First album track = Single / First single?

[DJAMIX]

First album track = Single / First single?

Please = No / No
Actually = No / No
Introspective = Yes / No
Behaviour = Yes / No
Very = Yes / Yes
Bilingual = No / Yes
Nightlife = No / No
Release = Yes / Yes
Fundamental = No / No
Yes = Yes / Yes
Elysium = No / Yes
Electric = Yes / Yes
Super = No / No
Hotspot = No / No
Nonetheless = Yes / Yes

Albums where first track is not a single:
- Please
- Actually
- Nightlife
- Fundamental
- Super
- Hotspot

Albums where first track is a single:
- Introspective
- Behaviour
- Very
- Bilingual
- Release
- Yes
- Elysium
- Electric
- Nonetheless

Albums where first track is the first single:
- Very
- Release
- Yes
- Electric
- Nonetheless

[Dog]

The thought process that goes into their album sequencing is always intriguing. In the main, Pet Shop Boys seem to have two ways of choosing an opening track. There’s the “pop” - or “commercial” - route, where they’re straight in with a single. Or, alternatively, they go with something less obvious and more conceptual that instead helps establish an album’s theme.

Very and Yes have the most obvious commercial openers - Can you forgive her? and Love etc. both say “wham, bam; we’re back!” The other albums that open with singles - Introspective, Behaviour, Release, Elysium and Nonetheless - are subtler… these tracks essentially do the same job, but they also work to set the tone of the album, and introduce their palette of instruments.

It’s interesting when Pet Shop Boys move away from this model. Sometimes there’s a concept at work. Please tells the story of a couple running away to the city and falling in love. Bilingual is about “going out, and carrying on as normal” - a story of survival, depression and angst, where solace and escape are found on the dancefloor. Nightlife is a concept album about the night - bookended by tracks where the narrator is stuck home, while their hedonistic lover is out partying. Two divided by zero, Discoteca and For your own good all play key roles here in establishing the album themes and beginning the storytelling.

Actually, Fundamental, Super and Hotspot also veer towards the concept approach, but with less overt narratives. One more chance parachutes us into the city at night, complete with driving rain and squealing cars, and the album doesn’t depart from this setting until the haunting hoot of the King’s Cross train. Fundamental - their most political album - uses opener Psychological to begin to unpack the concept of fear. Super opener Happiness wears the album’s agenda clearly on its sleeve - unapologetic, uncool and positively unhinged. And Will-o-the-wisp’s retelling of Two divided by zero firmly sets Hotspot up as their “Berlin” record.

Interestingly Neil and Chris toyed with alternative, more commercial tracklistings for both Bilingual and Fundamental. Bilingual could have opened with the one-two of Before and Se a vida e, while Fundamental would have seen God willing give way to originally planned first single Minimal. However, these ideas were both eventually eschewed in favour of more artistic sequencing.

It’s also interesting that Pet Shop Boys are happy to take input when it comes to their album running orders. Electric opts for Stuart Price’s unorthodox alphabetical sequencing - leaving me wondering if the only reason Axis is called Axis is so it could earn its place upfront. And Nonetheless’s running order was in fact determined by James Ford, with Neil and Chris only tweaking his vision.

Personally my favourite is the “concept” approach. Two divided by zero, Discoteca, Psychological and Will-o-the-wisp are some of my favourite PSB tracks, and I find it hard to imagine them as anything other than album openers.

[Lleonard Pler]

PSB usually excel at choosing as opening number the track that best represents the soundscape and theme of the whole album.

I like it that they don't always use the first single to open the album, as it's pretty much the norm in pop, but they're solid tracks anyway: Two divided by zero, One more chance or For your own good would easily be included in my Top 40 PSB tracks. I can't imagine them anywhere else in the tracklist.

For me they only failed with Happiness. The pop kids was the obvious choice. But then again I'm not very fond of Super so it's only fitting they chose that opening track I guess.

And when the first song is also the first single you just know they're in for serious business: Very, Yes and Electric are bold pop albums, and with Release and Nonetheless they had a strong concept in mind too.

[daveid]

Regarding Electric, we come back to the debate about what is a single. According to Smash, Axis wasn't a proper single, in which case Electric is a No/No or a sort-of/sort-of

Btw I love posts like this. I have a couple of similar ones up my sleeve

[Lleonard Pler]

Regarding Electric, we come back to the debate about what is a single. According to Smash, Axis wasn't a proper single, in which case Electric is a No/No or a sort-of/sort-of

Btw I love posts like this. I have a couple of similar ones up my sleeve

Maybe it wasn't the lead single, but it definitely was a buzz single or promo single. It has two cover artworks, a video and a remix. That's more than what some official singles have had.

[Patrick Bateman]

PSB usually excel at choosing as opening number the track that best represents the soundscape and theme of the whole album.

I like it that they don't always use the first single to open the album, as it's pretty much the norm in pop, but they're solid tracks anyway: Two divided by zero, One more chance or For your own good would easily be included in my Top 40 PSB tracks. I can't imagine them anywhere else in the tracklist.

For me they only failed with Happiness. The pop kids was the obvious choice. But then again I'm not very fond of Super so it's only fitting they chose that opening track I guess.

And when the first song is also the first single you just know they're in for serious business: Very, Yes and Electric are bold pop albums, and with Release and Nonetheless they had a strong concept in mind too.

Yes, Happiness veers too much towards Cotton Eye Joe for my liking. The Pop Kids (The Full Story) would have been perfect and far less annoying.

Fundamental is an interesting one. As mentioned upstream, they changed their mind on that one - Psychological does work as a moody, paranoid entry to a dark, sepulchral album but the original mix of God Willing seguing into Fugitive would blow it apart.

[Pinhead44]

Double post

[Pinhead44]

It's funny because albums 1 and 2 didn't have a single at the start or end. Albums 3-5 then has singles at both the start and end, and then that start and end (both singles) sequence has never been repeated since (I don't class Axis as single)

I too think that God Willing would have been much better as an explosive start of Fundamental, but then seagued into Psychological.

[VRIDD]

I know it is arguable, but I would say

Actually = Yes / Yes


Moreover, I am very sure that

Bilingual = No / No

[Lleonard Pler]

PSB usually excel at choosing as opening number the track that best represents the soundscape and theme of the whole album.

I like it that they don't always use the first single to open the album, as it's pretty much the norm in pop, but they're solid tracks anyway: Two divided by zero, One more chance or For your own good would easily be included in my Top 40 PSB tracks. I can't imagine them anywhere else in the tracklist.

For me they only failed with Happiness. The pop kids was the obvious choice. But then again I'm not very fond of Super so it's only fitting they chose that opening track I guess.

And when the first song is also the first single you just know they're in for serious business: Very, Yes and Electric are bold pop albums, and with Release and Nonetheless they had a strong concept in mind too.

Yes, Happiness veers too much towards Cotton Eye Joe for my liking. The Pop Kids (The Full Story) would have been perfect and far less annoying.

Fundamental is an interesting one. As mentioned upstream, they changed their mind on that one - Psychological does work as a moody, paranoid entry to a dark, sepulchral album but the original mix of God Willing seguing into Fugitive would blow it apart.

God Willing into Fugitive would have been perfection. Too bad they left it out of the album.

[CroMagnon]

We've got to be careful in not falling for the "PSB as complete pop strategists" fallacy.

In some cases where the first album track was not a single, we know that it was considered as a single; One More Chance and Discoteca were both considered for single release for example, and we have mixes that show that work was done to create single edits. When album running orders are being finalised, the post-album followup single choices are not always known. PSB definitely wait to see what the critics / fans highlight as favourite tracks from an album and sometimes adjust single choices accordingly. Sometimes, in my opinion, this doesn't work out. Yesterday When I Was Mad was, I think, only a single because it was highlighted in a number of the Very reviews, but I don't think it was a great choice for a single.

I would argue that, of the 15 albums, there are only two where the first track on the album would likely never be seriously considered for single release, those being Fundamental and Super.

[daveid]

And Psychological had a sort of stealth instrumental release on white vinyl six months before the album.

[miserabalism]

Yes = Yes / Yes

Would be great to give someone this equation and ask them to give context.