Very [Original recording reissued]

Pet Shop Boys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 11, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000024QML
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,590 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

PARLOPHONE, 854093, ORANGE INLAY 12 Track

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Is The Best, February 27, 2000

By 

Chris D. (Ocean Grove, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Very (Audio CD)

"Very" is, without a doubt, my favorite PSB album. There is just not one weak track on the whole thing. From "Can You Forgive Her?" to "Go West" (which is the finale on the current tour), it has a consistency of excellence lacking on most albums. My favorite tracks are probably "One In A Million," "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing" (why do the Boys have this habit of using such long, unwieldy song titles?) and "Go West," which is just plain fun to listen to. None of the other tracks are far behind. If you must own one PSB album, this is the one to get. It's scary how nearly flawless this album is (it's just too bad that "Shameless" was not included on it). Irresistably upbeat and full of hooks, great melodies, sharp lyrics and dance beats that only the Pet Shop Boys can do this well, it remains one of my all-time favorites. I even buy used copies (when I can find them) for my friends; it is really that good. Stop reading reviews and buy it already.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Queen said "I'm Aghast! Love never seems to last.", April 21, 2003

By 

Christopher Schmitz (Rocky River, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Very (+ Remixes) (Audio CD)

This is one of my favorite albums, and I became interested in one reviewer's idea that it's actually a concept album about leaving the closet for the gay subculture--and the joys and challenges that result. I also love another reviewer's notion that the album may be big and brassy (bright orange and riveted like sheet metal; full of happy house hooks) but it's also soul-baring and vulnerable underneath.

"Can You Forgive Her?" catches our protagonist in a heterosexual bond but indulging in secret gay romps behind the "cricket pavilion" and the "bicycle stand." Titled after an Anthony Trollope novel, the music is spiky and sinister, as if to demonstrate the tumult of a conflicted life.

A wave of euphoria comes next. Our closet case has his first real relationship. He has never known such joy, and he reacts jubilantly, whipping off his clothes and dancing to Stavinsky. Still, he clings to heterosexuality, claiming "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing."

"Liberation" is the final acceptance of his gay identity, a string-sweetened ballad about the moment of realizing a real and genuine love: a ride home with his beloved's head resting against his shoulder.

Our hero has accepted his sexuality but now must negotiate the difficult balancing act of any relationship gay or straight. "A Different Point of View" and "One and One Make Five" recall the possessive lovers that have always been at the heart of PSB songs, including "To Face the Truth," "So Hard," and "Jealousy" from their previous album "Behavior." "Yesterday When I Was Mad" works as a double statement: A lovebird at the end of his rope returning to the nest only because he gets lonely--and a certain duo (ahem) frustrated by the music business.

It's not mentioned, but I think our protagonist breaks up with his boyfriend; next, he moves tentatively into the gay subculture in search of another. "To Speak Is a Sin" describes the eye-intensive contact of a gay bar. "Young Offender," whose chugging music features video game blips in the background, describes our hero's effort to court a delinquent teenager. Their bond seems exciting but ultimately unworkable. The stately "One in a Million" ushers our gay everyman back to euphoria. He has finally found another OR is back in the arms of his previous lover after a handful of miscues.

Our hero's journey has a happy ending, but the album ends ambiguously. Covering a catchy disco song by the proudly gay 70s dance band The Village People leads to a potent statement. "Go West" is a zesty singalong about gay flight to the freedom and "open air" of San Francisco. In the hands of the Pet Shop Boys, who eschew boisterous baritone gang vocals in favor of Neil Tennant's faint fragile tenor, it becomes an elegy for those who came seeking freedom and wound up ambushed by HIV.
This is foreshadowed earlier in the album by the lush "Dreaming of the Queen," which claimed "There are no lovers left alive."

"Very" is the only pop album ever made about specifically male homosexual themes. And it's one of the gems of the synth-pop genre along with Depeche Mode's "Violator," Erasure's "The Innocents," and PSB's own "Behavior."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sweet..., December 21, 2005

By 

Analog "Evil_Spud_Boy" (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Very (Audio CD)

Very is quite different from the Pet Shop Boys most people are familiar with. In the past were songs like Being Boring, West End Girls, Rent, It's A Sin etc... which are for the most part, mid-tempo electronic rock. Very reminds me a lot of the direction that OMD went after McCluskey and Humphreys went separate ways, think Sugar Tax and Liberator era. Of course most people are familiar with Can You Forgive Her which was a pretty big hit back in the early 90's, but after the opening track finishes off, you're hit with I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing, a straight up dancy disco rocker. The pace of this album rarely lets up except for a few slower ballady songs (Liberation, Dreaming of the Queen, To Speak Is A Sin) and finishes off with an outstanding version of the Village People's Go West. I like this album a lot, it is one of my favorites because it is so upbeat and energetic, and of course because the Pet Shop Boys are incredible. I would recommend this album to fans of newer OMD, New Order, Erasure, Intuition, Neuropa.