Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[Bucky Goldstein]

Lyrically, the cringiest thing they’ve done (and it’s not without some competition)… I remember physically wincing when I first heard it. Neil’s complained about people having a hard time accepting “sincerity” from his lyrics, but when that sincerity is this tweely callow and guileless: give me wry “ironic detachment” every time, please.

As has been mentioned, the subject of Neil’s adolescent desires has clearly since been yewtree’d. The late for school line hasn’t aged well.

Having said that, I find the actual tune quite pleasant. Like a lot of “bad” PSB songs, I could see it working in the hands of another artist with more of an affinity with the credulous (see also, Winner).

[telys]

A song that screams METOO!

Anyway, the solution to the riddle which is Release lays before us:
The 5 songs which should've been on Release are on the b-sides/FL-disc:
Run Girl Run
Friendly Fire
I Didn't Get Where I Am*
Searching For The Face of Jesus*
Between Two Islands*

*Have the same production credits as the album
Friendly Fire is the same style as Release, or even more so
Run Girl Run also fits the format I guess they were aiming for.

The 5 songs which should be kept are the first ones: H&D, I Get Along, Birthday Boy, London and Samurai. They all have good tunes and great lyrics, Neil is telling a story which he is so good at. The other songs all have cringey or pretentious lyrics and also a weak vocal by Neil.

[NotInvisible]

The Night I Fell in Love is hilarious, so many little moments that make me laugh. I can't clutch my pearls over the student thing, none of it's meant to be taken seriously. "...he just shrugged" kills me every time. Nice little melody, too. But it should have been a b-side.

[rathound]

Going through these post-imperial albums is interesting. Bilingual is very good with a couple of duff tracks, Nightlife is a mess and Release a lot better than its reputation deserves.

However, this is truly one of their most awful songs and completely breaks the mood of the album. Neil could get away with writing about U2 or Morrissey as their peer but once he starts bitching about the next generation of pop stars on this or Ego Music, it's all a bit embarrassing. Eminem is releasing great pop singles like Without Me at the same time as you're writing this homoerotic fan fiction.

And he kept complaining about being perceived as a gay band once he'd come out publicly but then they'd put something like this or In Denial on an album. The less coded the songwriting got, the less interesting it became.

yeah would roughly agree with this. I've enjoyed listening back through to Release, its not one I go back to often and its better than I remember. This is awful though. Musically it goes nowhere and yeah not a fan of the theme or the lyrics at all. At least if you are going to dis' Eminem make it a banger

Maybe someone can put together a compilation - 'Baffling' - Side 1 being rubbish like this and 'Wedding', with side 2 being the b-sides/bonus tracks they left off instead.

[Gabby]

The less coded the songwriting got, the less interesting it became.

I tend to agree with this. I never really picked up on the gay coding in anything up until Very. It wasn't particularly surprising when Neil came out during this time, but Wayne's website has since clued me in to many of these older songs deeper meaning, and I wouldn't have guessed otherwise.

The ambiguity was definitely more alluring.

[Patrick Bateman]

yeah would roughly agree with this. I've enjoyed listening back through to Release, its not one I go back to often and its better than I remember. This is awful though. Musically it goes nowhere and yeah not a fan of the theme or the lyrics at all. At least if you are going to dis' Eminem make it a banger

Maybe someone can put together a compilation - 'Baffling' - Side 1 being rubbish like this and 'Wedding', with side 2 being the b-sides/bonus tracks they left off instead.

They had obviously always 'buried' incredible songs as b-sides but it was less of an issue in the early years because the singles and albums were so strong. But when they're selecting The Night I Fell in Love for the album over something like Always, they really needed their heads banging together. Parlophone should have told them to put it on or they wouldn't release it (that famous Pet Shop Boys irony, not releasing an album called Release).

[Gabby]

Parlophone should have told them to put it on or they wouldn't release it (that famous Pet Shop Boys irony, not releasing an album called Release).

Do you think Neil and Chris have suffered, as other popular artists have (be that musicians, writers, film-makers etc) with being surrounded by "yes-men" at some point, or more accurately people who simply don't feel comfortable with telling them something is a bad idea and they shouldn't do it?

I sort of feel like that's where the wheels fall off for people who have a certain amount of success, that others surrounding them are simply not feeling empowered enough to tell them "No" and that's when poor decisions like we're discussing here start to creep in.

[Bucky Goldstein]

Do you think Neil and Chris have suffered, as other popular artists have (be that musicians, writers, film-makers etc) with being surrounded by "yes-men" at some point, or more accurately people who simply don't feel comfortable with telling them something is a bad idea and they shouldn't do it?

I sort of feel like that's where the wheels fall off for people who have a certain amount of success, that others surrounding them are simply not feeling empowered enough to tell them "No" and that's when poor decisions like we're discussing here start to creep in.

I think it says something that their commercial peak coincided with them working with a manager, to whom they said “no” a lot…

Given the sheer length of career, there’s bound to be the odd lapse in judgement, but I always get the impression they have always done exactly want they want, relying on the veto that each has… With the odd exception (which even then is fun to argue about) they’ve kept each other grounded.

[NotInvisible]

I sort of feel like that's where the wheels fall off for people who have a certain amount of success, that others surrounding them are simply not feeling empowered enough to tell them "No" and that's when poor decisions like we're discussing here start to creep in.

I mean... the X factor here is that it wasn't an objectively poor decision. It was just an album track that some fans don't like. The humor (especially the black humor) was in the same vein as a lot of Emimen's own music and videos at the time. The is the same guy who had released The Real Slim Shady a few years before and dressed up as Robin in a music video released the same year The Night I Fell in Love came out, after all. The song isn't meant to be examined in isolation, it's meant to be examined in relation to Eminem's own persona and career. And while that's not for everyone, neither is it objectively a poor decision for a song.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Speaking of choices...

Track 147: You Choose
Chronology: Release - Track 10

Final track off Release. Please discuss, and now that we've listened all the way through, if you want to propose an alternative track listing for Release, this would be an ideal time.

Retro.

[NOBODY75]

Another song I can listen to without tearing my hair out, though it’s pretty weak by their standards—especially compared to other tracks they had written.
Following Retrofuturist’s suggestion, here is what my tracklist would have been (without worrying about the order):
HOME AND DRY
I GET A LONG
BIRTHDAY BOY
LONDON
E MAIL
THE SAMURAI
HERE

I DIDNT GET...
BETWEEN...
ALWAYS

For me, that would have made for a great album. Instead of those three—which I consider great songs—they included what I view as two mediocre tracks and one weak one, resulting in just an average album... And yes, it was their worst album up to that point.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Nobody75,

I feel similarly about You Choose, and interestingly they were the exact same 10 tracks I would have chosen for Release redux!

Home And Dry
I Get Along
London
E-mail
Between Two Islands

Always
I Didn't Get Where I Am Today
The Samurai In Autumn
Here
Birthday Boy

Retro.

[MikeyC]

I like the song but I don’t think it was a good, effective closer for The Release Tour (at least in North America).

[NotInvisible]

Track 147: You Choose
Chronology: Release - Track 10

Final track off Release. Please discuss, and now that we've listened all the way through, if you want to propose an alternative track listing for Release, this would be an ideal time.

Another solid entry. There should have been more of this on the album.

[NOBODY75]

Greetings Nobody75,

I feel similarly about You Choose, and interestingly they were the exact same 10 tracks I would have chosen for Release redux!

Home And Dry
I Get Along
London
E-mail
Between Two Islands

Always
I Didn't Get Where I Am Today
The Samurai In Autumn
Here
Birthday Boy

Retro.