Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[rathound]

Did like it very much at the time, but listening back it sounds a bit PSB by numbers. Nice lyrics and melody, but not too mad on the high NRG production now. or the choir thing. Glad it wasn't on the album, decent b-side though. Prefer '....Rock 'n' roll' still

[Gabby]

I like Delusions quite a lot. Definitely B-Side fodder but a quality B-side nonetheless.

I love the line "Revolution can be fun!" - it's the kind of daft statement me and my mates would come up with at school around that time.

[sterlinglush]

I'll be a voice of friendly dissent here: I have always thought Delusions should have been not just on the album but one of the singles. The B sides from this era could have stood alone as a strong album in their own right, and this is one of the standouts. I agree there's a cohesiveness to Bilingual and this might not have exactly fit, but it's a much stronger track than some of the ones that were included, and infinitely catchier and more memorable.

[Sandy Shaw]

From a Neil interview (don't have the source). Words to the effect of..

Neil:

''We have have always had delusions of grandeur''

[Tom Angel]

Always found this a bit frantic and not enough space in it somehow. It's a sing that sounds like it's saying all it can in 3 mins when it should take 5mins . I'm not sure it's aged well.

[Towa]

I love it, a perfect B-side! Totally OTT and a not-very-modern production, but so charming!

[Disco.]

A very good b-side, but still thinks that Neils voice is buried too deep in the mix.

[Drico One]

Track 105: The calm before the storm
Chronology: Bilingual, Further Listening, Track 9

Their "down the dumper" fever dream, where Neil imagines a "rocky lane" in the life of a forty-something pop star. Apparently, it was all played live and Chris had little enough to do with it.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about Neil is his journalistic approach to stardom and his real-time insider's observations of the industry he succeeded in. Here we find him admitting he felt they were about to go down the dumper with Bilingual. In ordinary circumstances, writing songs about your own chart position and commercial diminution might seem self-indulgent (see songs about touring), yet here he writes in such an evocative way that there is no hint whatsoever in the lyric that he is describing the fleeting nature of pop success or the psychological pressures tormenting a fading star. Of course, that might be because this song has nothing at all to do with these things and the "chart position" explanation - revealed only in interviews - is a ruse for something far more personal indeed.

Either way, what an intriguing way to write and present some form of psychodrama - whatever its nature, banal or otherwise.

Drico.

[leesmapman]

I prefer the Sparks song with the same title which sounds a lot like a PSB track.

[petshopgrrl]

I prefer the Sparks song with the same title which sounds a lot like a PSB track.

Well, that was an interesting diversion! Yes, take the lyrics and melody off the top and it could be a PSB track underneath!

Their "down the dumper" fever dream, where Neil imagines a "rocky lane" in the life of a forty-something pop star. Apparently, it was all played live and Chris had little enough to do with it.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about Neil is his journalistic approach to stardom and his real-time insider's observations of the industry he succeeded in. Here we find him admitting he felt they were about to go down the dumper with Bilingual. In ordinary circumstances, writing songs about your own chart position and commercial diminution might seem self-indulgent (see songs about touring), yet here he writes in such an evocative way that there is no hint whatsoever in the lyric that he is describing the fleeting nature of pop success or the psychological pressures tormenting a fading star. Of course, that might be because this song has nothing at all to do with these things and the "chart position" explanation - revealed only in interviews - is a ruse for something far more personal indeed.

Either way, what an intriguing way to write and present some form of psychodrama - whatever its nature, banal or otherwise.

I've been waiting for this one to come around ever since everyone started banging on about dumperdom during the main album discussion. It's such a bucolic setting that you can almost feel the sun on your cheeks - what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

I suppose it wouldn't be a PSB song if there weren't multiple levels of interpretation that you could get your teeth into, but my hot take after reading the official line was that they'd break up if Bilingual tanked. Neil was "most in debt" to Chris because without him his childhood dream wouldn't have come true, and "most to lose" because he'd have to go back to a day job. Chris was pretty blunt about this in the FL booklet - "Back to Smash Hits!" - although even Neil suggested that Q might have been a likelier destination by then. I could see Chris quite happily swanning off into the distance to embrace the hermit life. What would the "telephoned threat" be? EMI withholding all the perks? (*shudder*)

The style makes me think of this one as Neil's Elton John number (or am I hearing Gilbert O'Sullivan?). Not my favorite cup of tea but wouldn't skip.

[Disco.]

A lovely track.

[NotInvisible]

A terrific b-side, which points the way to their future. Possibly their first 21st century track.

[Morse]

I prefer the Sparks song with the same title which sounds a lot like a PSB track.

Well, that was an interesting diversion! Yes, take the lyrics and melody off the top and it could be a PSB track underneath!

Their "down the dumper" fever dream, where Neil imagines a "rocky lane" in the life of a forty-something pop star. Apparently, it was all played live and Chris had little enough to do with it.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about Neil is his journalistic approach to stardom and his real-time insider's observations of the industry he succeeded in. Here we find him admitting he felt they were about to go down the dumper with Bilingual. In ordinary circumstances, writing songs about your own chart position and commercial diminution might seem self-indulgent (see songs about touring), yet here he writes in such an evocative way that there is no hint whatsoever in the lyric that he is describing the fleeting nature of pop success or the psychological pressures tormenting a fading star. Of course, that might be because this song has nothing at all to do with these things and the "chart position" explanation - revealed only in interviews - is a ruse for something far more personal indeed.

Either way, what an intriguing way to write and present some form of psychodrama - whatever its nature, banal or otherwise.

I've been waiting for this one to come around ever since everyone started banging on about dumperdom during the main album discussion. It's such a bucolic setting that you can almost feel the sun on your cheeks - what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

I suppose it wouldn't be a PSB song if there weren't multiple levels of interpretation that you could get your teeth into, but my hot take after reading the official line was that they'd break up if Bilingual tanked. Neil was "most in debt" to Chris because without him his childhood dream wouldn't have come true, and "most to lose" because he'd have to go back to a day job. Chris was pretty blunt about this in the FL booklet - "Back to Smash Hits!" - although even Neil suggested that Q might have been a likelier destination by then. I could see Chris quite happily swanning off into the distance to embrace the hermit life. What would the "telephoned threat" be? EMI withholding all the perks? (*shudder*)

The style makes me think of this one as Neil's Elton John number (or am I hearing Gilbert O'Sullivan?). Not my favorite cup of tea but wouldn't skip.

I love this song, and the whole atmosphere of it.

The idea that “The Calm Before the Storm” might not really be about Pet Shop Boys breaking up if Bilingual failed isn’t far-fetched at all. By 1995–96, Pet Shop Boys had already lived through the classic pop- career arc: enormous 80's success, a more introspective early-90's phase (Behaviour, Very), and then the industry beginning to pivot toward Britpop and guitar bands. Dance-pop duos who’d been around for a decade were suddenly unfashionable and that atmosphere alone could make any artist start hearing the distant rumble of thunder.

Neil's personality amplifies that feeling. He’s a chronic observer of his own career and he tends to narrate his own life like a feature article about the pop industry — half reportage, half memoir. That runs through their whole catalogue: songs that look like little stories but secretly contain autobiographical anxieties.

Your theory about the “telephoned threat” is interesting because it fits Tennant’s writing habits, as he often drops a slightly mysterious phrase that hints at pressure from outside forces: management, labels, public opinion, time itself. It doesn’t have to be literal.

The breakup theory works on a human level too. The dynamic has always been asymmetrical: Neil – the lyricist, public voice, former journalist, the one who wanted a pop career since childhood, and Chris – more aloof, famously indifferent to fame, happiest with his machines, hat and sunglasses. If Pet Shop Boys had collapsed, Neil likely would have felt he had “most to lose,” as you said. Chris, by contrast, has always given the impression he’d happily vanish into a quiet electronic-music hermit existence somewhere.

The musical style reinforces the introspective vibe; compared with the flamboyant predominantly Latin-house energy of Bilingual, this track feels almost pastoral — which is exactly what you noticed with the “bucolic” setting. It’s calm, reflective, almost English-countryside in mood. That contrast is clever songwriting and something I've always loved about Neil and Chris: serenity on the surface, unease underneath.

Your Elton John / Gilbert O’Sullivan instinct isn’t crazy either. Tennant has always had a soft spot for melancholy piano-pop storytelling, the sort of thing Elton did in the early 70's — songs that sound warm and reflective while quietly describing emotional collapse.

And the funniest historical footnote? The storm never really arrived. Instead, Bilingual sold well and produced several hits; they followed it with Nightlife, then Release, then decades more albums; and, by the 2020's they are now the elder statesmen of electronic pop rather than fading stars.

So the song ends up feeling like a snapshot of a private fear that turned out to be happily completely and utterly wrong.

[telys]

The breakup theory works on a human level too. The dynamic has always been asymmetrical: Neil – the lyricist, public voice, former journalist, the one who wanted a pop career since childhood, and Chris – more aloof, famously indifferent to fame, happiest with his machines, hat and sunglasses. If Pet Shop Boys had collapsed, Neil likely would have felt he had “most to lose,” as you said. Chris, by contrast, has always given the impression he’d happily vanish into a quiet electronic-music hermit existence somewhere.

This idea about Chris is most probably only a construct. This is Chris public persona that he and PSB have tried to percieve as his private persona. We all know that Chris loves the spotlight (remember the walk out on that american talkshow), he's one heavy party dude and loves fashion etc.
Probably Chris would've had most to loose from a breakup. Neil would've found new fame as something else but noone would've wanted to listen to Chris' electronic music without the input of Neil (Relentless is cool stuff but there are no hits).
Neil would've been able to churn out a few albums on his own, like the singer songwriter he originally set out to become, and with lots of friends in the business he could get himself another temporary musical partner/partners.

[y3potential]

I personally would love to hear The Calm Before The Storm played at the Obscure shows. Just Neil's vocal and Chris on piano. Perfect.