Pet Shop Boys Community

1. It's not a Tennant/ Lowe composition
How ironic and typically PSB for their biggest hit in a long time to be written by someone else?

2. Melancholia
The record buying public love sad music. See Coldplay/ Blunt

3. A different kind of PSB
They don't release many slowies and they've never released anything even like Numb before. Jealousy had the big orchestral moment but Numb is really the first release of its kind from PSB

4. It's big, but its not clever
Chavvy record buying folk either don't get or can't stand PSB humour and perceived 'cleverness'. Numb is just a meat & 2 veg big dumb ballad. People dig that shit.

5. Football approval
When MOTD used Numb for their England heartache montage I had 2 thoughts. One was that it was great for PSB to get that level of exposure. The other was concern that an already suspicious towards PSB public would have even more reason to associate something bad with two middle-aged gays. However, on reflection, the use of Numb was a good thing both for the exposure and the fact that it connects PSB with something that unites a lot of the (English) population.

Deep down I have a feeling Numb will do nothing but crash & burn but maybe, just maybe, it'll turn things around for the guys and for Fundamental.

kimphilby wrote:1. It's not a Tennant/ Lowe composition
How ironic and typically PSB for their biggest hit in a long time to be written by someone else?

99,99 % of the songs in the world are not written by Tennant/Lowe. About 99,98 % of those songs have not performed as well as Minimal in the charts. Pure statistics don't really support your argument.

kimphilby wrote:2. Melancholia
The record buying public love sad music. See Coldplay/ Blunt

The public loves melancholic music from dreary grown-up types. Different things are expected from bands like PSB – who has never had a hit with a slow song.

kimphilby wrote:3. A different kind of PSB
They don't release many slowies and they've never released anything even like Numb before. Jealousy had the big orchestral moment but Numb is really the first release of its kind from PSB

Their downbeat singles have never set the charts alight. Behaviour was a commercial disappointment, because it was such a sombre and autumnal album after the stomper-packed Please–Actually–Introspective trilogy.

kimphilby wrote:4. It's big, but its not clever
Chavvy record buying folk either don't get or can't stand PSB humour and perceived 'cleverness'. Numb is just a meat & 2 veg big dumb ballad. People dig that shit.

It's not very good either. As a dumb ballad is not garish or tasteless enough and not sung with the necessary wailing gusto for a tearjerker like this to become big among the great unwashed. PSB's attempts to give the song some class have not really improved it but have managed to spoil its chances of succeeding.

kimphilby wrote:5. Football approval
When MOTD used Numb for their England heartache montage I had 2 thoughts. One was that it was great for PSB to get that level of exposure. The other was concern that an already suspicious towards PSB public would have even more reason to associate something bad with two middle-aged gays. However, on reflection, the use of Numb was a good thing both for the exposure and the fact that it connects PSB with something that unites a lot of the (English) population.

Already gone and forgotten. We are so bombarded with music and images all the time, that three minutes from three months ago are unlikely to be remembered by that many.

Number 23 – that's my guess.

I doubt anything they release will be a "big hit". At least Numb is different to what they've released so far from Fundamental and I think it has appeal as you've mentioned. It definitely deserves to be a single.

I think maybe top 15 if/when released

It's different but that doesn't make it any better. 99 % of the stuff in the charts is different from PSB, but how much of it is any good? We like PSB because of their PSB-ness. PSB recording Numb is like Mövenpick starting to make shit-flavoured chocolate ice cream, because their previous chocolate ice cream was favoured by too small a clientele.

Eldritch wrote:It's different but that doesn't make it any better. 99 % of the stuff in the charts is different from PSB, but how much of it is any good? We like PSB because of their PSB-ness. PSB recording Numb is like Mövenpick starting to make shit-flavoured chocolate ice cream, because their previous chocolate ice cream was favoured by too small a clientele.

You can argue all you want. It's been said that this song has more appeal than anything else on the album. Get over it.

99,99 % of the songs in the world are not written by Tennant/Lowe. About 99,98 % of those songs have not performed as well as Minimal in the charts. Pure statistics don't really support your argument

I'm talking about in relation to PSB. It is a single release under the banner of PSB, performed by PSB. How ironic then if it were to be their first genuine big hit in years. You miss my point.

I’m not sure how/why not being a Tennant/Lowe composition might affect the success (or lack thereof) of Numb. I do think it is a GREAT song and a tear-jerker. Though I’m not sure I like the association between Numb and football but anyway, each to their own. The exposure Numb received by the BBC et al. might actually help Numb sales. Well, hopefully! Then again, we all thought that the exposure M-I-N-I-M-A-L received (Radio 1 & Capital FM, was it?) would help. It didn’t.

I do agree that a slower song might be a nice change compared to the 2 previous singles. It is *very* similar to LIAC though and as I like LIAC so would be interesting to see how Numb might fare.

I also think that the stigma of being the PSB mean people will be wary of buying the record. What with the public being so fickle et al. I mean, if say, pop-tart Kylie was to release Numb or that old hag Madonna I’m sure it would be selling like hot cakes. But because it is the PSB, that ‘clever’ and 'ironic' pop-duo from the 80s?!

Well, here’s to living in hope anyway....

Different things are expected from bands like PSB

Nothing is expected from bands like PSB. Apart from the fanbase there is no real interest. Perhaps something slightly dreary will appeal.

I’m not sure how/why not being a Tennant/Lowe composition might affect the success

LISTEN: My point relates to the irony in PSB having a really big hit that they haven't written themselves. For an act who write so much of their own material it would be very PSB to have a smash with something someone else had written. I am not saying that a song written by someone else will in itself have more chance of being a hit. Do you understand?

Well you did say "5 Reasons why Numb could be a big hit" and used that as reason 1.

Jeez, take your chill pills, it was just a comment. Or is that not allowed anymore

Jeez, take your chill pills, it was just a comment. Or is that not allowed anymore

It was Eldritch's comment which annoyed me. Yours' was a continuation of the same missed-point.

I'll ive you 10 reasons why minimal should be a big hit.

But...

Eldritch wrote:PSB recording Numb is like Mövenpick starting to make shit-flavoured chocolate ice cream, because their previous chocolate ice cream was favoured by too small a clientele.

Classic!

PSB

Mövenpick

Which is the gayer brand?