Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[telys]

Dreaming of the queen and The theater were the strongest tracks after the 3 first singles, right? But both containing too much gay darkness Parlophone perhaps thought.

What is the "gay darkness" in The Theatre?

In any case, I can't see either of those playing on the radio in 1994. In what reality is The Theatre (a song I adore) a Top 20 hit? Did we really expect Dreaming of the Queen (another song I love) to perform better than Liberation (a song I don't really like, but I can see why it was a single)? Really?

I think that with a number 1 album and a number 2 single, the chart position of the third single proves it wasn't the right single.

I can't agree with this at all. Post-album singles almost always perform worse, because you already have the album. Which is why Absolutely Fabulous rocketed to #6 between the later singles.

This, of course, is why post-album singles were being released in remixed single edits: Heart, I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing, Yesterday, when I was mad, A red letter day. It encouraged fans who had already bought the album to still buy those singles.

(Probably wouldn't count Suburbia in that list, as the single version is just so clearly better, and would, I'm sure, have been the version they wanted on Please given additional time in working on the debut).

Suburbia is not a single from Please, it's a single from Disco. The rerecorded version is on Disco and the single is a 7'' version of that.

[markus]

Go west was first of its kind in history of bold gay statements after the AIDS epidemic, understandibly anything negative was off the table. In 1994, Andy Bell famously said that people should focus on finding a cure for AIDS rather than trying to explain why someone is gay.

Next came Sin With Sebastian’s Shut Up and Sleep With Me in 1995. Pet Shop Boys followed with Paninaro ’95, and then the before-and-after ‘dick pic’ imagery in 1996. Queer as folk in 2000's...Psb doing a cover of Modern Rocktery's Homosexuality.

This has been the only approved and tolerated approach to this subject ever. The other side has been kept in the album tracks and b-sides. Maybe if Dreaming of the queen, The Theater or Young Offender had been released the world would look different today?

[OakeyDokey]

"Gay darkness" lol, what an expression. Not sure Neil has yer tackled chemsex gone wrong in a song...

[markus]

"Gay darkness" lol, what an expression. Not sure Neil has yer tackled chemsex gone wrong in a song...

Some day you'll find it in the Oxford dictionary.

I'm thinking about Putin. Everyone wants to get rid of him, but if there's no dialogue about his problem area, who's going to convince his succesor otherwise?

[Patrick Bateman]

It's good to interpret songs in different ways but The Theatre is essentially a less patronising Another Day in Paradise with a much funkier beat.

Let's push on, I really want to get to where they start going down the dumper as it's fascinating - Very/Relentless is such a magnificent reinvention of their image and presentation as the Pet Shop Boys that it's perhaps unsurprising that the next step was into obsolescence. You can't keep wearing pointy hats or releasing fantastical videos forever...unless you're Daft Punk.

[Lleonard Pler]

It's good to interpret songs in different ways but The Theatre is essentially a less patronising Another Day in Paradise with a much funkier beat.

Let's push on, I really want to get to where they start going down the dumper as it's fascinating - Very/Relentless is such a magnificent reinvention of their image and presentation as the Pet Shop Boys that it's perhaps unsurprising that the next step was into obsolescence. You can't keep wearing pointy hats or releasing fantastical videos forever...unless you're Daft Punk.

Daft Punk didn't keep wearing helmets or releasing videos forever neither, did they? They actually quit.

[Patrick Bateman]

Daft Punk didn't keep wearing helmets or releasing videos forever neither, did they? They actually quit.

Yes but in theory they could come back, older but still the same. Just like ABBA and their ABBAtars. I suppose the young band PSB play live with now is their version of that.

On another thread we saw how old and weird they seemed even at their commercial peak, so every extra year after Very made them seem even more incongruous as a pop act.

[markus]

Daft Punk didn't keep wearing helmets or releasing videos forever neither, did they? They actually quit.

Yes but in theory they could come back, older but still the same. Just like ABBA and their ABBAtars. I suppose the young band PSB play live with now is their version of that.

On another thread we saw how old and weird they seemed even at their commercial peak, so every extra year after Very made them seem even more incongruous as a pop act.

PSB truly sacrificed a lot by putting the word gay out there like a big neon sign. Daft Punk could just as well be gay behind the masks — they just haven't made it their raison d’être.

There’s still no clear message behind Psb's activism against the bigotry from the old Eastern bloc. Unfortunately it seems like yet another failure. So that being said I'm done with this rant ( for now)

[petshopgrrl]

Excellent, let's crack on then! This is the other one that was skipped. Then do we cover Postscript next?

Track 73: "One in a million"
Very: Further Listening, CD1, Track 11

This one's a bit poppy for me but I do love the bridge - pulling my quote from the Best Middle Eight thread because I can't resist a Limahl reference.

I also like One in a million - well, it's not so much the middle eight as the bridge right before it, which sounds gorgeous and probably has something to do with chord changes and arpeggios or something something (not musically literate here!!). For some reason, this reminds me of a Limahl song called I Was A Fool.

Feel free to leave
if you think you’re trapped
But please believe
I’ll always want you back

[markus]

Radio NRJ aired one hour of the best tracks from Discovery live Rio, think it was a sunday night, and One in a million made the best impression. A casual radio listener probably thought it was one their big hits. Only Abba and Psb are this good, I was thinking.

[jasonjohn]

Daft Punk could just as well be gay behind the masks — they just haven't made it their raison d’être.

Yeah, and only ~15 of their ~90 songs have lyrics, and of those not many even have verses. It's easier for Daft Punk to not represent anything other than vibes and disco, while PSB are a vastly different band who write about a vast variety of topics.

[Patrick Bateman]

How serious were they about releasing this as a single with Take That? I've always assumed it was one of Neil's amusing interview anecdotes where he says something that isn't true but sounds interesting.

[tottenhammattspurs]

How serious were they about releasing this as a single with Take That? I've always assumed it was one of Neil's amusing interview anecdotes where he says something that isn't true but sounds interesting.

It’s more of a “Bad Boys Inc” vibe.

[telys]

Radio NRJ aired one hour of the best tracks from Discovery live Rio, think it was a sunday night, and One in a million made the best impression. A casual radio listener probably thought it was one their big hits. Only Abba and Psb are this good, I was thinking.

That's what they should have done. Released a Live in Rio record already in 1995. Not a double CD but the best from the performance. Then One In a million would've been the first single off that album. Paninaro the second.

[Disco.]

How serious were they about releasing this as a single with Take That? I've always assumed it was one of Neil's amusing interview anecdotes where he says something that isn't true but sounds interesting.

Chris vetoed it.