Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[NotInvisible]

I don't feel Bilingual is especially scattered (well, not in an unindenting failing way), and the title itself suggests different worlds are co-existing; it delivers.

Good point on the "different worlds co-existing" thing - if they'd leaned into that as a theme it could have been stronger. But as it stands, stuff like A red letter day and Saturday Night Forever feel very random.

Discoteca is an immediate contrast to the rounded synths of Very - they were conscious of "every song sounds the same" criticism (not true, but it had a patterned production for sure!).

I adore Discoteca/Single but "every song sounds the same" kind of describes that one-two punch.

[jasonjohn]

Good point on the "different worlds co-existing" thing - if they'd leaned into that as a theme it could have been stronger. But as it stands, stuff like A red letter day and Saturday Night Forever feel very random.

Well over 12 tracks, ample room for a journey. Red Letter Day is fine, but I don't disagree we could have done without the chorus.

Saturday Night is the end of an arc - an epistle to the opener.

I adore Discoteca/Single but "every song sounds the same" kind of describes that one-two punch.

Yes deliberately seamless. Pretty cool, imo.

[petshopgrrl]

Yes, but the complaceny that comes from that (Electricity notwithstanding) first run of excellent tracks was undermined by the knowledge that the seriously anodyne Before was on the way...

Oh, I like Before. My problem is track three...

Ah sorry no I'm firmly on Team Metamorphosis. It's one of their Barnum songs, I felt it was about me, even though it's obviously about coming out.

Track 90: Metamorphosis

Chronology: Bilingual, Track 3

OK, since these guys started without us...

From the Bilingual FL notes, Metamorphosis the song appears to have undergone its own metamorphosis at least twice - starting life as a potential song for Behaviour, given to Mark and Trevor (dancers on the Performance tour, later known as Ignorants) who later rejected it, then reimagined by K-Klass after Jam and Spoon declined to work on it. At this point, Neil added the lyric about coming out, probably inevitable since this was the first new album after his Attitude interview.

I see a few of you love this one but I confess, the music annoys the heck out of me, to the point where I frequently skip it. However, I do think it is a great lyric and it does contain one of my all-time favorite PSB couplets:

’cause when you start to feel increasingly forlorner
— woomph! — love comes right around the corner

As someone who's never had to ponder the mechanics of coming out, it sounds like... a lot... Caterpillar to a butterfly indeed.

[Patrick Bateman]

Just an awful track. When you think their signature hit was a 'rap', Metamorphosis shows the tightrope Neil was walking between success and ignominy when he laid down his rhymes. What makes it worse is that we've just had a fantastic opening to the album and then in comes something PJ and Duncan would have rejected as being too cheesy. Yes, Neil, we get that you're out and proud now but please think of the children.

Knowing my luck, they'll play it at Obscure. Anyone want to buy a ticket?

[jasonjohn]

OK Metamorphosis isn't exactly my favourite either, but two things:

- the production is super rich (even if annoying lol)

- As the third track after two high energy openers, it manages to keep the temp high. Over half of PSB albums drop into ballads quite quickly. Too quickly, imo. Super, Nightlife, Electric keep the temp up for the first three tracks. I'd include Please too, even if Quickly is a little ballady.

[y3potential]

I read that Neil and Chris regret the sequencing of Bilingual and I'm sure they came up with an alternative sequence, although Discoteca and Single still kick off the album..

[Gabby]

When I look at Bilingual's track listing I find it to be surprisingly strong, but agree that it rather loses its way after such a strong beginning.

I really struggled with Before as a first single, and it was only much later when I was listening to the remixes properly that I started to enjoy it more as a song.

When you gather up all the "latin" sounding songs, you've got a very strong 5-6 tracklisting. A couple more on that theme, and you'd have a coherently themed album, instead of crowbarring in Russian Red Letter Day.

I'd keep Up Against It though...absolute banger.

[markus]

I’ll be the positive one then. I loved Metamorphosis immediately when I heard it.
Cocktail-lounge glamour as escape: coming out can be a drain, so let’s pour some champagne over it. Put on your dancing shoes and celebrate your true self — it’s a metamorphosis.
It’s telling yourself it’s not a curse, that nothing bad comes without something good, and then choosing to explore that side of the situation.

[Drico One]

Well, we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Or perhaps we are...

More to the point, we're not in the closet anymore. The "problem" with this, of course, is the vaguely sentient listener was already onside. So, there is no great revelation here and the jolly exuberance at play presents a serious, poignant and significant journey a little tritely. Neil sounds 20 years older than the music. He is, perhaps, a little bit too pleased with his new-found freedom-fighting persona and he's determined we're all going to enjoy his valedictory satisfaction whether we like it or not.

I don't think this song does him justice. His life experiences and emotions have been recounted with deft aplomb over the years. This seems a bit crass. I mean, it's not Nervously, is it. It just feels like a big moment has been diminished a little. On first listen, one is tempted to think it might have been better had he stayed in the closet if this was going to be the big reveal...but that's unfair. This song likely spoke to a lot of young fans. Uncle Neil offering sage advice to us young whipper-snappers was always a PSB calling card. So, while it's easy to sneer, I think Metamorphosis stands for something a little better than its songwriting. And the music is jazzy, effervescent, and superior to the wordage. But even here, at his least precise, Neil can still summon up "the long-term suppression of an adolescent urge..." and drop it into the garish clatter and din of this riotous wig out.

All things considered, there are worse missteps out there - one of which will be found later on this fascinatingly bipolar album.

Drico.

[Patrick Bateman]

Track 90: Metamorphosis

Chronology: Bilingual, Track 3

OK, since these guys started without us...

From the Bilingual FL notes, Metamorphosis the song appears to have undergone its own metamorphosis at least twice - starting life as a potential song for Behaviour, given to Mark and Trevor (dancers on the Performance tour, later known as Ignorants) who later rejected it, then reimagined by K-Klass after Jam and Spoon declined to work on it. At this point, Neil added the lyric about coming out, probably inevitable since this was the first new album after his Attitude interview.

I see a few of you love this one but I confess, the music annoys the heck out of me, to the point where I frequently skip it. However, I do think it is a great lyric and it does contain one of my all-time favorite PSB couplets:

’cause when you start to feel increasingly forlorner
— woomph! — love comes right around the corner

As someone who's never had to ponder the mechanics of coming out, it sounds like... a lot... Caterpillar to a butterfly indeed.

Their dancers rejected it! Oh, that's hilarious.

[markus]

Well, we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Or perhaps we are...

More to the point, we're not in the closet anymore. The "problem" with this, of course, is the vaguely sentient listener was already onside. So, there is no great revelation here and the jolly exuberance at play presents a serious, poignant and significant journey a little tritely. Neil sounds 20 years older than the music. He is, perhaps, a little bit too pleased with his new-found freedom-fighting persona and he's determined we're all going to enjoy his valedictory satisfaction whether we like it or not.

I don't think this song does him justice. His life experiences and emotions have been recounted with deft aplomb over the years. This seems a bit crass. I mean, it's not Nervously, is it. It just feels like a big moment has been diminished a little. On first listen, one is tempted to think it might have been better had he stayed in the closet if this was going to be the big reveal...but that's unfair. This song likely spoke to a lot of young fans. Uncle Neil offering sage advice to us young whipper-snappers was always a PSB calling card. So, while it's easy to sneer, I think Metamorphosis stands for something a little better than its songwriting. And the music is jazzy, effervescent, and superior to the wordage. But even here, at his least precise, Neil can still summon up "the long-term suppression of an adolescent urge..." and drop it into the garish clatter and din of this riotous wig out.

All things considered, there are worse missteps out there - one of which will be found later on this fascinatingly bipolar album.

Drico.

Neil’s not from the love is love generation — it was still all about sex in the 90s.
You come out and you’re suddenly in the underworld, among the strange and the obscure. Next track Electricity, deals with the more of that.
Neil had two choices: either become a criminal and a sinner, or a Catholic priest — just like in the Middle Ages.

[NotInvisible]

Their dancers rejected it! Oh, that's hilarious.

They rejected a different version of the backing track, before K-Klass entered the picture. We can assume this early version of the music was quite different, since at one point they wanted Jam & Spoon to produce it.

[NotInvisible]

Neil’s not from the love is love generation — it was still all about sex in the 90s.
You come out and you’re suddenly in the underworld, among the strange and the obscure. Next track Electricity, deals with the more of that.
Neil had two choices: either become a criminal and a sinner, or a Catholic priest — just like in the Middle Ages.

...you've never read a single thing about Neil Tennant, have you?

[markus]

Neil’s not from the love is love generation — it was still all about sex in the 90s.
You come out and you’re suddenly in the underworld, among the strange and the obscure. Next track Electricity, deals with the more of that.
Neil had two choices: either become a criminal and a sinner, or a Catholic priest — just like in the Middle Ages.

...you've never read a single thing about Neil Tennant, have you?

What would it matter? Neil’s a lyricist himself.

[NotInvisible]

What would it matter?

You wouldn't write drivel like your last post, for starters.