5 reasons why Numb could be a big hit

[Eldritch]

It's getting tedious.

Quiet! Or you'll be thrown off the payroll.

[gomorrah]

if he's done nothing wrong, he's got nothing to fear

it IS getting rather tedious. I've a feeling if I went on vac for two months and came back here in a bit, I'd see a thread just like this with the same responses right at the top of the forum.

[kimphilby]

it IS getting rather tedious. I've a feeling if I went on vac for two months and came back here in a bit, I'd see a thread just like this with the same responses right at the top of the forum.

You're right. I'm getting out of here for a bit.
Its just not the same without Nickname.

[Eldritch]

Its just not the same without Nickname.

What happened to him? Did he get an enticing offer from Hollywood to play Riddler in the next Batman movie?

[gareth]

You can argue all you want. It's been said that this song has more appeal than anything else on the album. Get over it.

Now, where exactly has it been said? Please point it out to me. On the other PSB forum there was a poll in which people had to vote for their favourite song – Numb was the only song (God Willing wasn't included) that received 0 votes. Most reviews have either not mentioned it or pointed it out as one of the weakest links.

I don't mind bit that it's released as the third single, because no other track on the album would be a hit either. Fundamental is a very good album, but it has had its chance to succeed sommercially already. The failure of Minimal to even bring it back to top 150 shows that it's all over for it, since third singles always get less attention than the earlier ones. I will be buying the Numb singles anyway and I will buy them gladly, if the b-sides are of the I'm with stupid singles quality.

Somebody posted, can't remember who or what thread, they played the album to a local radio station or something like that and they said Numb would be the only song they'd consider playlisting. A few people have said this. It was also said in the very first post of this thread and the first post on this page "and it is of course the most radio friendly track for the current local commercial radio station environment".

Anyway, it hasn't officialy been confirmed by the site yet so who knows?...If there is a third single I think they need to release a slower song and Numb is the only one that is single material. ILTR is another one they should consider but that might be a bit too British for other markets so Numb is still the best choice for third single.

For a fourth single, ideally it should be TSAGS but that won't happen so Integral

T'was me - and knowing local commercial radion in the UK they will have far more chance of airplay with Numb than anything else. It's not guaranteed but they do at least have a chance.

G

[Janet Street-Porter]

This is in this month's Empire magazine:

Richard Curtis's new film Old Compton Street starring Hugh Grant, Gwyneth Paltrow and Lou Ferrigno is released in the UK at the end of September. The film's title track is the Dianne Warren-penned Numb by Pet Shop Boys.

[kimphilby]

This is in this month's Empire magazine:

Richard Curtis's new film Old Compton Street starring Hugh Grant, Gwyneth Paltrow and Lou Ferrigno is released in the UK at the end of September. The film's title track is the Dianne Warren-penned Numb by Pet Shop Boys

Your facetiousness knows no bounds.

[gomorrah]

no f way!!

[gomorrah]

it IS getting rather tedious. I've a feeling if I went on vac for two months and came back here in a bit, I'd see a thread just like this with the same responses right at the top of the forum.

You're right. I'm getting out of here for a bit.
Its just not the same without Nickname.

no! don't go!

[kimphilby]

I night hang around in "off topic".

[kdx125]

HAs anyone contemplated the fact that an awful lot of people downloaded numb following the world cup montage thingy! These people are hardly likely to buy the single now are they?

[patrick]

You can argue all you want. It's been said that this song has more appeal than anything else on the album. Get over it.

You can argue all you want. It's been said that the Earth is flat. Get over it.

[Drico One]

1. It's not a Tennant/ Lowe composition
How ironic and typically PSB for their biggest hit in a long time to be written by someone else?

Except that NOTHING the PSB will release will ever be a hit. Their time has come and gone. Their commercial days are over. They simply do not fit into the demographic that radio stations market their output to. Perhaps the fact that the PSB audience is typified by thirtysomethings who grew up when radio was more innocent and less programmed by commercial exigencies has something to do with why the fanbase here cannot accept the obvious. We've been having the same groundhog day discussion for the last 12 years, but it never gets through.

2. Melancholia
The record buying public love sad music. See Coldplay/ Blunt

The public, in general, likes sad music performed by people it can imagine having a relationship with. There aren't enough PSB-Freaks in this world to sustain shrines to Chris and concomitant top 5 PSB chart entries. It's no coincidence that PSBs most successful commercial period came right at the start of their 21-year career when they were still young. The older they got, the less commercially significant they became. Sex sells, and fortysomethings don't normally peddle it too well. Neil, the lead singer and focal point of the group, is in his fifties, for God's sake.

3. A different kind of PSB
They don't release many slowies and they've never released anything even like Numb before. Jealousy had the big orchestral moment but Numb is really the first release of its kind from PSB

PSBs have released many mid-tempo tracks over the years. It's a fallacy to imagine that all they have issued are thundering stompers. The speed or tempo of the track is irrelevant if the name of the band on the record is "Pet Shop Boys." As soon as playlist programmers see that, the single hits the bin rather than the airwaves.

4. It's big, but its not clever
Chavvy record buying folk either don't get or can't stand PSB humour and perceived 'cleverness'. Numb is just a meat & 2 veg big dumb ballad. People dig that shit.

Cleverness doesn't really come into it. PSBs, the middle-aged synth duo, are an anachronism, a relic from the distant 80s to most people who are still aware of their existence. The fact that they have survived at all to become icons of that age is a cause for celebration. To compare their commercial prowess with that of 1987 is rather unfair and entirely pointless.

5. Football approval
When MOTD used Numb for their England heartache montage I had 2 thoughts. One was that it was great for PSB to get that level of exposure. The other was concern that an already suspicious towards PSB public would have even more reason to associate something bad with two middle-aged gays. However, on reflection, the use of Numb was a good thing both for the exposure and the fact that it connects PSB with something that unites a lot of the (English) population.

The playing of Numb on the football might have been a big deal for PSB fans here, but the general public hadn't a clue who the band singing over Wayne Rooney's thuggery and David Beckham's tears was. If anything, Minimal had more football chant value than Numb ever could have, and we saw how far that went.

Deep down I have a feeling Numb will do nothing but crash & burn but maybe, just maybe, it'll turn things around for the guys and for Fundamental.

What's there to turn around? The album is remarkably good on its own terms. I'd be very surprised if Neil and Chris thought that they were going to have something of a commercial renaissance with Fundamental just because they'd been away for a few years. Fundamental has performed entirely predictably. Their commercial heyday has gone. They've made enough money to carry on for as long as they wish. It's what they do.

Drico.

[Dreamcatcher2003]

Fundamental is a very good album, but it has had its chance to succeed sommercially already. The failure of Minimal to even bring it back to top 150 shows that it's all over for it, since third singles always get less attention than the earlier ones

Are there zero examples of acts/ 3rd singles/ albums bucking this seemingly set in stone rule?
Wasn't Robbie Williams' first album rescued by a power ballad, released 3 (or even 4) singles in, long after the album had charted poorly and plummeted down the hit parade?
I know Robbie was/ is a "sexy young man of the people guy", whilst N & C simply aren't, but surely Fundamental isn't doomed already?

Third single story always reminds me Savage Garden. When their first single, I want You was released, it got to top ten. Then a second single was released and it barely crawled top 40. Everyone said that they were finished and be forgotten in a moment. Then to everyone's big surprise, third single, Truly Madly Deeply, a mewer and more maudlin song than Numb, got number one in USA and pushed both Savage Garden and their album to the stardom.

[Technotrancemix]

You can argue all you want. It's been said that the Earth is flat. Get over it.

And you believe that? x infinity