Does anyone else think Nightlife is their worst album?

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BlueSwan · #46 Post by **BlueSwan** » Sat 04 Feb 2006, 5:48 am

In 1999 I would have ranked Nightlife as their third best album after Introspective and Please. I must say that it hasn't dated well though and I now have it much lower on my list, but still WAY ahead of Release and Bilingual.

In general I think there are lots of really good tracks on Nightlife, but it lacks total stand-out tracks. Infact, IMO, the best track on Nightlife is defeated by the best track on every other PSB album. Their weakest albums for me (Bilingual and Release) both contain some of their best tracks ever.

Anyway, I still love most of the tracks on Nightlife, with a few complaints:

- I never cared for The Only One
- I think "In Denial" is a great tune, but VERY poorly executed.
- I think the musical version of Closer To Heaven is a masterpiece, but it makes the album version pale in comparison.
- Radiophonic is a bit tuneless, really.

Love the rest of the album, even the much-maligned New York city boy.

Alcibiades · #47 Post by **Alcibiades** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 12:55 am

I got all 3 last albums of PSB (Bilingual, Nightlife, Release) at the same day last year from a used-CDs store (paid 20 euros for all 3), after I had regained interest to Pet Shop Boys music after a long time of not listening to the records I had (the cause was getting the PopArt compilation on discount earlier and found that they had done some pretty good later songs I didn't know).

I know that it's not the same comparing these albums as the big fans who got them on release date with much anticipation do, but here's my two cents:

I think Nightlife is the most disappointing album, despite its good moments.

"You Only Tell Me..." is brilliant, a piece of Behaviour-like balladry and one of my favourite PSB songs.

"NY City Boy" is certainly kitsch-y, exceedingly catchy and kinda foolish but I actually dig it! The live bass and '70s disco' sound is very good imo.

The rest of the tracks didn't move me a lot though.

Some are quite good: "I Don't Know What..." is a good album track, understated and atmospheric (I would never had guessed Morales did the production here), but it really lacks a memorable chorus to make it a great single. "Vampires" is simple yet good, although a bit over-produced. "Footsteps" also suffers from over-production, but sounds OK as an album ending although certainly not a highlight. "In Denial" seems strange and out of place here outside of its 'musical' concept, the lyrics are too strange, but somewhere lies a song with pretty good melody lines. "Boy Strange" is a song of great potential, Bowie-esque indeed, but it would probably sound better with a less complex production (it would be a highlight if it were included on Release with different arrangements methinks).

And then the songs that I'm not too fond of: "For Your Own Good" - I'm surprised to see that it's a fan favourite, but I'm not a fan of the techno-rave mood of this, dislike the female vocals and consider it pretty sub-par. It's the song I like less here, and I was disappointed that it was placed right at the start. "Closer To Heaven" could have been a good song, but I don't like many things here: the too techno-ish sound, the looped deformation of Neil's voice and even his falsetto sounds wrong for some reason here. "Radiophonic" is somewhat better, but it's still not strong enough musically and turns boring long before it ends. "Happiness Is An Option" is filled with stuff and references that would theoritically make it sound interesting, but it's performance as a pseudo-R'n'B boy-band song doesn't make it likeable to me. I would actually prefer it without the spoken rap part. I know that "The Only One" was written as a boy-band-like song to begin with, but there's not much of PSB's quality in it to have much of a merit to my ears. It could easily become a Eurovision contest nomination, and that's not a compliment.

That's my personal opinion of course.

What I find strange is that the last two PSB albums (Nightlife, Release) were so different that I can't think of many people liking both. I found Nightlife disapponting with a few saving graces and Release a better overall album I can listen to from start to end despite it also generally lacking of strong songwriting.

Pani · #48 Post by **Pani** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 1:22 am

I love 'Nightlife' for being rather electro and well ...
musicially regarded kind of 'unusual'. Despite its ly-
rix. I love 'Radiophonic' and 'Vampires' (its 'harder'
ones) to bits.
I find 'New York city boy' rather OK (I know alot of peeps would
slag me off for it) but the Kylie one ('In Denial') bo -
ring ... and 'Footsteps In The Dark'... well ... erm ...
but I just LOVE its 'intro' 'For Your Own Good (Call
Me Tonight)' brilliant (reminds me of the concert, I
have been impatient as I use to be and I was thin -
king s.th. like 'C'mon, guys, curtains up, or what is
it ... ? I just love the projection of their heads ... ).

I always like the 'hard' ones not the 'soft' ballads.
I hate ballads in general ...

'Bilingual' means to me: 'Electricity', 'Metamorpho-
sis', 'Single(-Bilingual)' and 'Discoteca'! 'Se A Vida
È' is OK and that's it then ... but for these songs I
just love 'Bilingual'.

I just love/like albums for several or a 'bunch' of
songs I adore ... as I like 'Very' for featuring 'The
Theatre' and 'Dreaming Of The Queen' (I do not
like its lead singles much, to be honest).

Release, most peeps on here might already know,
is 'crap' and disappointing IMHO. No 'news' ...

boozik · #49 Post by **boozik** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 3:48 pm

NIGHTLIFE is an album with a personal importance for me. It was released just around the time I met my wife-to-be. We just started to go out together, and she learned to know I was a PSB fan. She l,oved some of their songs and only had a copy of Discography she was listening to.

When we were dating, NIGHTLIFE was playing in the car cd player. She just loved this album very much, and mostly she fell in love with You only tell me you love me when you're drunk. This was her song! She became a bigger fan of the band and we even went together to Brighton to see the Nightlife tour together. As a surprise, she even framed the tour poster for me and hunged it in our living room.

So NIGHTLIFE was the album that made my wife a PSB fan. BTW, Bilingual is her other favorite album.

I guess NIGHTLIFE was one of the reasons she said "Yes" when I offered. SAVE was the second song we played after I broke the glass on our wedding day.

Steve Fett · #50 Post by **Steve Fett** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 3:49 pm

No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no
No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no
No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no.

A thousand times NO.

Nightlife is their BEST album !

Tracks like Radiophonic, Closer to heaven, For Your Own Good, In Denial, Footsteps and the singles too are some of the boys best work EVER !

glennjridge · #51 Post by **glennjridge** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 3:52 pm

well I hope alot of fans like nightlife cause I have a feeling fundamental is going to be nightlife the sequel.

glennjridge · #52 Post by **glennjridge** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 3:54 pm

Pani wrote: I always like the 'hard' ones not the 'soft' ballads.
I hate ballads in general ...

I'm the opposite I tend to be more a fan of their pretty stuff over their dance stuff. but there is always a nice variation.

TheMatrix · #53 Post by **TheMatrix** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 5:36 pm

I thought "Release" was worse. I like "Nightlife" a lot. Felt it had some good strong songs on it.

Hmmm · #54 Post by **Hmmm** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 6:47 pm

Ok Alcibiades says..
I think Nightlife is the most disappointing album, despite its good moments.

"You Only Tell Me..." is brilliant, a piece of Behaviour-like balladry and one of my favourite PSB songs.

"NY City Boy" is certainly kitsch-y, exceedingly catchy and kinda foolish but I actually dig it! The live bass and '70s disco' sound is very good imo.

On a whole the Album works as it is as for Release this was supposed to be completely different to any thing they had done or will do again.

BlueSwan quote..
Anyway, I still love most of the tracks on Nightlife, with a few complaints:

- I never cared for The Only One
- I think "In Denial" is a great tune, but VERY poorly executed.

I like 'The only One' this is in fact a great song what was wrong with In Denial

as a duet with Kylie it works, in the musical of Closer to Heaven it is executed well..

Enrique · #55 Post by **Enrique** » Sun 05 Feb 2006, 7:50 pm

but I just LOVE its 'intro' 'For Your Own Good (Call
Me Tonight)' brilliant (reminds me of the concert,

same here. Since Nightlife tour, FYOG has very special vibes. Only This must be the place I waited years to leave equals. Neither HAD on Rent (the other two starters for shows I attended) provokes the same for me.

Also as for boozik, Nightlife is touching in a personal way (but no such a happy end for me)

I said it before, I enjoy a lot the first half of Nightlife including Radiophonic. But then In denial & The only one are quite boring for me and still like the New York city boy morales remix than the album version. Maybe Nightlife could be a better album, since the PSB had a lot of studio tracks those days but there's a lot of bad b-sides also, so tracklist is not so bad. could be worst!

Maybe Nightlife should had been more "Closer To Heaven" (the musical) than Nightlife (the album), if that makes sense...

geee... who cares? Is just a matter of personal taste and it's sad to see the most recent PSB albums are the weakest for a vast majority of fans.

dancemaster · #56 Post by **dancemaster** » Mon 06 Feb 2006, 12:29 am

Nightlife is a good album but not sensational. For me it has three weak songs i always skip: Happiness..., The only one and Boy strange. Great songs are FYOG, CTH, In denial and New York city boy. For me Nightlife is the second weakest album and Release by far the worst album. Billingual i really like but because it lacks over the top songs i still rank Billingual as the third weakest.

Vicki · #57 Post by **Vicki** » Tue 07 Feb 2006, 3:16 pm

Nightlife is Neil's fav album (according to his answers on the official site).
It's the first proper album I've heard by them and my most favourite album ever. For me it's their BEST work

Vicki · #58 Post by **Vicki** » Tue 07 Feb 2006, 3:26 pm

Nightlife is Neil's fav album (according to his answers on the official site).
It's the first proper album I've heard by them and my most favourite album ever. For me it's their BEST work

Nickname · #59 Post by **Nickname** » Tue 07 Feb 2006, 3:28 pm

Vicki wrote:Nightlife is Neil's fav album (according to his answers on the official site).
It's the first proper album I've heard by them and my most favourite album ever. For me it's their BEST work

For Neil the lastest album is the best one and if Release is not the best one for him is because it doesn't sound so PSB and with that album they wanted to do something new and different. Nowadays, the best album for him is Fundamental, I suppose.

Vicki · #60 Post by **Vicki** » Tue 07 Feb 2006, 3:32 pm

Anyway, Neil wouldn't think of it as a failure, he's proud of it.