Pet Shop Boys Community

Drico One wrote: Sun 24 Mar 2024, 8:42 pm I've always felt that I want a lover was full of coded references. You can take it at face value or you can ascribe all kinds of meanings - hiding in plain sight - to it. "Someone just like me" is conspiratorial, a lyrical wink and nod to those who want to see these things. "I don't care whether it's wrong or right" might as well preface the confessional defiance of It's a sin.

retrofuturist wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 1:13 am Greetings,

Yes. Speaking of preface, I Want A Lover arguably captured a sense of "nightlife" better than the entire album that would later be dedicated to it.

Retro.

daveid wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 8:54 am For me, I want a lover is the most forgettable track on the album. I find it clunky and unsophisticated. The horns and other synth sounds make it the most dated sounding track on the album.

Drico One wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 11:26 am Track 9: Later Tonight

Chronology: Please, Track 10

The first transparently gay statement in their catalogue, Later tonight's codes are rather more see-through than those of I want a lover. There isn't much room for alternative interpretations here: this is a song about longing for someone you can't have. It's suitably mournful. I like the way the sorrowful arrangement helps to internalise the personal conversation our protagonist has with himself. The hidden self takes centre stage. While the rest of the album concerns itself with social observation, Later tonight takes us down a side street for a long night of the soul. There is nobody here except our protagonist himself, and that's what's so depressing. Time for the Kleenex.

Drico.

Neilatrone wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 7:21 am

retrofuturist wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 1:13 am Greetings,

Yes. Speaking of preface, I Want A Lover arguably captured a sense of "nightlife" better than the entire album that would later be dedicated to it.

Retro.

Indeed, it's has the first of 2 occasions of them "driving through the night".

Gabby wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 4:51 pm As a teenager not once did I think of PSB songs as overtly gay. Maybe everyone else just saw the aircraft flying over my dim teenaged head, but never at that time did I listen to Please and think "Oh yeah, he's talking about a gay relationship there". In truth I think the ambiguity of Neil's lyrics (especially during the pre-Very time) are what make them so universally accessible and successful.

Once Neil came out, you can perhaps start to look at the songs through a different lens, but even then Neil continues to keep some sexual ambiguity there, or take on a female perspective/persona.

I LOVE Geowayne's PSB song interpretations, but how different might they be if:

a) Neil wasn't officially "out" or
b) wasn't gay at all

I really don't think it's as simple as saying "this song" is about a homosexual relationship and "that one" isn't. Songs resonate differently to each of us.

Gabby wrote: Mon 25 Mar 2024, 4:51 pm As a teenager not once did I think of PSB songs as overtly gay. Maybe everyone else just saw the aircraft flying over my dim teenaged head, but never at that time did I listen to Please and think "Oh yeah, he's talking about a gay relationship there". In truth I think the ambiguity of Neil's lyrics (especially during the pre-Very time) are what make them so universally accessible and successful.

Once Neil came out, you can perhaps start to look at the songs through a different lens, but even then Neil continues to keep some sexual ambiguity there, or take on a female perspective/persona.

I LOVE Geowayne's PSB song interpretations, but how different might they be if:

a) Neil wasn't officially "out" or
b) wasn't gay at all

I really don't think it's as simple as saying "this song" is about a homosexual relationship and "that one" isn't. Songs resonate differently to each of us.