D.J. wrote: Wed 10 Apr 2024, 8:29 am
Paninaro Italian Remix has always been one of my favorite PSB songs ever. It’s such a hypnotic song and I love all the sounds in it. I’ve particularly been obsessed with that one squeaky sound they repeatedly use in this song for almost 40 years now.
Isn't that just a vocodered voice?
Probably, but the way it’s cut and processed it always sounded so special and magical to me. Kind of like that riff in Heart (“Pom-Pom-Pom-Pom) that was also made of a processed voice. I love when they do that! Use the voice snippets to create riffs or call and response.
Pinhead44 wrote: Tue 09 Apr 2024, 8:05 pm
WHICH PSB 'B-SIDE' IS ALSO THE ONLY TRACK THEY HAVE EVER RELEASED ON TWO SEPERATE OCCASIONS AS AN 'A-SIDE', AND CAN'T BE FOUND ON ANY OF THEIR STUDIO ALBUMS ?
PANINARO OH OH OH
The Disco version (Italian Remix) is the definitive version here. The intro is just goose-bumps amazing ! I still remember hearing that high pitched synth melody for the first time and thinking 'WOW' !
Blessed to have seen them perform it live, the second time I went to the Dreamworld show, after they had added it to the set-list.
I regard Disco as a proper album and I think everyone else should as well.
Pinhead44 wrote: Tue 09 Apr 2024, 8:05 pm
WHICH PSB 'B-SIDE' IS ALSO THE ONLY TRACK THEY HAVE EVER RELEASED ON TWO SEPERATE OCCASIONS AS AN 'A-SIDE', AND CAN'T BE FOUND ON ANY OF THEIR STUDIO ALBUMS ?
PANINARO OH OH OH
The Disco version (Italian Remix) is the definitive version here. The intro is just goose-bumps amazing ! I still remember hearing that high pitched synth melody for the first time and thinking 'WOW' !
Blessed to have seen them perform it live, the second time I went to the Dreamworld show, after they had added it to the set-list.
I regard Disco as a proper album and I think everyone else should as well.
It was my first "proper" PSB album purchase, so I could get behind that idea.
Listened to Mr. Flagio's Take a Chance recently and caught myself thinking that its guitar melody rhythmically is quite reminiscent of that metallic/percussive rhythm in some parts of Paninaro (e.g. during Chris' interivew bit).
As for Paninaro, it' great (obviously!). Prefer the original version/Italian remix to '95.
When you look at their peers from the 80's, I don't think anybody else could have made this song, they were just all too gosh darn serious. I think the video encapsulates it best - Chris knowing exactly what he wants, dancing on his own and being fine about it.
I prefer the funked up 95 version and its utterly bonkers video, where Chris is drop dead cool while Neil phases in and out like Max Headroom. Never fails to put a smile on my face.
Listening to this now, I am struck by how it is a half-way house - no pun intended - between Please and Introspective. While it shares so much thematically with the debut record, it sounds like a prototype of what would become their "house" sound. There is a sweep about this, as our paranoid protagonist wafts furtively around a darkened Urbania in search of danger. Once more, something nefarious is afoot. As with the rumour-infused Two divided by zero, "someone's been talking" and it's time to get out of Dodge.
If one wanted to understand the genius of Chris Lowe, one would merely need to point to the bridge here. While the original track was pure Bobby Orlando, the very best moment in this: "Tonight, you're so extreme..." is the sonic architecture of our shady somnambulist. It's a moment of exhilarating magic which elevates the track from the backstreets of their catalogue and provides a swooping and sinister opening to a new chapter of clandestine, conspiratorial confessions.
Drico.
The pale kid that hides in the attic behind his PC...
I was obsessed by this track when I bought the album. At first I just thought is was okay, but after a few listens... that build-up! I was a bit disappointed that the whole track couldn't be like the ending (the whole song with that bass sequence) but the 2001 further listening fixed that omission.
Oh, and I really loved that 3" Zyx cd single version (the one with West End Sunglasses)
I still remember hearing this at The Piccadilly Theatre as part of ''Before the Act''. at the time it was billed as the first PSB 'live' performance although this wasn't really true.
It was a ballsy move opening their difficult second album with a 12" mix and a portent of what was to come with 'Introspective'. That said, I love the 7" mix of this version of 'One More Chance' on Further Listening. Also the performance of it in the empty ballroom at the end of 'It Couldn't Happen Here'.
Drico One wrote: Thu 11 Apr 2024, 12:10 pm
Track 14: One more chance
There is a sweep about this, as our paranoid protagonist wafts furtively around a darkened Urbania in search of danger. Once more, something nefarious is afoot.
I think I'm enjoying Drico's descriptions as much as the actual song.
I never bought any PSB product in the early days but I loved this enough to tape it off Radio 1 onto one of my C90 mixes. It's mysterious and urgent and evocative and filmic and it goes BEEP BEEP whirrrrrrr and that's just stuck in my head. Plus I'm a sucker for the timbales. (Are those timbales? I think they're timbales.)
In my opinion, One more chance has one of the best bridges/middle-eights they've ever done. Melody and lyrics make perfect match.
I also love the coldness in Neil's voice which really adds to the song's overall feel. It sounds especially impressive compared to his younger, playful voice in the original Bobby O version.
The first Pet Shop Boys song I ever heard, One More Chance has a unique meaning for me. From the intro’s jarring piano stab onwards the drama and atmosphere pulled me immediately into the Pet Shop Boys universe, where I have remained ever since.
Has any band ever dispelled more quickly and decisively anxieties over the quality of the difficult sophomore album?
This is an imperious album opener and the gold standard by which all other album openers should be judged.
I prefer the album version to the 7” precisely because the magical Middle 8 does not recur - it is one of the most exhilarating moments in the entire canon, and its uniqueness is key to the magic...
Kind of like that riff in Heart (“Pom-Pom-Pom-Pom) that was also made of a processed voice. I love when they do that! Use the voice snippets to create riffs or call and response.
