Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[leesmapman]

Wait! Stop! Wait! You forgot I get excited

Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

Stop getting excited !

I get excited is 1st track on Introspective further listening. p

Phew, ok. I allow it

Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

[petshopgrrl]

Track 30: Left to My Own Devices

Chronology: Introspective Track 1

That instantly recognisable start, and the exhilarating orchestral part after the second verse are still two of my all time favourite pieces of PSB music !

Horn and Lipson's production is just amazing.

One of the highlights of the Dreamworld show.

File under 'epic' ! (9/10)

PSB weren't high on my personal radar when this came out but I had to admire the SHEER AUDACITY of a dancefloor stomper that was based on reciting a to-do list over monstrously swirly orchestration. And of course the pretentiousness of "Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat".

And that they could get it played on primetime radio. I have this on a favorite old mixtape and now whenever I play the radio edit, I can't hear it without thinking of some random Radio 1 DJ singing over the final few crashing chords - DER-DER!!!! DER-DER!!! DAHHHH!!! BOM-BA-DA-DAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

[Neilatrone]

Bonus treat: when the lyric changes to I possibly would.

drop moment.

[leesmapman]

I remember hearing this song very well. It was played on dutch national radio when Veronica had the premier of the album. I heard the orchestra and PSB and I thought: they didn't... did they? They asked Trevor Horn for production? And yes, they did!
A match which was bound to happen.

I love this track. It's probably my favourite PSB track ever. It has been for a long time at least.

[Leonidas]

The greatest ever PSB opening track. I always wish it had been the first single. Not saying it would have been a no. 1 but superior to Domino dancing. Always amazed by how low it is on YouTube views.

It’s the PSB at their most aloof. We’re better than everyone else as exemplified by the Top of the Pops performance - damn right they are!

[britboy]

I think it's definitely my all time favourite, I prefer the album version but having bought the 12" vinyl at HMV on Oxford Street on the day of release, I took it back to a shop on South Molton Steet where I was working and placed it on their record player. I played the Disco Mix with the volume full on, I went outside to check how it sounded, it was bloody brilliant, and no one complained.

[Lleonard Pler]

Track 30: Left to My Own Devices

Chronology: Introspective Track 1

That instantly recognisable start, and the exhilarating orchestral part after the second verse are still two of my all time favourite pieces of PSB music !

Horn and Lipson's production is just amazing.

One of the highlights of the Dreamworld show.

File under 'epic' ! (9/10)

My favourite PSB song. No one else could do that. No one else would release it as a single. The Bohemian Rhapsody of synthpop. A joyous and daring hymn, solemn and excessive yet fun and bouncy.

"Che Guevara And Debussy to a disco beat" is the perfect definition of their whole career.

[Leonidas]

The sleeve(s) remain one of the best ever for a single in my opinion.

[Too Many Shadows]

"Che Guevara And Debussy to a disco beat" is the perfect definition of their whole career.

Agreed. It’s a club floor-filler, it’s a thumping house track, it’s a commercial pop song, it’s textbook melancholy songwriting. Not that many songs are that many things.

[VRIDD]

I agree: Left To My Own Devices is one their best songs. However...

• I have never been convinced by the single edit/remix.

• The VIDEO is not good. I think it was a handicap to climb charts

[leesmapman]

The single version has its ups. I like the little guitar twang you can hear at one point, which the Piano Room version played too. And an extra synth line throughout the song. It's obviously too short, but yeah, that's how it goes with singles.

[Towa]

A true masterpiece.

I like the single version as well. It’s too short, of course, but I like the drums and the bass of the single mix and I would love to have a full-length version of it. …but yeah, the original is good enough as it is But if I were to change anything in it, it would be to a) mix it like the single mix and b) change the piano to how it’s played live nowadays.

I do think the 12” mix was a bit of a missed opportunity though. I like the concept, but some of the edits are a bit sloppy and the verses and the choruses sound like they were taken from two different mixes (listen to how the drums change totally when going from verse to chorus, for example).

But yeah, a masterpiece. If I would bring one PSB track to a desert island, this would be the one.

[MikeyC]

The intro and especially the moment when the huge beat kicks in STILL gives me chills!!

[Leonidas]

Was there ever a Toy Mix?

[Gabby]

The video was bloody awful. Major missed opportunity to do something genuinely fun and engaging. Instead we get to stare up through the floor at Neil and Chris' crotches and watch a few arty shots of gymnasts.