Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[Towa]

Screenshot 2024-04-13 105324.png

Ah! I don't have that,as you can see in the screenshot in my previous post. Probably a user privilege issue then!

[Drico One]

Screenshot 2024-04-13 105324.png

Ah! I don't have that,as you can see in the screenshot in my previous post. Probably a user privilege issue then!

I'm not sure, actually. Lots of posters seem to have this ability. Maybe it's something to do with post count or something. I'll ask TheGardner and see what he says.

Drico.

[RMC]

Screenshot 2024-04-13 105324.png

Ah! I don't have that,as you can see in the screenshot in my previous post. Probably a user privilege issue then!

Are you using an app or viewing the web page?

[rashomon]

Appreciate if you could find out Drico as it would be great to be able to like posts also. I too only see two buttons - exclamation icon button and quote icon button.

Weirdly, I did get to like a post on the thread where someone asked for the like button to be introduced (the irony!) - but I don't see the option now.

I've tried different browsers (Safari and Chrome) and it's not made a difference either. I have a fair number of posts also so might be something else.

[Towa]

Are you using an app or viewing the web page?

The web page. It seems to be a privilege thing, because I just discovered that I actually do see this button in threads in the Administration sub-forum (for example in ths related thread: viewtopic.php?p=632184#p632184 ) but not in threads here in the "Pet Shop Boys Community" sub-forum.

[Drico One]

I've asked TheGardner to look into it. He's our resident tech guru. It's a new introduction, so maybe there are teething problems.

Drico.

[Towa]

Thanks Drico One!

Back to the topic, I agree that it was a brilliant idea to let the 12" mix of One more chance be the first track on the album, actually. The "regular" version would not have had the same impact as this rather strange remix. ...and the middle-eight is fantastic, that's the kind of attention to detail in the song-writing that I often miss in their latest compositions. They can still write good melodies, but I can't help thinking that tried harder back in the days of songs like One more chance.

[new_love]

Oh why isn’t there a love reaction button on here! Wonderful story pinhead. It’s a favourite track of mine too.

Yes, WHERE is the like button for posts??

Top right of each post - the thumbs up icon.

Drico.

Don’t want to derail, but as I brought it up thanks for looking into it Drico - I currently have the quote and exclamation mark. So many posts I’d like to like

[Drico One]

Who wants to do What have I done to deserve this?

[rashomon]

Yup - the 12 inch has a real soundscape - screeching, drama, menace and the sweet melody in the bridge - the whole kitchen sink was thrown at it and it really gets you to sit up and listen.

Up there with Being Boring as the best album opener for me.

[Drico One]

Up there with Being Boring as the best album opener for me.

That's an interesting topic in itself. I'd probably plump for Two divided by zero for reasons already given in this thread - not because it is anything like the best song that opens an album, but because it signposts an entire journey of 40 years that we set out on in such adventurous fashion. Many of their very best songs open albums. Left to my own devices, Being boring, Can you forgive her?, Leaving, Will-o-the-wisp... They do an album opener as well as they do a song intro...

Drico.

[Pinhead44]

Up there with Being Boring as the best album opener for me.

Will-o-the-wisp has to be staking a fair claim also for me.

[rashomon]

Who wants to do What have I done to deserve this?

Happy to pick up the mantle sir!

[rashomon]

Track 18: What have I done to deserve this?

Chronology: Actually, Track 2

This is an absolutely top tier track for me - expect a lot of gushing here (no apologies!).

My love for this one hasn’t waned one iota since first hearing this way back as a moody 17 year old growing up in the midlands. I can't be sure but I think I first heard it on radio while driving somewhere with my dad - I recall he commented on it and told me he thought it was 'quite good' - this is to be considered very high praise indeed from my old man so it has forever stuck in my memory.

The song is perfectly positioned straight after the colder hard edge of One More Chance on Actually - it clicks in place so well here. The total is greater than the sum of its parts - it’s a a kind of alchemy the boys haven’t managed with any other duet in my opinion. The contrasting vocal styles with Neil's spoken delivery and Dusty all husky and melodic. Throw in the the synth pads, musical arrangement, that saxophone! It’s a perfect marriage. Neil’s narrated parts are so dreamy and I adore the resignation in tone throughout. He plays the character in the song so believably.

The accompanying video is also rather special - Neil forlorn and in need of a hug, Chris sans shades on sax and spinning around ... and unforgettable Dusty resplendent and taking the glam up to level 11.

Special shout out to the recent Dreamworld version with the lovely Clare Uchima. She does a wonderful job with the Dusty parts - a real highlight for me of that concert.

It is absolutely criminal that it didn’t get to number one.

[Drico One]

Great, Rashomon!

I think sometimes it's easy to forget how much of an impact the Dusty duet had. I was 15 when it came out, and I remember my parents being intrigued at the reappearance of the '60s icon on a record with the two mischievous '80s trouble-makers who had spectacularly skewed Catholicism with such gleeful abandon in the summer. There was a definite sense of cutting across the generations, here. On the face of it, this was them going "mainstream" rather than subverting it as outsiders. Yet, in hindsight, the duet of a gay man and a lesbian in what was, ostensibly, a song recounting an imblanced heterosexual relationship in the homophobic '80s is far more subversive than anybody ever gave it credit for. A classic.

Drico.