Pet Shop Boys Community

Drico One wrote: Sun 15 Dec 2024, 3:53 pm Track 56: Miserablism

Chronology: Behaviour, Further Listening, Track 3

The b-side to Was it worth it? - and arguably as good. The sentiment - which is very easy to misconstrue - is oblique, and only really reveals itself later on. In that sense, I think it's one of those songs that sort of backfires on the writer. Teenagers of a certain age and disposition would very likely have taken much of this at face value, especially as the message was coming from "the most miserable men in pop." It's very seductive, appealing to one's fatalism and you are left to wonder if this "philosophy" is one that our hero subscribes to. Perhaps the real brilliance of the ambiguity is to be found in the sense that while much of the self-indulgence described is vaguely comical, it accurately reflects the tragicomedy of teenage life. It's also, therefore, a commentary on the artificial depth of miserablist musicians.

Chris, in my view, gets a little dogmatic about albums having a sound - but he was right to veto this for Behaviour, if only because it was so resolutely electronic. That said, there is a lovely lyricism in the verses that, combined with Harold Faltermeyer's production, elevates this into the upper echelon of PSB b-sides. It's probably better remembered than it's accompanying a-side.

Drico.

Patrick Bateman wrote:
I think the sound would fit on Behaviour but maybe the uncertainty about how sincere the narrator is would be problematic on such an honest album. Seriously is often cited as being out of place as it is.

With this and GAWI, Neil really was fascinated by Morrissey at this time, wasn't he?

Whisper round the town
'cause you're my friend
and that's the end
for you're the only one in town
that they would beg to hang around with
You're so beautiful and calm
but with an attitude that says
"Hands off, you're just not good enough"

Drico One wrote: Sun 15 Dec 2024, 4:18 pm
Neil has always written from a perspective of romantic sincerity - which to this day is misunderstood. I imagine he found much of Morrissey's dramatics entertaining - but largely insincere.

I could never take Morrissey seriously as a lyricist. That's not to say he didn't write some brilliant and hilarious couplets, but his shtick was largely preposterous to me and good for a laugh more than anything else. Neil, by comparison, tended to leave the preposterousness to Chris ("let's cover Go West" and "segue U2 with the Boystown Gang"), so you had these romantically sincere lyrics accompanied by hugely bombastic slabs of musical ostentation. Even Rent, for all it's knowing connotations, is fantastically sincere and hugely romantic. It has layers that, say, You're the one for me, Fatty never did.

Morrissey, to me, was the Emily Dickinson of pop lyricists. And I, even as a teenager when this stuff was supposed to appeal to me, hated Emily Dickinson's juvenile obviousness. "I felt a funeral in my brain", indeed. Give me the proper misery of Gerard Manley Hopkins any day.

Drico.

nonesuch wrote: Wed 09 Apr 2025, 1:08 pm Track 57: "Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend"
Behaviour: Further Listening, Track 5

leesmapman wrote: Thu 21 Aug 2025, 9:21 pm Track 58: "We all feel better in the dark"
Behaviour: Further Listening, Track 6 (extended)