Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

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jasonjohn
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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#856 Post by jasonjohn »

spacewalker wrote: Sun 02 Nov 2025, 8:14 am different point of view, 1+1=5 and 1 in a 1'000'000, while certainly not being the greatest PSB songs, are the core of this album for me - flashy, tasty, shameless, very in-your-face pop.
Yes and of all the albums, Very brings the most pure positive elation to me. Sure there's a simpleness to it, but it works.

Point of View and 1+1 have energy, and even the darker tracks like Theatre and Dreaming keep up the buzz.

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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#857 Post by TallThinMan »

New Devon Boy wrote: Sat 01 Nov 2025, 5:02 pm I love a different point of view. There’s a really good remix of it on YouTube, which takes some of the computer game noise out of it. Sounds even better
Do you mean ‘Young Offender’? That’s the one with the computer game noises.

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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#858 Post by TallThinMan »

jasonjohn wrote: Sun 02 Nov 2025, 9:30 am
spacewalker wrote: Sun 02 Nov 2025, 8:14 am different point of view, 1+1=5 and 1 in a 1'000'000, while certainly not being the greatest PSB songs, are the core of this album for me - flashy, tasty, shameless, very in-your-face pop.
Yes and of all the albums, Very brings the most pure positive elation to me. Sure there's a simpleness to it, but it works.

Point of View and 1+1 have energy, and even the darker tracks like Theatre and Dreaming keep up the buzz.
For a long time in recent years I’ve resisted listening to the entirety of ‘Very’, because in my memory it’s relentless hyper-pop and tiring to listen to. Anyway, I’ve slowly been working my way through all their main albums in order whilst having walks. Listening to ‘Very’ reawakened my dormant love for this album. Whilst of its time (the rave influences), it is utterly thrilling all the way through.

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Kompakt&Bijou
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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#859 Post by Kompakt&Bijou »

I love 'Very'. I think, like Brandon Flowers, that it's my favourite Pet Shop Boys album. I loved the elation. Liberation is beautiful.
... my dear Mostyn :eh:

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Xakrij
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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#860 Post by Xakrij »

Xakrij wrote: Wed 29 Oct 2025, 3:14 pm Weren't the videos from Various presented in Hi-Def (for the time) during an art installation? Would like to get my hands on those videos!
Bumping my own quote.

Surely I'm not the only one who slightly recalls this. Some videos were upscaled and publicly presented at a UK venue. Give me another month or two and I'll answer my own question but throwing it out there anyhow.

Inquiring minds want to know!
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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#861 Post by PSBForTheMasses »

TallThinMan wrote: Sun 02 Nov 2025, 11:55 am
New Devon Boy wrote: Sat 01 Nov 2025, 5:02 pm I love a different point of view. There’s a really good remix of it on YouTube, which takes some of the computer game noise out of it. Sounds even better
Do you mean ‘Young Offender’? That’s the one with the computer game noises.
I do not know if New Devon Boy is talking about this remix, but this one is good (there are not so many fan remixes etc. for this track in the first place).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyUz8-QUdF8

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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#862 Post by Patrick Bateman »

Track 67: "Dreaming of the Queen"
Very: Further Listening, CD1, Track 5


I always think that Very/Relentless is the confirmation of their genius as it's so different to the preceding studio album, they presented themselves in such a vivid and imaginative way, and the songwriting on something like this cannot be surpassed. People often criticise the album for being shallow but this is one of their most heartbreaking songs. I love that it comes in after the euphoric rush of A Different Point of View, slowing the pace down with its stately grandeur. Obviously the lyric is one of Neil's finest, managing to be sad, surreal and hilarious at the same time.

"For I was in the nude/The old Queen disapproved" always cracks me up. :lol:

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Too Many Shadows
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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#863 Post by Too Many Shadows »

Track 67: "Dreaming of the Queen"
Very: Further Listening, CD1, Track 5


A string-slathered high-point that manages to rhyme sweat with desolate. Excellent work.
Last edited by Too Many Shadows on Thu 06 Nov 2025, 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#864 Post by jasonjohn »

Dreaming is a slower track, but it still somehow manages to be fast paced?

Very is literally a bubbly album - but this is a pretty dark song! Immediately funny, but leaves you cold.

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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#865 Post by telys »

One of the highpoints of their carrer both in terms of music and lyrics. Perfect song-writing. Neil should've done this on his 1979 tour as a singer-songwriter.
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Birthday Boy
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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#866 Post by Birthday Boy »

There are a few Pet Shop Boys songs that I personally consider to be perfect, because they've got all the elements that make a great PSB song and mix them together in the best possible way. Dreaming of the Queen is one of these songs for me. These lyrics are so good, they would even work without the music for me, which is rare. Ten out of ten, I've got nothing more to say.

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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#867 Post by markus »

I may be highly sensetive, but Dreaming of the queen was more grunge than Smells like teen spirit and Black hole sun. How perfect for a tenenager who didn't like rock. Or to justify this better: rock'n roll's just posing and pretending compared to when Neil roars - you and her and I and Lady Di.

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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#868 Post by petshopgrrl »

Patrick Bateman wrote: Thu 06 Nov 2025, 12:32 am "For I was in the nude/The old Queen disapproved" always cracks me up. :lol:
Whenever I hear this one, I always wonder which old queen was doing the disapproving. :lol:

Not my favorite PSB song but a very poignant lyric.
For your own good, call me tonight.

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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#869 Post by tottenhammattspurs »

Saw them perform this in the moat at the Tower of London. Beautiful and poignant
is is and isnt isnt

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Re: Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

#870 Post by NOBODY75 »

Wonderful song. Top-notch.
For me, far superior to "Liberation." I don't know if the lyrics influenced their decision to release "Liberation" as a single instead of "Dreaming"... or if they simply didn't agree with me. Does anyone know if they ever considered it as the fourth single, the ballad from the Very era?

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