Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[NotInvisible]

In the early 90s, Chris played a lot of computer games, it's in the Very FL booklet. That inspired those sound samples at the beginning of Young Offender.

Yep - but those are very different types of games with very different sounds.

[NotInvisible]

Hit and Miss is the Release track that Release lacks

Hit and Miss doesn’t fit the vibe of Release, though.

[markus]

In the early 90s, Chris played a lot of computer games, it's in the Very FL booklet. That inspired those sound samples at the beginning of Young Offender.

Yep - but those are very different types of games with very different sounds.

It’s both the melody and the sound of the intro that are almost identical to the music in one scene in Oil Imperium. I just wanted to see if someone else had noticed.

[NOBODY75]

It fits just as well as Home And Dry, for example, because anyone can see quite reasonable similarities between the two. It would certainly fit better than Bilingual.

[sterlinglush]

Getting caught up again here. I've been enjoying this bit, as I seem to have strong feelings about the songs from this era. Also, since I moved countries and had to rebuild my playlists (thanks, Apple!) from scratch a few years ago, this has helped fill in some gaps.

'The truck driver and his mate': longtime favorite of mine. Love it. Bizarre, fun, and that promo cover. One thing I'd clarify: now that I live in the UK, the lyrics make a lot more sense. There's a culture of lay-by cruising here that I haven't seen elsewhere, especially in areas where there are no gay clubs or saunas. It's not hard to find out which ones are known to be cruisy, either. I live in a rural, isolated part of the country, and there are at least three within ten miles of where I live. (I feel like I should add that this isn't my thing at all, but I'm aware of it.)

'Hit and miss': somehow this had not ended up on my big PSB playlist, and I checked Apple Music just now and was a little shocked I'd missed it. Great track. Oh well. Onward.

[NotInvisible]

It fits just as well as Home And Dry, for example, because anyone can see quite reasonable similarities between the two. It would certainly fit better than Bilingual.

I couldn’t disagree more. I can see it on Elysium, though.

[NotInvisible]

It’s both the melody and the sound of the intro that are almost identical to the music in one scene in Oil Imperium. I just wanted to see if someone else had noticed.

Nah.

[markus]

It’s both the melody and the sound of the intro that are almost identical to the music in one scene in Oil Imperium. I just wanted to see if someone else had noticed.

Nah.

Curly fixed another drink
As the piano man began to sing
That song "Ney nah neh nah"
(Ney nah neh nah)

[NOBODY75]

It fits just as well as Home And Dry, for example, because anyone can see quite reasonable similarities between the two. It would certainly fit better than Bilingual.

I couldn’t disagree more. I can see it on Elysium, though.

You're saying you find more similarities between Hit and Miss and Winner, Invisible, Ego Music, Hold On, Give It a Go than with I Get Along, Birthday Boy, London, Home and Dry...?
I'm baffled.

But obviously, everyone has their own perception.

[NotInvisible]

You're saying you find more similarities between Hit and Miss and Winner, Invisible, Ego Music, Hold On, Give It a Go than with I Get Along, Birthday Boy, London, Home and Dry...?
I'm baffled.

So an album is more than a collection of individual tracks, it's a gestalt of all of them that creates a specific (and intentional) tone. "There are guitar tracks on Release, Hit and Miss is a 'guitar' track, therefore it fits on Release" doesn't take this into account. Same reason it makes sense to leave An Open Mind off of Hotspot, even though it blows everything on the album out of the water.

IMO obviously.

[jasonjohn]

Hit and Miss really got me feeling depressed back in the day, lol. It's pure heart ache, great for self pity!

When I look at the CD single cover art of Before, I think of Hit and Miss.

Although I don't pine for the Imperial Phase, this track makes it clear PSB could of tailored their albums to that captured audience if they chose to. But I'm ultimately glad they chose variety and texture between releases.

They might of pocketed this one for "Release", sure, but they wanted to tour universities. But perhaps they underestimated the maturity of their audience by choosing Night I Fell In Love over this, because I know my uni days were spent Hitting and Missing.

[dylanww73]

Could HAVE
Might HAVE

[tophalba33]

Hit and Miss is a great track, and like some of the other B-sides it was a mistake not to include it on Bilingual.

[NotInvisible]

Hit and Miss is a great track, and like some of the other B-sides it was a mistake not to include it on Bilingual.

This is probably a question for another thread, but I'm curious how many of us view albums as generic collections of songs and how many of us view them as discrete pieces of art (e.g. a very specific track list intended to convey a specific theme and tone).

[NOBODY75]

I'm not so much into album themes as I am into individual songs. If you have 18, include your 10 best songs on the album. I can understand not including "Where The Streets" on *Behaviour*, but other cases like "Hit and Miss," "Shameless," or "An Open Mind" are incomprehensible to me. I know they're the creators and have the right to present their art however they want, and we can buy it or not. But we can also believe they make mistakes.