Drico One wrote: Sun 24 Mar 2024, 8:42 pm
I've always felt that I want a lover was full of coded references. You can take it at face value or you can ascribe all kinds of meanings - hiding in plain sight - to it. "Someone just like me" is conspiratorial, a lyrical wink and nod to those who want to see these things. "I don't care whether it's wrong or right" might as well preface the confessional defiance of It's a sin.
Yes. Speaking of preface, I Want A Lover arguably captured a sense of "nightlife" better than the entire album that would later be dedicated to it.
Retro.
"Politics are too emotional now. Contemporary culture generally is too emotional, really... I'd rather people looked to the truth." (Neil Tennant)
For me, I want a lover is the most forgettable track on the album. I find it clunky and unsophisticated. The horns and other synth sounds make it the most dated sounding track on the album.
daveid wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 8:54 am
For me, I want a lover is the most forgettable track on the album. I find it clunky and unsophisticated. The horns and other synth sounds make it the most dated sounding track on the album.
I agree with both sentiments regarding IWAL, it depends on my mood. That's why I want to hear the 1985 Blue Weaver mix. I suspect it has a better sound. Kind of like the difference between WDWLT (Hague mix) and the Ron Dean Miller mix. The NY-mix turned out to be better, less polished and therefore actually more timeless/modern sounding, at least in "my universe".
The first transparently gay statement in their catalogue, Later tonight's codes are rather more see-through than those of I want a lover. There isn't much room for alternative interpretations here: this is a song about longing for someone you can't have. It's suitably mournful. I like the way the sorrowful arrangement helps to internalise the personal conversation our protagonist has with himself. The hidden self takes centre stage. While the rest of the album concerns itself with social observation, Later tonight takes us down a side street for a long night of the soul. There is nobody here except our protagonist himself, and that's what's so depressing. Time for the Kleenex.
Drico.
The pale kid that hides in the attic behind his PC...
Drico One wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 11:26 am
Track 9: Later Tonight
Chronology: Please, Track 10
The first transparently gay statement in their catalogue, Later tonight's codes are rather more see-through than those of I want a lover. There isn't much room for alternative interpretations here: this is a song about longing for someone you can't have. It's suitably mournful. I like the way the sorrowful arrangement helps to internalise the personal conversation our protagonist has with himself. The hidden self takes centre stage. While the rest of the album concerns itself with social observation, Later tonight takes us down a side street for a long night of the soul. There is nobody here except our protagonist himself, and that's what's so depressing. Time for the Kleenex.
Drico.
I disagree. The lyric is written in "you"-form. I always used to think that it's sung towards somebody waiting for love/boy/man, and therefore most likely a woman. So that the song is a "transparently gay statement" is only transparent if you're already inside the transparence.
You can interpret it that way, of course - it’s entirely valid - but if one’s interpretation incorporates what the artist may have intended artistically, then the “you” is most likely the artist himself.
Indeed, Neil says as much.
When I heard this for the first time, I thought it was totally out of character for them. They tended to speak in code. This one is on-the-nose by their standards, and, ironically, very much “in-character” for Neil: isolated, lovelorn, and alone.
Drico.
The pale kid that hides in the attic behind his PC...
As a teenager not once did I think of PSB songs as overtly gay. Maybe everyone else just saw the aircraft flying over my dim teenaged head, but never at that time did I listen to Please and think "Oh yeah, he's talking about a gay relationship there". In truth I think the ambiguity of Neil's lyrics (especially during the pre-Very time) are what make them so universally accessible and successful.
Once Neil came out, you can perhaps start to look at the songs through a different lens, but even then Neil continues to keep some sexual ambiguity there, or take on a female perspective/persona.
I LOVE Geowayne's PSB song interpretations, but how different might they be if:
a) Neil wasn't officially "out" or
b) wasn't gay at all
I really don't think it's as simple as saying "this song" is about a homosexual relationship and "that one" isn't. Songs resonate differently to each of us.
Gabby wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 4:51 pm
As a teenager not once did I think of PSB songs as overtly gay. Maybe everyone else just saw the aircraft flying over my dim teenaged head, but never at that time did I listen to Please and think "Oh yeah, he's talking about a gay relationship there". In truth I think the ambiguity of Neil's lyrics (especially during the pre-Very time) are what make them so universally accessible and successful.
Once Neil came out, you can perhaps start to look at the songs through a different lens, but even then Neil continues to keep some sexual ambiguity there, or take on a female perspective/persona.
I LOVE Geowayne's PSB song interpretations, but how different might they be if:
a) Neil wasn't officially "out" or
b) wasn't gay at all
I really don't think it's as simple as saying "this song" is about a homosexual relationship and "that one" isn't. Songs resonate differently to each of us.
This is certainly an attraction of the Pet Shop Boys' catalogue - there is ample room for discussion and opinion about what is actually meant - ultimately, the listener can decide.
On a 2nd half of the album that is stacked with the lyric 'Tonight' or 'Night' (8 on tracks 1-6, 43 on tracks 7-11) we come to...
Later Tonight
Proof that songs don’t have to be complex to be great. A simple, low-key vocal, and a haunting piano solo from Chris. 3 minutes is all it needs.
‘That boy never cast a look in your direction, never tried to hook for your affection’
I suspect most of us can relate to an unrequited crush we had when we were younger. The heartache of knowing that the object of your affection will never be yours. The subject in this song is left to console themselves with their fantasy thoughts they will have alone, later, ‘because tonight always comes.’ (9/10)
Gabby wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 4:51 pm
As a teenager not once did I think of PSB songs as overtly gay. Maybe everyone else just saw the aircraft flying over my dim teenaged head, but never at that time did I listen to Please and think "Oh yeah, he's talking about a gay relationship there". In truth I think the ambiguity of Neil's lyrics (especially during the pre-Very time) are what make them so universally accessible and successful.
Once Neil came out, you can perhaps start to look at the songs through a different lens, but even then Neil continues to keep some sexual ambiguity there, or take on a female perspective/persona.
I LOVE Geowayne's PSB song interpretations, but how different might they be if:
a) Neil wasn't officially "out" or
b) wasn't gay at all
I really don't think it's as simple as saying "this song" is about a homosexual relationship and "that one" isn't. Songs resonate differently to each of us.
+1
I do sometimes get melancholic that I didn’t really embrace the boys in my teenage years so much, when they may (or may not have, who knows) have helped me understand myself better. Yet now, mid life with all its musings, confusions, questionings and yearnings do they really hit. Maybe it’s serendipity, life’s timing. Imo music, melody's, lyrics can capture in so many ways different interpretations of people’s own unique personal lives. I never worry what I ‘should’ be feeling re a certain song and just go with it…
After the thrills, excitement, and emotions of the previous few songs, Please concludes with another fine track, about someone trying to convince their partner to move in with them. Although there are clearly some issues between them with the ‘you may not always love me, I may not care’ line, there are probably many co-habiting couples who actually feel this way about each other, and still live together very happily ! (7/10)
My total combined score for all tracks on Please = 82. Divided by, divided by 10 songs = an overall average of 8.2 / 10
Album Summary: With 9 quality tracks (only Violence being my minor disappointment), including 4 cracking single releases, Please quite rightly sits in my top 4 favourite PSB album’s. What a debut this was from the boys !
