TS: Pet Shop Boys, "Behaviour" vs "Very"

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Behaviour was the first PSB album I bought. Its symphonic and lyrical pretentions aside, it's a beautiful album: great bombastic electro-symphonic arrangements, Tennant's best singing, and some surprisingly tasty guitar work (courtesy of Tennant). But then I remmember Rob Sheffield's remarks in the SPIN Alternative album: to paraphrase, he considers it a failed attempt at "importance."

Very on the other hand never pauses for a breath. It's the coming-out party. Song for song it's probably the PSB's finest hour: three-minute songs, recorded without undue fuss. The public responded in kind; it was a surprise top 20 hit in the US and their last gold album.

Which do you prefer? It's a photo finish for me.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 17 July 2005 04:13 (twenty years ago)

2 very diferent albums: both brilliant ."behaviour" showed their musical growth and serious songwriting - "very "was a return to disco.

― teil nennant, Sunday, 17 July 2005 05:12 (twenty years ago)

What does Rob Sheffield know?

― daria g (daria g), Sunday, 17 July 2005 05:53 (twenty years ago)

I love Very, but mostly because it was the first CD I ever bought.

(previously, all the albums I bought had been on cassette)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 17 July 2005 08:57 (twenty years ago)

"Very" was my brother's favourite for a good few years when he was getting into music; it is indeed glorious stuff. Splendid and breathless pop, without compromising on any of the intelligence.

"Behaviour" is probably *just* my favourite of the two currently; it has possibly the finest start and end to any record: "Being Boring" and "Jealousy". And a sublime middle: the most wintry and serene they ever were.

― Tom May (Tom May), Sunday, 17 July 2005 09:37 (twenty years ago)

Of the two, "Very". It used to be "Very" by a mile but I've come to appreciate "Behaviour" a lot more - I used to take the Rob Sheffield line on it but I can see through that particular veneer and just enjoy the humanity and beauty in the songs.

(My favourite album by them is Actually, actually.)

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 17 July 2005 09:42 (twenty years ago)

'Behaviour'. I think they should have stopped after that album (actually, they should have stopped after 'DJ Culture'). I thought 'Very' was rather tacky self-parody.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Sunday, 17 July 2005 11:18 (twenty years ago)

'Behaviour'. I think they should have stopped after that album (actually, they should have stopped after 'DJ Culture'). I thought 'Very' was rather tacky self-parody.
-- Jerry the Nipper (jerrythenippe...), July 17th, 2005.
hen we wouldn';t have "very" i thought"nightlife was bad until i heard release.did they want to be oasis on " i get along"?

― teil nennant, Sunday, 17 July 2005 11:33 (twenty years ago)

Behaviour, as it's pretty and, erm, poignant, whereas Very seemed to mark the point where it had become surprisingly easy to stop caring much.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 17 July 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

yes - what JtN and Nag! said.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 17 July 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago)

"I thought 'Very' was rather tacky self-parody."

I...sort of agree with the gist of this, though not, perhaps the import. I think that after "Behaviour", which didn't do great commercially, PSB did want to make an album that was more pop, more direct. No doubt that's why they called the album "Very Pet Shop Boys," since every song sounds like what we expect a PSB song to sound like. I don't think this was a bad thing, though -- it was more like the band reminding themselves of basics. Maybe self-performance rather than self-parody.

In any case it's a tough choice. I really love listening to "Behaviour" as an album, whereas "Very" is a little more like a collection of fantastic songs that could be iPod-shuffled.

― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Sunday, 17 July 2005 12:22 (twenty years ago)

Get rid of "How do you Expect To Be Take Serioulsy" include "Miserablism" and another choice b-side or two, and Behavior would have it by a hair.

― D. Bachyrycz, Sunday, 17 July 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

guess i'm kinda surprised here. Very is one of my favorite records period. it's ecstatic. this is like choosing between one's children as they say, though.

― teh Nü and Impröved john n chicago (frankE), Sunday, 17 July 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

(My favourite album by them is Actually, actually.)

OTM (assuming that Alternative doesn't count)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 17 July 2005 13:32 (twenty years ago)

I agree. Actually is their best.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 17 July 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

Behavior is a deeply personal favorite, the elegiac tone of helped me through a difficult period of mourning during 91-92. (Hence "the Rob Sheffield line" always seemed superficial, glib and even slightly offensive.) With a little distance it still sounds great. Very is the self-conscious career summation move, pretty definitive for all that. Push comes to shove, I'd pick Behavior for sentimental reasons but it's a tough choice.

Discography will always stand as my favorite PSB, though.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 17 July 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

It's not an easy pick, but in the end I'd definately go for Behaviour. The stellar 'Being Boring' should be enough to clinch this alone, but it also has Nervously and Jealousy. Nothing wrong with Very though (The Theatre!), but it's is 'disconess' that makes it more related to that time (1993/1994), whereas Behaviour's love melancholy hasn't aged a day.

― Gerard (Gerard), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

Actually, Very, Behaviour (I have prob given Behaviour the least chance of all tho).

Every track on Actually is amazing.

x-post "The Theatre" is ace yeah.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

But I agree with Ronan and others that Actually is actually the best PSB album. Can't top that.

― Gerard (Gerard), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

I prefer Behaviour but Actually is better than both, yes.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

Please is much, much better than Actually.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Sunday, 17 July 2005 21:21 (twenty years ago)

Oh, Please.

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 17 July 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

The guitar, IIRC, isn't courtesy of Tennant; it's courtesy of the late J. J. Belle.

Very by a mile for me, mainly because of the sequencing of the tracks. (Coming-out stories have a set narrative, no?) Behaviour is such a schizophrenic album, especially in the My October Symphony/So Hard/Nervously part, that I end up just ceasing to care. Very, on the other hand, integrates its celebratory and melancholic moments better. A Different Point Of View is a good transition from I Wouldn't Normally... to Dreaming Of The Queen, and the backing track of Young Offender gets one ready for the final bliss of One In A Million and Go West.

At times, I prefer Bilingual to Very. I used to think that Liberation was the best love song ever written, and now it's eclipsed in my mind by It Always Comes As A Surprise.

― esque, Sunday, 17 July 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

Liberation IS great.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Sunday, 17 July 2005 21:46 (twenty years ago)

"Liberation" AND "It Always Comes As A Surprise" are the best love songs ever written.

And as much as I love Behaviour, I have to go with Very cause it's so much FUN!

― Seb (Seb), Sunday, 17 July 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

The sequencing of "Very" is indeed to behold... "Dreaming of the Queen", "The Theatre", "Young Offender"; actually, hardly simple pop, are they? Great stuff; I need to listen again.

― Tom May (Tom May), Monday, 18 July 2005 00:22 (twenty years ago)

Oh, but come on. The segues between So Hard, Nervously, and The End of The World are just as wonderful.

And, for the record, I prefer Please to Actually, which puts me in the minority.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 18 July 2005 00:54 (twenty years ago)

(haha most of the "Very" songs being namechecked are the ones I skip/dislike, except of course "Liberation")

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 18 July 2005 01:00 (twenty years ago)

I hated Liberation for many years (bland, bland, bland). I'm still not very fond of it, but I'll admit to getting weak like Belinda Carlisle when Neil smiles at his lover for sleeping on his shoulder.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 18 July 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

The songs on Very that make me glad to be alive:

I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing
Liberation
One and One Make Five
Yesterday When I Was Mad

Those four songs alone make the album brilliant.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 18 July 2005 02:47 (twenty years ago)

It has to be Behaviour for me. The only songs I like from Very are "Can You Forgive Her?" and "Go West".

― daavid (daavid), Monday, 18 July 2005 04:55 (twenty years ago)

The guitar, IIRC, isn't courtesy of Tennant; it's courtesy of the late J. J. Belle.

...and Johnny Marr.

― daavid (daavid), Monday, 18 July 2005 04:58 (twenty years ago)

can't choose, and Rob Sheffield is a bit of a twat

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 18 July 2005 05:00 (twenty years ago)

I sometimes think that "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Thing Of Kind" (original version, not the 7" remix) is the best Pet Shop Boys song ever, which might also make it the best song ever. Because:

1. The title is a little meta, reminding us that the PSB are not normally prone to doing such optimistically happy songs.

2. It's 3:04, which is the perfect pop song length.

3. There are very faint handclaps at points.

4. A second Neil starts going "Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da," beginning in the second verse. He's so overjoyed to pieces that he's split into two, y'all.

5. The way Neil starts sings the bridge in a measured way ("People say I'm crazy.."), but then has to speed up and rush through the rest -- "sayitwontlastbeyondbreakfast, itsjustaphrasehe'sgoingthrough, denigrateorspeculateonwhatI'mgoingthrough" -- is just sublime, and of course perfectly captures the breathlessness of his emotions as well as the style of the mindless gossip that the line is about.

6. Neil dancing naked to the rite of spring: points for humor.

7. At the end the horns get more and more insistent, and vaguely chaotic as if each is playing its own melody, and then final burst out all over. Completely glorious.

If the beat was a little "rounder" and bass-ier, it really would be the best song in the world.

― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Monday, 18 July 2005 08:28 (twenty years ago)

TS: One and One Make Five v Two Divided by Zero

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 18 July 2005 09:44 (twenty years ago)

Tennant did play guitar on "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? and "The End of the World"

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 18 July 2005 10:04 (twenty years ago)

You're right, Alfred. I should have read the liner notes before posting. J. J. Belle only appears on Being Boring; Johnny Marr plays on This Must Be The Place... and My October Symphony. Behaviour does start the process of Neil's guitar-solo-playing/butchification, I guess. The Alternative booklet describes So hard's B-side It Must Be Obvious as "horrifyingly featur[ing] my first ever guitar solo", and the Behaviour booklet describes the other two Neil guitar solos as you mention. For me, this is another reason to prefer Very, because I hate hate hate butch Neil.

― esque, Monday, 18 July 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

"This Must Be The Place..." is fucking gorgeous as well. I need to replace my dearly departed copy of Behaviour immediately. (I've already replaced Please and Actually and I'd grabbed Very used several years ago.)

Alan's TS is maybe one of the meanest things ever posted; it's akin to saying "TS: 'Yesterday When I Was Mad' vs 'Why Don't We Live Together?'" DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 18 July 2005 12:08 (twenty years ago)

I love Neil's solo on "...Seriously." It's charminly inept.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 18 July 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

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