So Hard 15 years today! (20) (25) (30) (35)

[Eldritch]

chris thinks "its on blot on this album"(behaviour)

I really wonder what they would have released as the first single, if they hadn't included So Hard on the album. Behaviour underperformed despite having a strong commercial first single, so I wonder how much worse it would have sold without it.

[Pertan]

5 years since I posted this topic. So now 5 years later 'so hard' celebrates 20 years since released!
Hurray!

[retrofuturist]

I know, let's celebrate by leaving it off the new Greatest Hits collection.



Seriously though, So Hard is a true Pet Shop Boys classic. Long live So Hard!



Retro.

[lucienchardon]

I agree, a true PSB classic. And also one of the highlights (among many) of Performance.

[retrofuturist]

Let us pay homage to So Hard with the consumption of an apple.

[York Minster]

So Hard is a great A level PSB track. It just misses the heights of It's A Sin or West End girls. It doesn't quite "gel" music wise, but there is so much brilliance that one could hardly notice. It's a higher energy song that DOES fit Behaviour. It's Seriously that is the blot. But only a blot in terms of not fitting in with the overall mood. I think I remember reading somewhere that Pettibone thought the production was a bit crap.

[retrofuturist]

I think you're thinking Bobby O, FoF.

[jasonjohn]

chris thinks "its a blot on this album"(behaviour)

With all due respect :

Chris is Sadly Mistaken.

There is a context to this quote.

They were aiming for this album to be more delicate and a change of pace after Results. So in that respects So Hard is an odd one out, being quite thumping.

Chis often says things with a smirk.

[skyhigh]

Deserved to be on Ultimate !!!

[Hillbilly]

chris thinks "its on blot on this album"(behaviour)

I really wonder what they would have released as the first single, if they hadn't included So Hard on the album. Behaviour underperformed despite having a strong commercial first single, so I wonder how much worse it would have sold without it.

I don't agree with Chris at all! Without "So hard" the album would have been even more depressive and gloomy. I wish it had more up-tempo tracks! It was a correct first-single choice, although a bit misleading about the rest of the album.

[MD]

Love this song!

1990! So long ago, I was 20 years old!!!

[Fredddyyy]

So Hard is one of my PSB favorite songs!
As it was said in here, it aged very well and it even managed to get some comments about it like "Oh, this song is very good actually!"

[Sandy Shaw]

Has anyone got a pair of the promotional underpants?

[TG]

And with a great b-side of It must be obvious

[Drico One]

To be honest, So Hard along with Rent and Can You Forgive Her? are possibly my three favourite PSB singles of all time. I generally don't rank these things, but all three of the aforementioned dripped in semi-detached coolness. Lyrically, they were brilliant. "I love you, you pay my rent", "she made you some kind of laughing stock, because you dance to disco and you don't like rock", and "I'm always hoping you'll be faithful, but you're not I suppose, we've both given up smoking, 'cause it's fatal, so whose matches are those?" are outrageously great lines.

So Hard is hugely underrated. They don't make superior kitchen-sink drama like this anymore.

Drico.