Pet Shop Boys Community

I like Between to Islands. Lovely summer track which transports you to a sun drenched beach where anything goes!

I was listening to another PSB track which unfortunately I have forgotten what it was, that also gave me that "lounge music" vibe just as previous poster mentioned. Reckon that there's mileage in pulling together a compilation of tracks Iike that including the swing version of Can you forgive her? - enough already for an album I'd bet.

Remember that Between Two Islands actually are two songs. It ends with a cover of "I Want You". But Marvin Gaye's original fades in comparison to this brilliant cover version. The one minute outro with the cover is one of the best things they've ever done. Between Two Islands is alsoe a brilliant song on its own.

Greetings,

A quality song, which as you may have seen before, made its way onto my redux edition of Release.

Quite a bit has been rightly said above about how the arrangement complements the theme, I'd also add that I really like the way Neil sings this, especially on lines like "Where are you tonight?" which hark back to how he would sing in the 1980s. Unfortunately I can't say likewise for the other b-side of I Get Along, but we'll get to that in due course.

Retro.

A song that didn’t get on Release in favour of The Night I Fell On Love.

tottenhammattspurs wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 9:03 am A song that didn’t get on Release in favour of The Night I Fell On Love.

The Night I Fell in Love fits better musically. Between Two Islands is brilliant, though.

Between Two Islands is one of the PSB songs where a slightly 'clunky' lyric relegates it. Musically, I really like it.

See also This Used To Be The Future and The Dictator Decides, about which I feel similarly. Occasionally, Neil's lyrics can feel a little forced and unnatural, with the flow of the words mismatched to the melody, and all three of those songs niggle me in the same way.

NotInvisible wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 5:42 pm

tottenhammattspurs wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 9:03 am A song that didn’t get on Release in favour of The Night I Fell On Love.

The Night I Fell in Love fits better musically. Between Two Islands is brilliant, though.

I understand your point of view and respect it. What I’m about to write isn’t an attack on you... but I’m fed up with this whole idea of ​​how songs "fit" together. I just wish they’d include the 10 best songs they had at the time of releasing the album in question.
To make matters worse, that "fitting" concept doesn't even hold up for the *Release* era... I mean, what is "The Samurai" doing on the album versus I Didn't Get? Anyway, that’s just my humble opinion. But seeing certain songs included on Release while others are left off just blows my mind

NOBODY75 wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 10:02 pm

NotInvisible wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 5:42 pm

tottenhammattspurs wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 9:03 am A song that didn’t get on Release in favour of The Night I Fell On Love.

The Night I Fell in Love fits better musically. Between Two Islands is brilliant, though.

I understand your point of view and respect it. What I’m about to write isn’t an attack on you... but I’m fed up with this whole idea of ​​how songs "fit" together. I just wish they’d include the 10 best songs they had at the time of releasing the album in question.
To make matters worse, that "fitting" concept doesn't even hold up for the *Release* era... I mean, what is "The Samurai" doing on the album versus I Didn't Get? Anyway, that’s just my humble opinion. But seeing certain songs included on Release while others are left off just blows my mind

"Best" is one of the most subjective words out there. Best for who, for what reason and for what time? The album we got was the album we got for the reasons of the time. Release is not a great album, but it's got some great stuff on it. In an alternative universe we might have got IDGWIAT or Between Two Islands but then we'd be asking "what if" it had that rumoured song about Eminem or that mystical electro haiku. Accept reality and don't look back - the boys rarely do.

Greetings,

Track 149: Searching For The Face Of Jesus
Chronology: Release FL CD 1- Track 2

Quite a plain arrangement, with some nice rhythmic piano giving it a certain fluidity.

I don't much like when Neil gets stuck in his higher register. So much so, that I don't even want to tune in to hear the lyrics to find out whether they're any good or not.

Yet, perfectly apt as a b-side.

Retro.

daveid wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 10:49 pm

NOBODY75 wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 10:02 pm

NotInvisible wrote: Mon 20 Jul 2026, 5:42 pm

The Night I Fell in Love fits better musically. Between Two Islands is brilliant, though.

I understand your point of view and respect it. What I’m about to write isn’t an attack on you... but I’m fed up with this whole idea of ​​how songs "fit" together. I just wish they’d include the 10 best songs they had at the time of releasing the album in question.
To make matters worse, that "fitting" concept doesn't even hold up for the *Release* era... I mean, what is "The Samurai" doing on the album versus I Didn't Get? Anyway, that’s just my humble opinion. But seeing certain songs included on Release while others are left off just blows my mind

"Best" is one of the most subjective words out there. Best for who, for what reason and for what time? The album we got was the album we got for the reasons of the time. Release is not a great album, but it's got some great stuff on it. In an alternative universe we might have got IDGWIAT or Between Two Islands but then we'd be asking "what if" it had that rumoured song about Eminem or that mystical electro haiku. Accept reality and don't look back - the boys rarely do.

When I said "the best," I was referring to them—to the Pet Shop Boys. It’s their album; if they believe the ten songs they included were the best ten, then that’s that. I might choose different ones, you might choose others, and some people might pick the same ten. It happened over twenty years ago, and we can each create our own version of *Release* and listen to that instead of the original. I’ve come to terms with that.
What strikes me as a mistake is the idea of ​​picking ten songs not because they’re the best, but because they fit better. If you were to mention "Where the Streets Have No Name" in the context of *Behaviour*—even though I don't think they’d even written it yet—I’d understand that. Even though I think it’s a better song than many on *Behaviour*, I can clearly see it doesn't fit the album. But in this case... if they think "You Choose" or "The Night" are better songs than "Between"... well, that baffles me. But their opinion is the one that counts when creating the tracklist. However, if we’re talking about a scenario where they say, "Yes, it’s a better song, but it doesn't fit as well"... well, my view is that—except in glaringly obvious cases—they should include the ten songs they consider the best. That’s the opinion I was trying to convey.

Searching for the face of Jesus. Musically quite interesting, but all in all a mid-tier PSB track imho. It's nice to listen to, but I don't think it's a track I will willfully chose to play, only if it passes by (and think: "this is actually quite nice")

leesmapman wrote: Tue 21 Jul 2026, 9:01 am Searching for the face of Jesus. Musically quite interesting, but all in all a mid-tier PSB track imho. It's nice to listen to, but I don't think it's a track I will willfully chose to play, only if it passes by (and think: "this is actually quite nice")

The lyrics on Searching are way ahead of most of the stuff on side b of Release. It's the kind of lyrics they should 've had on this 'mature' album instead of the generic stuff like Love is a C and You Choose. "Choosing to love is risking a lot"?!