Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[Drico One]

Shopping and Rent represent the thematic heart of Actually. The conspicuous consumption of Shopping - where everything's for sale - provides the societal backdrop to the complex interpersonal relationship that characterises Rent. I love you; You pay my rent: Love as a monetary transaction, the logical conclusion of Thatcherism.

Yet, the true wonder of the song lies in the possibility of something more elevating. As there is no "because" between the central couplet's two sentences, there is still a glimmer of hope for true love, even if it is wedged between the lines, a mere crack in the wall of superficial artifice. In this relationship, as our lovers couple, "words mean so little and money less". Perhaps, just perhaps, there is one currency - that of love - that might not be traded at the stock exchange.

For all the acquisition on display, Tennant's romantic sincerity – the defining motif of much of his career as a songwriter – penetrates even the wry knowingness of the imperial phase's most ambiguous single. For me, the definitive Pet Shop Boys composition.

Drico.

[petshopgrrl]

A little bit, maybe with a bit more drum kicks, orchestral stabs and JJ Belle on guitar. You can hear it here from 05:30 to 08:32:

https://m.mixcloud.com/heejune-park/pet ... 13-may-92/

Good Lord, that's amazing! Just goes to show that the best people to cover and twist a PSB song are PSB themselves.

I had never heard the Carter USM version before but bless 'em, that was an interesting rendition.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Good Lord, that's amazing! Just goes to show that the best people to cover and twist a PSB song are PSB themselves.

I had never heard the Carter USM version before but bless 'em, that was an interesting rendition.

Wow, I agree it is amazing! It wouldn't surprise me if this is them doing their take on the "Carter arrangement", like they did live renditions of the "Liza arrangement" at some points. I say that in part because the Hacienda was a bit of an "indie" venue, in light of its Factory Records connections, so it makes sense to toss in something like that given that Carter were big in 1992 and even headlined Glastonbury that year. Either way, it was great to hear them take full advantage of the song's high BPM to turn it into a disco stomper.



Retro.

[Pinhead44]

Track 21: Hit Music

Chronology: Actually, Track 5

The first dip, for me on the album with this track, compared to what had come before it.

I always thought this was just a straight-forward lyric, and upbeat track about listening and dancing to music, but the underlying story of the subject having a terminal illness, adds some real sadness and poignancy to song 'Live and die, it’s all that we know, I need a friend at the journey’s end' (6/10)

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

I'm glad Rent appears in-between Shopping and Hit Music as a palette cleanser. If those two tracks were back to back it would be a bit too much Actually (pun intended).

Retro.

[leesmapman]

Hit Music is the GOAT. Or rather: it has a goat sample at 3:07. That's what I always think it is anyway.
I liked the Peter Gun/Venus bass combined with the string arrangement in it. It has a nice musical pun ("in stereo"), a Beatles reference, Kraftwerk-ish 'laser' sounds. The arrangement and production is top notch. Really love this track.

[Sandy Shaw]

Just a thought on Rent that the rhythm is somewhat reminiscent of waiting for a Train by Flash and the Pan...
I love Rent song and in the ''live'' context on one of the tours it moved me to tears.. Neil was very funny in one of the interviews and stated that although the song wasn't about rent boys, the cover photo and title was ambiguous and made them look a bit like rent boys!

[TallThinMan]

‘Hit Music’ has one of their greatest middle eights. It’s so dreamy.

[Ghost within this house]

There's a moment in Hit Music (3:12, to be precise), where there is what sounds like a human shout in the backing track. When I was first blaring Actually out of my Hitachi HiFi, it always sounded like my Dad shouting angrily from downstairs... and even though I worked out second or third time of playing the song that it wasn't him, it still makes me jump, even to this day!

I realise this says more about me than it does about Hit Music, but thought I'd share. The song is as close as Actually gets to filler, but it's still damn good - especially that mellow half-tempo bit towards the end. And, to pick up on Drico's remark, the sequencing of the song within the album is fantastic and what saves it from being 'mere' filler - a mad dash for the door of freedom, the thrill of the latest tune and nocturnal oblivion to escape the oppressiveness of commercialised emotion in Shopping-then-Rent............ but disastrously, with all the terrible consequences chronicled on It Couldn't Happen Here.

Actually has an incredible narrative arc, really. I'm hoping Nonetheless does as well, and I have a sneaking suspicion it will - at least much more so than any album since Fundamental.

[Sandy Shaw]

Hit Music is the GOAT. Or rather: it has a goat sample at 3:07. That's what I always think it is anyway.
I liked the Peter Gun/Venus bass combined with the string arrangement in it. It has a nice musical pun ("in stereo"), a Beatles reference, Kraftwerk-ish 'laser' sounds. The arrangement and production is top notch. Really love this track.

What's the Beatles reference?

The ''Live a lie'' line is about being in the closet I suppose or even applies to those who couldn't reveal they had HIV.

[Spittingcat]

That Xfm session version of Rent is great.

[spacewalker]

Glad to see some appreciation for Hit Music as I had the impression it's one of their most disliked songs among fans (funnily enough, Actually also has King's Cross which is beloved by everyone).

[telys]

Hit Music is actually two songs. First Hit Music and then the extended outro which actually could be counted as a separate track. Remember Opportunities (reprise) on Please and the intros to both Left to my own devices and I'm Not Scared or the "star drop"-stuff before End of The World on Behaviour.
And I really like Hit Music. It's a proper album track. Basically all other tracks on Actually are single-worthy.
One More Chance (was a single in '84)
Rent
It's a Sin
What Have I Done..
Heart
All were singles
It Couldn't Happen Here was the title song from the film and might as well have been a single (in need of a 7'' mix though)
King's Cross should've been a single after the fire
I Want To Wake Up has a single sound but perhaps the theme is too much like Heart. Would be great to have a 7'' mix of though
Shopping, well that's a perfect single!

But Hit Music is an album track, not a filler.

[Neilatrone]

Glad to see some appreciation for Hit Music as I had the impression it's one of their most disliked songs among fans

I like it, I like it a lot. It fitted well on Actually when released.

Perhaps decades later it hasn't aged well but it's not one I skip.

[leesmapman]

Hit Music is the GOAT. Or rather: it has a goat sample at 3:07. That's what I always think it is anyway.
I liked the Peter Gun/Venus bass combined with the string arrangement in it. It has a nice musical pun ("in stereo"), a Beatles reference, Kraftwerk-ish 'laser' sounds. The arrangement and production is top notch. Really love this track.

What's the Beatles reference?

The ''Live a lie'' line is about being in the closet I suppose or even applies to those who couldn't reveal they had HIV.

I meant ABBA. Working hard all day to pay the bills I have to pay. I was tired when I posted it