Lead Singles: A Huge Rambling Retrospective...

[Kris]

A fantastic read as ever, Drico. Just one, ultra-pedantic point: Heart charted at #7, not #8.

*geek mode off*

[Kris]

They haven't picked a decent lead single in 16 years.

I'd argue that Before, Home and Dry and I'm With Stupid were all correct. Before was everything a PSB lead single should be: a great tune with a fresh, contemporary sound.

As I Didn't Get Where I Am Today was not on Release (it really should have been), H&D was the obvious choice with its breezy, radio friendly feel.

And I'm With Stupid was a nod to their 80s heyday - a great pop song with a straightforward verse/bridge/chorus/middle-eight structure. I find it odd that people still question it considering it was their biggest chart hit for 10 years.

[patrick]

Before was everything a PSB lead single should be: a great tune with a fresh, contemporary sound.

Before was dry and turgid and made no impact on the music scene whatsoever. It's barely made an impact on their own fans and is rarely played live.

And I'm With Stupid was a nod to their 80s heyday - a great pop song with a straightforward verse/bridge/chorus/middle-eight structure. I find it odd that people still question it considering it was their biggest chart hit for 10 years.

It's possibly the second-least-interesting song on Fundamental and musically dull. Frankly any other track on the album would have had the same chart impact as a debut single with that video attached. PSB owe Little Britain for that one.

[Blogo]

Quote:
And I'm With Stupid was a nod to their 80s heyday - a great pop song with a straightforward verse/bridge/chorus/middle-eight structure. I find it odd that people still question it considering it was their biggest chart hit for 10 years.


It's possibly the second-least-interesting song on Fundamental and musically dull. Frankly any other track on the album would have had the same chart impact as a debut single with that video attached. PSB owe Little Britain for that one

I'm with Stupid is one of the most catchiest songs Pet Shop Boys have ever created, it was a good spring time hit also it did well all across Europe.

[glennjridge]

IMHO, the only wrong choice for lead single was "I Don't Know What You Want...". It should have been "For Your Own Good".

I think both songs suffer from "not much goingon-itus".
its the same illness that damaged "before" and "home and dry" I think also.
the basic structure of all these songs pretty much is one progression just spinning around and around. you've heard it all if you listened up to the chorus.

"i'm with stupid" was a great song for a single and it could have worked, but seriously,politics and the dancefloor dont mix well.they need to learn how to do sexy in this day and age. not sure if they could ever be up to it though.

[Kris]

Before was dry and turgid and made no impact on the music scene whatsoever. It's barely made an impact on their own fans and is rarely played live.

I know that Before divided the fanbase but I maintain my belief that it was a great lead single. It has fantastic hooks, particularly the chorus and the backing vocals, great production from Danny Tenaglia, and it remains the only PSB record I've heard in a club (admittedly a remix). I knew many people at uni who hated PSB but loved Before so it clearly made some impact. And, of course, PSB have yet to better Before chartwise since.

It's possibly the second-least-interesting song on Fundamental and musically dull. Frankly any other track on the album would have had the same chart impact as a debut single with that video attached. PSB owe Little Britain for that one.

But how much airplay did the video receive? I barely saw any, so I don't think that it impacted on the chart position at all.

[kimphilby]

[quote
But how much airplay did the video receive? I barely saw any, so I don't think that it impacted on the chart position at all.[/quote]

Lots. It was high in itunes video chart and yahoo's video chart

[patrick]

"i'm with stupid" was a great song for a single and it could have worked, but seriously,politics and the dancefloor dont mix well.

Not a big fan of their '80s work then?

they need to learn how to do sexy in this day and age.

And how exactly would two middle aged men do that?

[patrick]

And, of course, PSB have yet to better Before chartwise since.

I'm not sure how relevant it is to compare chart placement from two completely different environments.

[Monty--]

I only buy the single for the B-sides.

'Before' was an AWFUL choice for me, as was 'I'm With Stupid'. 'I Don't KNow What I Want' was a pants decision too. Judging by past experience, I wouldn't be surprised if 'Love, etc' was the worst song on 'Yes'.

[No Muscle Mary]

If you had tits I'd f*** you.

And no doubt he would have a running commentary during the experience

[Drico One]

Before was dry and turgid and made no impact on the music scene whatsoever. It's barely made an impact on their own fans and is rarely played live.

I remember feeling deeply disappointed when I heard Before for the first time. Neil sings in the wrong key, Tenaglia's production is plodding, and the lyric is ineffably weak: "There's a story of a man who loved too much, he ended up inside a prison cell, You've got to want to give to get it, or you could end up in the same suspicious hell". Que?

Perhaps Before suffered because the Can You Forgive Her?/Go West premieres were such spectacular sonic moments. I'm not sure, but I've always found that single a fairly anonymous one in PSB history. The Oscar Wilde references are shoe-horned into the track and the lyric to the chorus is unbelievably forced, rhyming "Before" with "door", "sure", and "for", only one of which could be considered even a partial rhyme.

IMHO, the only wrong choice for lead single was "I Don't Know What You Want...". It should have been "For Your Own Good".

I don't know. The problem with For Your Own Good was the fact that it sounded more like Faithless than the PSBs. Rollo's production possibly provoked the same reaction in Neil and Chris that Neil and Chris's productions sometimes seem to induce in other acts: that the song sounds far too much like the remixer and almost overshadows the main artist.

As much as I like the lead singles in recent years as tracks in their own right, it's fair to say that they haven't had a truly stellar trailer since 1993.

Drico.

[Palpatine]

Where's the Oscar Wilde reference in "Before". The lyric "there's a man who loved too much, he ended up inside a prison cell" are about O.J. Simpson, aren't they?

To wit: "The middle bits -'there's a story of a man who loved too much' - are slightly different. I think they're about 0. J. Simpson because that was on the telly the whole time then." Neil from the "Bilingual FL" liner notes.

[Drico One]

Well, Neil says that he thinks they're about O.J. Simpson, but if he wrote the song you'd imagine he'd be a little more conclusive about who he was referring to. Wilde seems more logical - after all, he ended up behind bars for "loving too much", so to speak. O.J. didn't actually end up behind bars back in the 1990s - though he was detained, so perhaps that was the reference - but even if you concede that it's hard to see how he ended up there because "he loved too much." Was he hugely promiscuous? Either way, it's a shoe-horned reference that adds nothing to the song, in my view.

Nah, I think Neil was making yet another Wilde reference and was a little embarrassed to admit it at the time. After all, it's become something of a motif in PSB songs.

Still, that's the beauty of their songs, though. You can interpret them as you like. For my part, I read far too much into each lyric, so far be it for me to suggest that my take is the correct one when I get carried away with it all.

Drico.

[Patrick Bateman]

It is a strange one. I've always thought it was about Wilde too because it makes no sense for Neil to stick in a reference to a murdering American football player rather than his hero. It's completely anti-poetic and antithetical to Tennant aesthetics.

It's like him dressing up for the DJ Culture video in gridiron gear with a huge kitchen knife dripping with blood in his hand.

Plus Before came out at the same time that he 'outed' himself and Wilde is the poster child for the right to bugger.

Oh, and I adore Before. It's their one and only big soulful New York house single.