I think I remember that there was a PSB single rate a couple years ago on PJ and What Have I Done...was the winner.
So it wouldn´t surprise me if it would happen again.
So it wouldn´t surprise me if it would happen again.
Pet Shop Boys Rate. Part 1: 1985-1991. Winner.
- Thread starter Ray
- Start date
They/them, he/him
I wish it wasn’t either. It goes on for about 6 and a half minutes and yet nothing changes. It’s incredibly dull.
10.
I’m making an early prediction that this will be the rate winner.
it leaves me pretty cold on an emotional level
At the hotel a few fans are waiting. One, called Ekko, always follows them whenever they are in Japan. [...] She was in England when 'West End Girls' was first a hit
and when she heard the follow up, 'Love Comes Quickly', she says 'my heart broke' because she liked the song so much and she thought the Pet Shop Boys were beautiful.
10. Love Comes Quickly
8.9611111111
AUS #54 BEL #35 CAN #72 FIN #12 GER #17 IRL #13 ITA #27 NZ #8 POL Radio Three #22 SPA #6 SWI #24 UK #19 US #63 US Dance #10 US Maxi-Singles #37
Highest score: 11x1 (@RaggedTiger), 10x13 (@Heaven on Earth, @ohnoitisnathan, @etcetera, @Eric Generic, @slurmjunkie, @JonBcn, @Future Lover, @Bleu Noir, @etienne, @Jóga, @VeryPSB, @Farnaby, @Mikey1701)
Lowest score: 6 (@GhettoPrincess, @Sally_Harper)
This release saw the refinement of Chris in a baseball hat as the Pet Shop Boys icon; with only the lower part of the face visible, it is a confrontational, tough look that compliments the minimal design, further accentuated by Mark Farrow's use of white space of the 12". [Perfect fit for a song like 'Love Comes Quickly' – Ray] 'I can become Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys by just putting a hat on,' he told Ian Parker of the Sunday Correspondent in 1990. 'It's amazing.' Five years later, Neil remarked to Michael Bracewell, writing in the Guardian, 'Chris actually pioneered a kind of street-type look; Chris, in fact, invented what a keyboard player was meant to look like from then on, in this period: a baseball cap and scowling'.
In Eric Watson's hindsight, the video was 'a complete disaster. I wanted this image of Chris whirling over on this giant webbing, with Neil just this singing head. It was all supposed to be disconnected, because the song was all floaty and ethereal, but the technique defeated us. And when we shot it there wasn't a great deal of Chris in it, so it had to be re-edited. It's nowhere as good as the song.'
Neil: This was written in the studio in Camden on the same evening we wrote the song that became 'I'm Not Scared', and they both have very much a similar mood. We were in our beautiful Italian disco mood that evening. This was in 1984 or early 1985, right towards the end of the time we were working in Ray Roberts' studio, and it was a much more mature-sounding track for us than we were used to. I was playing some chords, and Chris was playing some bass notes which made the chords rather interesting, and I immediately came up with the chorus and the 'ooo-ooo-ooo', and then I just sang the melody with some fake words. [That would be interesting to hear – Ray] We really really loved it – we thought we'd written a hit single. Not long afterwards we had a meeting with the head of A&R at EMI, Dave Ambrose [...] and I said 'You must hear this new track we've done – it's great'. It was very difficult to actually get him to listen to anything. I remember turning it up in the car. Anyway, by the time we got to the pub in Fulham he announced he was going to sign us, but I was slightly frustrated because I don't think he'd really taken in what a lovely track it was. [...] Stephen Hague always loved this song, and when we were recording it for Please he did an accidental thing with the production.
Chris: We used a sequenced on this track, and the sequencer shifted the bassline by a sixteenth, so that it played off the beat, and that was what he worked on.
Neil: This and 'Two Divided By Zero' were the tracks on the album that were what we wanted to be like: very electro, the middle-range sequencer part holding everything together, and also incredibly beautiful. We loved the handclaps fluttering from side to side, which we'd loved ever since that Sharon Redd record 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. Stephen Hague said we should have a middle bit – he was right – and he wrote the first two chords, where it goes 'I know it sounds ridiculous...'
Chris: They're really good, though.
Neil: That's why the songwriting credit is 'Tennant/Lowe/Hague'.
@Ray: I first consciously heard it on Discography and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't a hit – a bigger one than 'West End Girls'. Obviously I didn't know the context and what music was popular at the time when I was 9. In any case I thought it was lovely. I still spend a lot of time trying to figure out how it would sound without that bass moved by a sixteenth, then deciding I probably don't want to know.
Did the 11-giving Tiger comment?
Nope, but others did, luckily.
@etienne didn't give the song his 11, because he probably expected it to win anyway (don't worry bae, it wouldn't change a thing other than bumping the average by 0.02): I’m making an early prediction that this will be the rate winner. It is so intrinsically PSB. Atmospheric, moody, and intelligent. This is the kind of song an accomplished artist would perhaps achieve (or indeed kill for) on a third or fourth album. The fact that something of this quality appears on the debut is quite astounding.
Those people seem to agree with Neil:
@Mikey1701: This is just gorgeous. The second verse and bridge are spellbinding, the oohs in the chorus are luscious. It’s relatively straightforward in my eyes, something that is unusual for the lads- but it works brilliantly. My favourite single from the parent album.
@Jóga: I think it is my favourite song from this album. The melody is gorgeous.
@One Stop Candy Shop: "Sooner or later it happens to everyone" [It does. I checked.]
@Bleu Noir: a perfect pop song 10! the synth intro has to be pop DNA by now, instantly recognisable.
@Future Lover: Seriously, how lovely is this song? Still very underrated.
I think it is very underrated by Domino:
@DominoDancing: Not a bad song at all, but definitely the "low" point of Please's first side. I really like the sentiment of the lyrics, and the songwriting and delivery is quite smooth, but it leaves me pretty cold on an emotional level. I think it took them a couple of more years before they found their songwriting groove regarding ballads.
It also used to be underrated by @ohnoitisnathan: I didn't hear this one until getting 'Discography' in '91, and used to always skip it... for years. It really has to grow on you... and then just when you least expect it, just what you least expect. You realise it's a '10'. Love the driving, pulsing beat.
@Sally_Harper: I love the lyrics, the melody and high-pitched vocals not so much. But it’s not awful, and it’s still PSB.
@Heaven on Earth: I usually come to Pet Shop Boys for that heavy dose of pop so I wasn’t expecting this delightful, effervescent song. And how true their words ring. Falling in love can truly be delightful and you can’t stop it. Oh, and how infectious is this song. It’s bubblegum to its core and it takes delight in it. Those “Ooh ooh”’s simply drives me wild and make me convinced I can hear God. Their falsettos have that power to **** me dead right then and there. Wig snatched.
@TrendyMüller: I always loved the vocal samples which became part of the arrangement. I can see that it was not the hit they had hoped for, though. It´s more of a sound tapestry than a hook laden dance-pop song.
So basically elevator muzak, eh?
Let's have some sound tapestry:
The dance mix:
Live at Wembley 1989:
And then TWENTY SEVEN YEARS LATER:
And Top Of The Pops, so live-ish:
We still have tracks from all albums in, and one of them has not been a single. Well done, everyone (or maybe well done, Neil and Chris).
I’m making an early prediction that this will be the rate winner.
it leaves me pretty cold on an emotional level
At the hotel a few fans are waiting. One, called Ekko, always follows them whenever they are in Japan. [...] She was in England when 'West End Girls' was first a hit
and when she heard the follow up, 'Love Comes Quickly', she says 'my heart broke' because she liked the song so much and she thought the Pet Shop Boys were beautiful.
10. Love Comes Quickly
8.9611111111
AUS #54 BEL #35 CAN #72 FIN #12 GER #17 IRL #13 ITA #27 NZ #8 POL Radio Three #22 SPA #6 SWI #24 UK #19 US #63 US Dance #10 US Maxi-Singles #37
Highest score: 11x1 (@RaggedTiger), 10x13 (@Heaven on Earth, @ohnoitisnathan, @etcetera, @Eric Generic, @slurmjunkie, @JonBcn, @Future Lover, @Bleu Noir, @etienne, @Jóga, @VeryPSB, @Farnaby, @Mikey1701)
Lowest score: 6 (@GhettoPrincess, @Sally_Harper)
This release saw the refinement of Chris in a baseball hat as the Pet Shop Boys icon; with only the lower part of the face visible, it is a confrontational, tough look that compliments the minimal design, further accentuated by Mark Farrow's use of white space of the 12". [Perfect fit for a song like 'Love Comes Quickly' – Ray] 'I can become Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys by just putting a hat on,' he told Ian Parker of the Sunday Correspondent in 1990. 'It's amazing.' Five years later, Neil remarked to Michael Bracewell, writing in the Guardian, 'Chris actually pioneered a kind of street-type look; Chris, in fact, invented what a keyboard player was meant to look like from then on, in this period: a baseball cap and scowling'.
In Eric Watson's hindsight, the video was 'a complete disaster. I wanted this image of Chris whirling over on this giant webbing, with Neil just this singing head. It was all supposed to be disconnected, because the song was all floaty and ethereal, but the technique defeated us. And when we shot it there wasn't a great deal of Chris in it, so it had to be re-edited. It's nowhere as good as the song.'
Neil: This was written in the studio in Camden on the same evening we wrote the song that became 'I'm Not Scared', and they both have very much a similar mood. We were in our beautiful Italian disco mood that evening. This was in 1984 or early 1985, right towards the end of the time we were working in Ray Roberts' studio, and it was a much more mature-sounding track for us than we were used to. I was playing some chords, and Chris was playing some bass notes which made the chords rather interesting, and I immediately came up with the chorus and the 'ooo-ooo-ooo', and then I just sang the melody with some fake words. [That would be interesting to hear – Ray] We really really loved it – we thought we'd written a hit single. Not long afterwards we had a meeting with the head of A&R at EMI, Dave Ambrose [...] and I said 'You must hear this new track we've done – it's great'. It was very difficult to actually get him to listen to anything. I remember turning it up in the car. Anyway, by the time we got to the pub in Fulham he announced he was going to sign us, but I was slightly frustrated because I don't think he'd really taken in what a lovely track it was. [...] Stephen Hague always loved this song, and when we were recording it for Please he did an accidental thing with the production.
Chris: We used a sequenced on this track, and the sequencer shifted the bassline by a sixteenth, so that it played off the beat, and that was what he worked on.
Neil: This and 'Two Divided By Zero' were the tracks on the album that were what we wanted to be like: very electro, the middle-range sequencer part holding everything together, and also incredibly beautiful. We loved the handclaps fluttering from side to side, which we'd loved ever since that Sharon Redd record 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. Stephen Hague said we should have a middle bit – he was right – and he wrote the first two chords, where it goes 'I know it sounds ridiculous...'
Chris: They're really good, though.
Neil: That's why the songwriting credit is 'Tennant/Lowe/Hague'.
@Ray: I first consciously heard it on Discography and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't a hit – a bigger one than 'West End Girls'. Obviously I didn't know the context and what music was popular at the time when I was 9. In any case I thought it was lovely. I still spend a lot of time trying to figure out how it would sound without that bass moved by a sixteenth, then deciding I probably don't want to know.
Did the 11-giving Tiger comment?
Nope, but others did, luckily.
@etienne didn't give the song his 11, because he probably expected it to win anyway (don't worry bae, it wouldn't change a thing other than bumping the average by 0.02): I’m making an early prediction that this will be the rate winner. It is so intrinsically PSB. Atmospheric, moody, and intelligent. This is the kind of song an accomplished artist would perhaps achieve (or indeed kill for) on a third or fourth album. The fact that something of this quality appears on the debut is quite astounding.
Those people seem to agree with Neil:
@Mikey1701: This is just gorgeous. The second verse and bridge are spellbinding, the oohs in the chorus are luscious. It’s relatively straightforward in my eyes, something that is unusual for the lads- but it works brilliantly. My favourite single from the parent album.
@Jóga: I think it is my favourite song from this album. The melody is gorgeous.
@One Stop Candy Shop: "Sooner or later it happens to everyone" [It does. I checked.]
@Bleu Noir: a perfect pop song 10! the synth intro has to be pop DNA by now, instantly recognisable.
@Future Lover: Seriously, how lovely is this song? Still very underrated.
I think it is very underrated by Domino:
@DominoDancing: Not a bad song at all, but definitely the "low" point of Please's first side. I really like the sentiment of the lyrics, and the songwriting and delivery is quite smooth, but it leaves me pretty cold on an emotional level. I think it took them a couple of more years before they found their songwriting groove regarding ballads.
It also used to be underrated by @ohnoitisnathan: I didn't hear this one until getting 'Discography' in '91, and used to always skip it... for years. It really has to grow on you... and then just when you least expect it, just what you least expect. You realise it's a '10'. Love the driving, pulsing beat.
@Sally_Harper: I love the lyrics, the melody and high-pitched vocals not so much. But it’s not awful, and it’s still PSB.
@Heaven on Earth: I usually come to Pet Shop Boys for that heavy dose of pop so I wasn’t expecting this delightful, effervescent song. And how true their words ring. Falling in love can truly be delightful and you can’t stop it. Oh, and how infectious is this song. It’s bubblegum to its core and it takes delight in it. Those “Ooh ooh”’s simply drives me wild and make me convinced I can hear God. Their falsettos have that power to **** me dead right then and there. Wig snatched.
@TrendyMüller: I always loved the vocal samples which became part of the arrangement. I can see that it was not the hit they had hoped for, though. It´s more of a sound tapestry than a hook laden dance-pop song.
So basically elevator muzak, eh?
Let's have some sound tapestry:
The dance mix:
Live at Wembley 1989:
And then TWENTY SEVEN YEARS LATER:
And Top Of The Pops, so live-ish:
We still have tracks from all albums in, and one of them has not been a single. Well done, everyone (or maybe well done, Neil and Chris).
I gave Love Comes Quickly a 9 which in hindsight really should have been a 10 but I was being very strict to differentiate between songs as instructed! I've always far preferred it to West End Girls. Gorgeous song.
Ahem, #2. My eleven is still in.
I was trying not to mention this ... but yeah, easy to find via a google search ...
Suburbia and AOMM done a lot better, especially given the current top 10 is 9 singles ...
I love that they much later ingeniously referenced that sampled vocal rhythm on A Face Like That (starting at 1:56), the song that follows Your Early Stuff and really sounds like their early stuff.
I love the original version of this in both single and extended mixes, but my favourite has to be the Shep Pettibone Remix on Disco, which (among other brilliant bits such as highlighting Neil's beautiful vocals at the end) adds a very infectious synth hook that I always miss when I listen to the original versions. So for me this has become the definitive version. If you haven't heard it, check it out below:
The first song I heard from PSB was the 2nd release of West End Girls in 1985. I thought it was brilliant but expected them to be a one hit wonder, a short-lived novelty act, mainly because most of it was a rap. When I heard this follow-up, I was pleasantly surprised by how sophisticated it sounds and most of all by Neil's singing. Of course, its failure to set the charts alight compared to the success of West End Girls reinforced my initial doubt that they might not be around very long. Luckily, they proved me wrong and more than 30 years later still have the power to make me swoon over songs like In Slow Motion.
We are very lucky that Pet Shop Boys were around in the 80s. If an act had followed a #1 with a #19 nowadays they would have been dropped! Career over!
Love Comes Quickly is a very understated, classy record and doesn't suffer from overplaying in the same way that West End Girls does for me.
Love Comes Quickly is a very understated, classy record and doesn't suffer from overplaying in the same way that West End Girls does for me.
Actually 'West End Girls' would never come out. They'd be dropped after original 'Opportunities' reached #116.
A Face Like That is a bit like their own interpretation of My Robot Friends´ We´re The Pet Shop Boys. It´s part pastiche, part (self)-parody, part great pop song.
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Yes my favourite mix of LCQ is the Shep remix on Disco.
