Pet Shop Boys Community

I might be going against the trend here but I have tried frequently to like Home and Dry without ever succeeding. In fact, I paused mid-comment to go back and double-check had I missed something, discovering the following - 1) the live version from Jools Holland foregrounds Chris' piano lines substantially more and gives a more textured (to my ear) backing. 2) I don't mind the vocoder bit. 3) There are some nice vignettes in the song but I find the opening to be repetitive and unengaging which means there is a pressure on the rest of the song (in my opinion) to compensate. I will admit I possibly still find it difficult to separate the song from the era - were they really tyring Britpop 5 years after the height of guitar mania?

retrofuturist wrote: Mon 15 Jun 2026, 8:25 amTrack 138 : Home And Dry
Chronology: Release - Track 1 (Album Version)
Chronology: Release FL 1:13 (Ambient Mix)

Absolutely gorgeous track.

Since Very, I think this is one of the five or six times, maybe seven, that they reached their peak again. A truly wonderful song. Each of the three melodies is brilliant. And for me, the key to a song's quality and quality almost always lies in its melodies. You only have to look at the many non-professional covers online to see how good it is.
The ambient version and the Blank and Jones version are both excellent and complete a sensational package. An instant and timeless classic.

I remember going to Selfridges to watch the Home and Dry video in their gallery before the song had been released and pretty much laying on the floor as the speakers had been turned down so low. Happy days and a really beautiful song.

retrofuturist wrote: Mon 15 Jun 2026, 8:25 am Greetings,

And thus concludes our often arduous crawl through the Nightlife era. I intend to step back a bit from pushing these through daily and am more than willing to pass the baton onto someone else. My incentive really was to get us collectively through the two Further Listening discs and past all the talk about how much that era sucked - because, whilst such observations are not altogether wrong, it was dragging us too far away from the intended "track-by-track" analysis of this topic, and if we didn't march on, we'd never arrive at their 21st century renaissance!

So, welcome to Release.

Track 138 : Home And Dry
Chronology: Release - Track 1 (Album Version)
Chronology: Release FL 1:13 (Ambient Mix)

Discussion welcome.

Retro.

Should have been called "Home and Bland" which describes this song. It goes absolutely nowhere. Certainly not their worse single but it's up there in blandness and boredom.

"Home and Bland", whoa you should be Neil's ghost writer lyricist.

"Dark and frantic transatlantic miles" is one of Neil's top five lyrics. Just perfect.

It’s a very heartfelt, emotional song.

Parlophone can't have been happy with the video for a lead single being so uncommercial. Home and Dry is a nice song and it does set down a marker for their new direction.

However, what I've always found disappointing with both Nightlife and Release is that they were no longer ahead of the curve. We've already seen the first wave of bedwetter bands and PSB seem to be following in the wake of post-Britpop guitar groups. Post-Bilingual, they seemed a bit lost.

But yes, a sweet sentiment about a drug-dealing boyfriend.

jasonjohn wrote: Tue 16 Jun 2026, 3:37 am "Home and Bland", whoa you should be Neil's ghost writer lyricist.

I'm allowed to have my opinions, I love how people on here just attack, attack, attack others whose opinions are different than their own. Since I'm not allowed to voice opinions, I will go back to just reading and not replying like so many others do and let these rude people continue to attack others.


Actually I'm done. Most of my posts gets attacked. Some fans are so fanatical they can't handle differing opinions.

Greetings,

ahafan02 wrote: Tue 16 Jun 2026, 11:31 pm Actually I'm done. Most of my posts gets attacked. Some fans are so fanatical they can't handle differing opinions.

Yes, but you know that's precisely what they're trying to achieve with their whinging, yeah? Don't reward their conduct, mate - march on!

Retro.

Not exactly an attack though is it. You can have an opinion and people can reply. Bigger fans probably left after seeing the pile on against anything non-It's-A-Sin.

So moving along...

Track 139: I get along
Chronology: Release - Track 2

Pet Shop Boys going Beatles. We are not in Nightlife anymore.

One of their political songs disguised as a love song. The chorus wants to be that of a torch song and maybe it would work in another type of band but here we picture Neil singing at a campfire at best.

A lovely song anyway, maybe two minutes too long. The middle eight is great though.

One of my least favourite psb singles ever, I really don’t like its chorus. I can’t really pinpoint why, I think it has to do with associations rather than the song itself. Too much britpop influence for my taste, maybe?

Great song. The release album so far has been good.

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