Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[Pinhead44]

It's Alright

This track has some lovely parts to it but it doesn't have enough lovely parts to keep me excited for it's 9 and a half minutes duration (it goes on and on and on and on). I could happily shave 3 mins off this track, and have a really enjoyable song.

The poppier, 7" mix is my preferred version for this.
(7/10)

Album total scores

1. Please 8.2
2. Actually 8.1
3. Introspective 8.0

[Patrick Bateman]

Track 36: I get excited (you get excited too)

Yes, they've always had strong b-sides but during the imperial phase, we were getting them all the time, partly because there were fewer extra tracks on singles but also that they'd written so many of them during the years before they became famous.

The heavy Bobby O and New York (subway) influence is very apparent on this sexually charged track, which as geowayne states: Neil denies it has anything to do with sex, instead suggesting that it expresses his excitement about being in New York City for the first time. It's enough to make you wonder how firmly his tongue may have been planted in his cheek. As Chris perceptively added at the time, "I think it's safe to say that Neil's subconscious is very active."

[Pinhead44]

'You're in my soul, my body moves to your control.
Baby, I've been thinking about you, all night long and the neighbours are talking.....

I don't know why, I don't know why
I don't know why, I don't know WHY......'

turns a good b-side, into a great b-side.

[Too Many Shadows]

I like how they repeat the Ah-Oh motif on the b-side.

[leesmapman]

Great track, Lipson's guitar solo at the end just completes it.

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[TallThinMan]

Great track, Lipson's guitar solo at the end just completes it.

I wonder what their pitch to Eric Clapton to play guitar on this was like?

Lippo’s a great guitarist in his own right.

[Pinhead44]

Right come on, we've at least got to get this thread to the end of their imperial phase !

Track 37: Don Juan

Chronology: Introspective Further Listening Tracks 2 and 7

A pleasant enough b-side to Domino Dancing, although I had no idea what Neil was singing about back in '88 !

When I bought the 12" remix of Domino Dancing, and heard the Demo version of Don Juan that was included on that (see track 2 on the FL disc), it made me realise how musically different they had made the released version from that. I actually prefer the more exhilarating, stripped back demo version.

[Too Many Shadows]

Rhyming soothsayer with Goldwyn-Mayer. Nice work!

[neilgregory72]

It's such a good B-side.

I can't imagine anyone else singing about 1930s European politics in this way. Only Neil Tennant can do that! ( Only Neil would want to do that).

[jasonjohn]

Huh, never realised this song was about Hitler. Never understood it to begin with, but now I know I understood it even less than I originally thought.

The demo and the disco mix are great, but there's also something magic about Chris' original instrumental demos.

[jasonjohn]

I mean, there's something exciting about hearing this instrumental https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jizOjiri9P8

The way the bass kicks in later, and maybe the poor quality makes the bass thump in a way that gets my blood flowing :O)

[Neilatrone]

Track 38 : The sound of the atom splitting
Introspective Further Listening Track 5 Second Disc

Not sure why anyone would delay introducing this "tune".

It's indescribable. Probably the worst PSB track but something has to be at the bottom.

[leesmapman]

Love this. This has early 80s Trevor Horn all over it. Take the extended mix of Owner of a Lonely Heart for example, some of the crazy Art of Noise stuff, FGTH's Welcome to the Pleasuredome (Urban Mix).

I would love to have heard this as interlude in Left to my Own Devices as intended. You can hear a little of how that would work in the Left to my own devices extended dance mix after the "Che Guevara break".

[daveid]

Love this. This has early 80s Trevor Horn all over it. Take the extended mix of Owner of a Lonely Heart for example, some of the crazy Art of Noise stuff, FGTH's Welcome to the Pleasuredome (Urban Mix).

are you serious?

[Patrick Bateman]

I like that it complements the A-side. You've got the orchestral housey vibe of Left to my own devices, then the acid nightmare of TSOTAS. Plus the whole single is weird - the sleeve, the video, the stream of consciousness on both tracks.