Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[rathound]

good song, good video, nice lyrics. Not a classic but I like it

[Skybluearmy87]

Between two islands, was good enough to be a single , never mind a b side , it’s always on my summer holiday playlist ,

[telys]

My favourite song from the album. The melody is lovely and the vocoder helps to elevate it imo, even though it sets the song in stone as a "post-Believe" production. The Genuine Piano Mix on Disco 3 is beautiful too (if I recall correctly, Disco 3 was meant to be titled London, thus the cover).

The lyrics are Neil at his best of mixing History and personal.

What a great start to the album those 4 tracks are.

As I've think we've concluded before, Disco 3 is essentially the London single and the Here single combined. London was only released in continental Europe IIRC.

[telys]

With London comes yet another problem with Release.
Nr 1 was the song selection, they didn't choose the best ones
Nr 2 was programming drums instead of having real drums
Nr 3 was altogether a production with vocode/autotune although the outset was a more guitar based/"real playing"
With London:
Nr 4 weak voice and weak lyrics. It doesn't have to be flowry and fairy just because you play an acoustic guitar. London should've been edgier.
This leads up to:
Nr 5 self-produced. They should've gotten a producer of rock music to help them out when they entered their unknown territories.

[NOBODY75]

Wonderful melody. The second-best song on the album. It would certainly make a hypothetical Top 20 of the 21st century.

[withanattitude]

I always feel touched when I hear London. Quite empathic lyrics that invite us to change perspectives, a skill that gets more and more lost these days ...

And apart from the lyrics, it's got very nice melodies! I prefer the mixes on Disco 3, especially the Genuine Piano mix. The one on Release sounds a bit flat to me, compared to the other ones.

[Gabby]

Nr 5 self-produced. They should've gotten a producer of rock music to help them out when they entered their unknown territories.

And here's my hot take of the day - PSB aren't actually vey good producers.

Not here to start any fights - just a train of thought...

[Kompakt&Bijou]

Wonderful video by Martin Parr, who recently passed away. It captures the glamour in the ordinary which you experience when you go somewhere unfamiliar - one of Parr's great strengths. Such a humane artist.
And what a different world we live in. Would anyone today release a song from the perspective of a contented illegal Russian immigrant? It makes it all the more poignant listening to it now that we've descended into nativism.

[Xakrij]

While I like the song, and I think it fits the album, it really isn't about London per se, it could be any city.
I've always enjoyed seeing Neil and Chris busking in the video, with Chris sat on his crate playing a tiny keyboard!

Neil Chris London busking.jpg

[Lleonard Pler]

While I like the song, and I think it fits the album, it really isn't about London per se, it could be any city.
I've always enjoyed seeing Neil and Chris busking in the video, with Chris sat on his crate playing a tiny keyboard!Neil Chris London busking.jpg

Of course it's not about London, it's about reaching a dream land they've been dreaming of and finally getting a sense of freedom and release there, something that was only an idea in the place were they came from. The law they're breaking is not London's law but "the Far North" law, ie they're doing what they couldn't do at home.

In a way it's like the protagonists of Go West finally reached the West.

[Patrick Bateman]

The video is very good. The song is nice enough but it's a bit of a liberal cliche in terms of sentiment.

[Pinhead44]

Beautiful track, with a wonderful simple, and catchy melody. 'My father fought in Afghanistan...' part is just incredible.

Thee Radikal Blaklite version is also a great remix.

[davidctecno]

Track 142: E-mail
Chronology: Release - Track 5

It’s not a bad song, but it is a bit weak and lackluster. The first letdown on *Release*.

[Lleonard Pler]

It was weak at release time, now it's directly cringe. Very of its time in a bad way.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Track 142: E-mail
Chronology: Release - Track 5

It’s not a bad song, but it is a bit weak and lackluster. The first letdown on *Release*.

That's a good summary. I predict that of all the Pet Shop Boys fans in the world, zero would say this is their favourite Pet Shop Boys song. This is textbook "filler". Not obnoxious, but just padding. How on earth songs like this made the cut, while I Didn't Get Where I Am Today missed the cut will forever baffle me.

Retro.