Zeus On The Loose wrote:Home And Dry: Obvious lead single and semi-decent out of a terrible collection of songs. Four bars of music looping, no chord progression though.
That was the whole CONCEPT of the song, Zeus! It's something they hadn't really done before. By the way: a lack of chord progression doesn't necessarily mean that the song is bad. For instance: 'Creep' by Radiohead (arguably a fantastic song) is also based on the same repetative chords.
I Get Along: Poor man's Don't Look Back In Anger with a dreary repetitive chorus
It sounds a bit Oasis, indeed. But the chorus is catchy and the lyrics are very clever.
Birthday Boy: Poor man's REM, Neil's vocals badly produced to sound 'profound' cliched rhymes used in many other PSB tunes
I agree about a few productional errors with Neil's voice, but the song itself is better than most of REM's catalogue.
London: A highlight mainly because the production is good (it pays to have someone proper do it rather than yourself) and because the lyrics are clever
It's indeed the best produced song on the album.
Samurai In Autumn: Has a decent instrumental break, the rest is Nightlife era b'side quality
I like the mood of the song, yet it's out of place on this album.
E-mail: Subject matter is dodgy and embarassing, again no chord progression, middle bit called in to save the song from endless looping, always a sign of desperation
It's not one of their songwriting highlights, but it's a decent, radio-friendly song.
Love Is A Catastrophe: Successful rock songs are successful because the performer can pretend to sound sincere and 'from the heart'. This is clearly about a rent boy not loving Neil back. He'll get over it.
Hmmm... I find this comment a bit harsh. No matter if you like the song or not, it was obvious to see during live performances that this is a song that means a lot to Neil. He sings it with passion.
Here: Closer To Heaven left-over.
In this version, it is, yes. Yet a very good one, just like You've Got To Start Somewhere... - It's the poorest production ever. Even the 1984 version of West End Girls was produced better.
Night I Fell In Love: Novelty wore off quickly and all that was left was four bars of music looping with no chorus and no chord progression.
Yet the music is very beautiful. A mixture between The Survivors and Liberation.
You Choose: Dreary.
That's what I thought too, originally. But then it grew on me. It's a good song, when you're in the right mood for it.
Always: Best tune of the era
Indeed one of the better tunes. Should have been on the album. I think a big majority of fans agrees with that.
Sexy Northerner: Terrible. Would work better as an instrumental and without the forced guitar bit, hence the Superchumbo mix is better than the original
If it were instrumental, it would be too repetative. I like both the original and the remixes.
Between Two Islands: Pretty decent b'side, brass sounds great, very summery and I love the I Want You bits
Oh..... my opinion is 180 degrees different: It's without any doubt one of their weakest b-sides ever. Where you complain about some of the release songs sounding forced, I think this applies to this song. It just goes nowhere, that's my major problem with it. And as for desperate: the I Want You bits are totally awful. I have no other word for it.
Searching For The Face Of Jesus: Passable b'side fodder
I Didn't Get Where I Am Today: Bog standard.
Hmmmm I rate these two as the best songs from the era, together with Birthday Boy. SFTFOJ is the best PSB B-side since Screaming, IDGWIAT even topped it, being the obvious lead single from the album.
You complain about lack of chord progression, then slaughter two songs that DO have it...
Maybe you will change your opinion about Always
