Some little changes for Nightlife, would you agree?

[Tentenlad]

The issue with several of the 90s albums onwards is PSBs obsession with trying to find a theme for each album. A lot of filler tracks on albums and much better extra tracks on singles was the result. Nightlife was a mishmash of the worst songs from the musical. It would have been stronger with Somewhere and a few of the b sides.

[telys]

The issue with several of the 90s albums onwards is PSBs obsession with trying to find a theme for each album. A lot of filler tracks on albums and much better extra tracks on singles was the result. Nightlife was a mishmash of the worst songs from the musical. It would have been stronger with Somewhere and a few of the b sides.

I'm all for an expanded Somewhere with '98 release giving them another year to sort out Nightlife and Closer to Heaven.

1 Somewhere I
2 Balcony
3 Screaming
4 Delusions
5 Disco Potential
6 Friendly Fire
7 Vampires
8 Somewhere II

[jasonjohn]

I like to think of this image when considering Nightlife. It kinda sums it up. Two middle aged song writers, still dressed from their cold night out clubbing, distant looks, minds aching, returning to the world. Looking from a window. At the back of a house. At the edge of a town.

I feel like we really misunderstand this album as fans! It really should be a massive guilty pleasure to have them banging out high energy tracks at the start (we RARELY get so much high energy on albums), segueing into their more earnest ballad territory, with some campy thrills. Rollingstone said "more Sondheim than Sylvester", but I'd argue we got a dose of both! Who else can do this stuff?

Maybe I'm the only person who likes Boy Strange? I never knew it was so hated

This echoed, cinematic soundscapes we got from Faithless and Massive Attack are tied to an era, for sure. Not exactly my favorite sound, but it's interesting to me that THIS is maybe the biggest and most complete "pop" album of that style. And even though it's questioned in here, I feel like they pull off the trajectory from the modern clubbing into more theatrical chic. Footsteps is a perfect ending - Neil resting his head, wondering and waiting.

I'll take it as it is!

My only complaints: The overlap with the musical is unhelpful to both. And the song "Closer To Heaven" needed a cleaner, poppier mix to release as a single - It's everything we wanted: thumping beats, elation with sadness, climactic

BTW this is probably one of my favorite remixes of all time, maybe Sister Bliss should have come on board with Rollo, and they made THIS the assignment rather than trip-hop? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abhv7cpBgXU

Second single: Somewhere (with Kylie Minogue) - album release

Oh great, two non-singers singing the singers song

One track that might have fitted really well on the album is Hedonism, HA HA HA!

Oo I second that. For a long album, tracks like this can help change gear for the final run.

[rathound]

I guess thats a lot of the problem with it - it covers such a span of music it ends up upsetting most of their fans to some extent. When I listen to it now, I really do wish they done 75%+ of it as pop dance bangers - as they did with Very, but with the trancey type sound of '99. I find Radiophonic into The Only one really grates, and the sequencing of In Denial - New York city boy - Footsteps at the end - it's just all over the shop

The first 3, and arguably 5 work because they work as a listening experience together. After that it doesn't.

[Nickname]

Maybe I'm the only person who likes Boy Strange? I never knew it was so hated

I knew on the net a weird girl who loved that song at that time.

I don't see "Closer to Heaven" like a Top 10 hit at that time, "Somewhere" was. I'm sure with Kylie would go even furter.

Many people here are against "New York City Boy" like single material. Fortuntely it was. It's in Top 10 of their most famous songs on Spotify.

[Nicholas]

I love Boy Strange and always did. The second half centrepiece - that into In Denial - was the bit that saved the whole album for me the first few times I listened to it (of course Drunk helped as well). As a pair of songs, it didn’t necessarily feel very characteristically ‘them’ but it felt like an attempt to bend the second half of the album into an interesting shape and I appreciated that.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

The main problem with the album is there's too many duff tracks.

From Please through to Very, there's not a single track that doesn't hold its own.

Come Bilingual, and Electricity is noticeably rubbish and Saturday Night Forever is a weak album closer. Still, most of it is decent enough, albeit underwhelming compared to what preceded it.

Then Nightlife arrives and you could strike a line through nearly half the album (i.e. Happiness Is An Option, Vampires, The Only One, In Denial, Boy Strange) and you wouldn't be missing anything. Footsteps is a nice enough song in its own right, but given what came before it, all momentum is lost and it too slips into the "bottom half" by virtue of doing so little to raise the overall average.

The problem is, looking at the Nightlife FL set, there's not a great deal in the bonus tracks that could have raised the album from the mire, but in the interests of having a go, here's Nightlife revisited...

1. For Your Own Good
2. Closer To Heaven
3. Somebody Else's Business
4. The Ghost Of Myself
5. I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore

1. Radiophonic
2. You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk
3. For All Of Us
4. New York City Boy
5. Footsteps

Retro.

[davidctecno]

I think Nightlife's choice of singles is the right one. I have always interpreted them that way

I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more: Preparation to go out partying
NYC Boy: Party
Drunk: Hangover

Regarding the tracklisting, I would remove several tracks that do not fit the theme.

01 For your own good
02 Closer to heaven
03 I Don´t Know what you want but I can´t give it anymore
04 Vampires
05 Radiophonic
06 The Only One
07 NYC Boy
08 Casting a Shadow
09 Lies
10 Nightlife
11 You only tell me you love me when you´re drunk

[Capsigrany]

My tracklist -keeping the 12-track structure- would be:
1-For your own good
2-Closer to heaven
3-I don’t know what you want…
4-For all of us
5-You only tell me you love me…
6-Vampires
7-Casting a shadow
8-Radiophonic
9-Somebody else’s business
10-Boy strange
11-NYC boy
12-Footsteps

I have to say that I love Nightlife, for me it’s a very good album that gets punished by its 2 or 3 lamest tracks. I’ve always thought that it could have benefited a lot if it was a 10-track album.

[NOBODY75]

Okay, so I'm making my tracklist.

FOR YOUR OWN GOOD
I DONT KNOW....
DRUNK
CLOSER TO HEAVEN
VAMPIRES

RADIOPHONIC
FOR ALL OF US
NEW YORK CITY BOY
HAPPINESS IS AN OPTION
IN DENIAL

[NOBODY75]

My tracklist -keeping the 12-track structure- would be:
1-For your own good
2-Closer to heaven
3-I don’t know what you want…
4-For all of us
5-You only tell me you love me…
6-Vampires
7-Casting a shadow
8-Radiophonic
9-Somebody else’s business
10-Boy strange
11-NYC boy
12-Footsteps

I have to say that I love Nightlife, for me it’s a very good album that gets punished by its 2 or 3 lamest tracks. I’ve always thought that it could have benefited a lot if it was a 10-track album.

I think quite similarly to you.

[Sammy Jenkis]

Track listing

1) Radiphonic ("In the air...)
2) Closer to Heaven
3) I Don't Know...
4) Silver Age
5) You Only Tell Me You Love Me
6) Boy Strange
7) The Only One
Footsteps.
9) Being Boring 1999

And that's it. Happiness is an Option, Vampires, In Denial, For Your Own Good and New York City Boy are all b-sides now. In fact I'll never know why they didn't release New York city boy as a single.