Pet Shop Boys Community

After the fey bombast of Can you forgive her?, the OTT ostentation of Go West, and the 60s sugar rush of Normally, I think the album campaign was crying out for a bit more heft in terms of its singles. Dreaming of the Queen and The theatre would have been my choices to rebalance things.

I remember being appalled that they chose Liberation - I was listening to a Brits preview radio show when I heard the news - and then left cold by Yesterday, which was funny for five minutes and quickly outstayed its welcome. Of course, I was still young enough to imagine A different point of view would smash into the top 10 - and it might well have, had they chosen it and decided that Very was very definitely a maximal pop album. But I think they sort of lost their nerve a bit with Liberation. Ballads had rarely charted that well for them. I suppose I felt that if you were going to go to the trouble of dressing up as dunces, dancing around ostrich eggs, releasing records in Lego cases, marching around Red Square to a Village People flop, and becoming Beatnik for Christmas, you might as well stay the course and launch the fizzy pop rocket that was A different point of view.

That said, I remember listening to Very for the first time and deciding there and then that it didn't have a third top 10 hit single. So, all of the above is pretty moot. The tide was going out.

Drico.

Perfection =

1. Can you forgive her?
2. Go west/Shameless double A-side (Two computer graphic videos)
3. Too many people (from the Christmas edition double album with another expensive sci-fi video)

Track 70: One and one make five
Chronology: Very, Track 8

I love this. It's utterly disposable, lightweight, and trivial. But it contains a distressed Neil, perceived conspiracies, paranoia, drama, a touch of self-delusion, interesting mathematics, a fantastically vivacious hook, and the late lamented Bear.

Here we go.

Drico.

The whole of Very is packed with Tennant writing lyrics at his very best.

You listen to the simplistic chorus of One and One make five and think 'I could have written that' ! Of course I couldn't, and there lies his genius.

Add some classic Lowe synth melody, and you have a killer track !

Xakrij wrote: Wed 05 Nov 2025, 2:31 pm

Xakrij wrote: Wed 29 Oct 2025, 3:14 pm Weren't the videos from Various presented in Hi-Def (for the time) during an art installation? Would like to get my hands on those videos!

Bumping my own quote.

Surely I'm not the only one who slightly recalls this. Some videos were upscaled and publicly presented at a UK venue. Give me another month or two and I'll answer my own question but throwing it out there anyhow.

Inquiring minds want to know!

The Liberation video was used as part of CyberWorld, an early 3D cinema demonstration, on IMAX screens across the UK and elsewhere in 2000 and 2001

Drico One wrote: Sat 15 Nov 2025, 10:18 am Track 70: One and one make five
Chronology: Very, Track 8

I love this. It's utterly disposable, lightweight, and trivial. But it contains a distressed Neil, perceived conspiracies, paranoia, drama, a touch of self-delusion, interesting mathematics, a fantastically vivacious hook, and the late lamented Bear.

Here we go.

Drico.

For me, definitely one of the weaker tracks on Very, but catchy, lightweight, and short - a synth pop early Beatles single. Slightly bonkers that it was considered as the lead single.

In my books, it has always been the weakest track on Very.

m+

The verse chords always reminded me of ‘Harvest for the World’ but they’re actually different. I always liked the backing vocals where it goes “one and one and one and one and one make five”.

This thread has reminded me how great Very is. I agree that One and One Make Five is the weakest track so far but it's still a decent enough tune. Just looking on Geowayne and Chris apparently thinks it's a masterpiece musically.

minimal wrote: Wed 19 Nov 2025, 9:11 pmIn my books, it has always been the weakest track on Very.

I agree... but it just shows how strong the Very era was. They were still very much in their imperial phase in the sense of not putting a foot wrong. One and One Make Five could have sat comfortably on Please or Actually with slightly different production. IMO 1996 was their first stumble and 1999 their nadir. A creative reset with Release and then everything from Battleship Potemkin on has been essentially back to form taken as a collective (I still maintain Elysium would have been a fan favorite with the Andrew Dawson version of Winner and Ego Music swapped out for In His Imagination).

NotInvisible wrote: Thu 20 Nov 2025, 12:02 am
I agree... but it just shows how strong the Very era was. They were still very much in their imperial phase in the sense of not putting a foot wrong. One and One Make Five could have sat comfortably on Please or Actually with slightly different production. IMO 1996 was their first stumble and 1999 their nadir. A creative reset with Release and then everything from Battleship Potemkin on has been essentially back to form taken as a collective (I still maintain Elysium would have been a fan favorite with the Andrew Dawson version of Winner and Ego Music swapped out for In His Imagination).

I agree they were pretty much perfect up to Bilingual. It Couldn't Happen Here was often cited as their only misstep.

As someone who's not overly fond of Ab Fab, that's the Rubicon for me, and it's as though it liberates them to become a slightly different group who aren't restricted by a manifesto. You wouldn’t get Wedding in Berlin on Actually or Winner as a single off Behaviour. I suppose that's the problem with longevity though...

Patrick Bateman wrote: Wed 19 Nov 2025, 11:31 pm This thread has reminded me how great Very is. I agree that One and One Make Five is the weakest track so far but it's still a decent enough tune. Just looking on Geowayne and Chris apparently thinks it's a masterpiece musically.

That may be Chris's very dry humour!

Xakrij wrote: Wed 19 Nov 2025, 1:42 am

Xakrij wrote: Wed 05 Nov 2025, 2:31 pm

Xakrij wrote: Wed 29 Oct 2025, 3:14 pm Weren't the videos from Various presented in Hi-Def (for the time) during an art installation? Would like to get my hands on those videos!

Bumping my own quote.

Surely I'm not the only one who slightly recalls this. Some videos were upscaled and publicly presented at a UK venue. Give me another month or two and I'll answer my own question but throwing it out there anyhow.

Inquiring minds want to know!

The Liberation video was used as part of CyberWorld, an early 3D cinema demonstration, on IMAX screens across the UK and elsewhere in 2000 and 2001

There was also the Liberation ride in a small flight simulator!

Sandy Shaw wrote: Fri 21 Nov 2025, 11:24 am

Xakrij wrote: Wed 19 Nov 2025, 1:42 am

Xakrij wrote: Wed 05 Nov 2025, 2:31 pm

Bumping my own quote.

Surely I'm not the only one who slightly recalls this. Some videos were upscaled and publicly presented at a UK venue. Give me another month or two and I'll answer my own question but throwing it out there anyhow.

Inquiring minds want to know!

The Liberation video was used as part of CyberWorld, an early 3D cinema demonstration, on IMAX screens across the UK and elsewhere in 2000 and 2001

There was also the Liberation ride in a small flight simulator!

It was broadcasted in the futuscope at the time.

Track 71: "To Speak is a Sin"
Very: Further Listening, CD1, Track 9

I've always loved this and the clandestine atmosphere it evokes. It reminds me of the film Victim and a world before homosexuality was legalised in the UK. A fantastic melody again.

The second side of Very did seem like a statement. One and One Make Five asks who's that man you've been seen with, then this, Young Offender, One in a Million (Men) and Go West. That's a pretty gay sequence. It was always obvious when you looked at them but now the music seemed less coded than ever.