTennant, Neil. "Between the lines – Actually". Pet Shop Boys at Dead of Night (Interview). Interviewed by Tomas Mosler. Retrieved 14 January 2017. When this album came out many people, including ourselves, took the whole album to be loosely about Thatcherism
^Tennant, Neil. "Explication". Pet Shop Boys Catalogue (Interview). Retrieved 14 January 2017. The first line sets up the song. It's an angry song about Thatcherism. Mrs Thatcher came in on the promise of firm government and I'm interpreting 'the smack of firm government' literally as hitting someone.
^Studer, Wayne. "King's Cross". Retrieved 29 April 2017. As Neil has described it, the song is 'a hymn to the people getting left out of Thatcherism' (the economic policies of the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher).
^ abStuder, Wayne. "Twenty-something". Retrieved 2 May 2017. Thematically, this song could have sat comfortably alongside "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" from the dawn of their career, or had a place on their subsequent classic Thatcherism-critiquing album Actually.
^"I'm with stupid". Absolutely Pet Shop Boys. 2 April 2006. p. 4. Retrieved 3 February 2017. Just like we were terrified Margaret Thatcher was going to lose the 1987 election just before Actually came out, ruining our album about Thatcherism, even while voting Labour.
^Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 233. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
^"Classifiche". Musica e dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 3 June 2022. Select "Album" in the "Tipo" field, type "Pet Shop Boys" in the "Artista" field and press "cerca".
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