Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[Sammy Jenkis]

Always is a lovely tune and one of their best 21st century b-sides in my opinion.

[NOBODY75]

Always is a lovely tune and one of their best 21st century b-sides in my opinion.

Totally agree

[Birthday Boy]

Always is one of my favourite b-sides for sure, I love it a lot. While I enjoy the music (despite it's slight weirdness), my favourite part about the song are definitely the lyrics. In my opinion, they are among Neil's most beautiful, and I love their comforting qualities. Thematically, it's something I can relate to very well, since year after year I'm feeling a little depressed about summer ending and winter coming way too soon - in fact, this thought has already been creeping up again during the last few days. Of course, you could probably also interpret these lyrics as a general metaphor for something good ending and a bleak period beginning, in which case I probably like them even more. Things may be bad now, and it could be like that for a while, but remember that summer comes, always.
A true happy-sad song. It is what they do best.

[Patrick Bateman]

Another b-side that would have significantly improved Release. It is incredible that they could listen to such a strong song and think it was inferior to E-mail or TNIFIL.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Always is excellent... they curate such an interesting soundscape here.

If the arpeggio were played on an acoustic guitar with a bit of reverb, it would slot straight onto Release.

Retro.

[MikeyC]

A gorgeous song! I love it!

[petshopgrrl]

Track 158: Always
Chronology: Release FL CD1:12

A beatiful melancholic track. Revived during the Obscure concerts. It surpasses the acoustic approach of the *Release* album, highlighting its synthetic elegance.One of the best B-sides!

I love the math rhyme: "You go from A to B to C on demand like algebra or geometry diagrammed"

Indeed! It warms the cockles of my nerdy little heart.

I was a late convert to this one. I first heard it after buying Format and thought it was a bit of a letdown, sandwiched as it was between Sexy Northerner and Nightlife on my playlist. However, it would keep cropping up later on random play and I got to appreciate the quiet beauty of it. It's the aural equivalent of a Snuggie and a hot chocolate on a winter's day.

[Lleonard Pler]

Mesmerising melody. If they are known masters of making sad lyrics sound happy, this time they turn the formula around and take the lyrics into a sadder song than they actually are. Album worthy.

[VRIDD]

This whole topic is full of posts about b-sides that are so good that they should have been included in some album instead of some other weaker songs.

Somehow, all of these posts assume that the rank of album track is higher than the rank of b-side. And they assume that the main goal for an artist should be to release very strong albums.

I do not think this is Pet Shop Boys point of view!

I think PSB main goal has always been to release very strong singles, and I think that PSB consider b-sides not inferior to album tracks.