Customer Reviews

Very

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"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.

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."

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.

I bought "Very" in 1993...I was 39yrs old and it was a very painful time for me - my wife had left with my best friend. I was already a big fan of PSB and didn't know anything about their sexual orientation - nor did I care. I just loved their well-crafted tunes with a catchy melody, unlike so much other noise in the music industry at the time...

I couldn't stop playing "Very" for the next 2yrs. Along with counseling, a support group, my church and my faith in God it was also an important element of my recovery and to some degree a soundtrack for my big comeback... Whatever mood I was in there was a song to match - and I always felt better after listening...and often more empowered.

Note that my review is for the original version but I'm sure it applies to this release as well. At the age of 54, this is still one of my all-time favorites......

Although I believe 1990's "Behaviour" to be Pet Shop Boys greatest offering to date, "Very" remains my personal favorite to this day.
I was 17 when I bought my first PSB album. I bought two at once. I bought them at Kmart. "Discography" and "Very".
I was taking a gamble. At that time I only knew the songs "West End Girls" and "Suburbia".
But I am so happy I bought them. Particularly with "Very". Aside from Discography or PopArt, this is a great album for people who are curious about the Pet Shop Boys. It's just a great pop album, I love every single track - every one.

I highly recommend to those who are only vaguely familiar with their music, and are considering owning something of theirs. This is the album to test the waters. And you'll love it!

If ever there was an album which rendered every one of its songs a potential hit single, 'Very' takes the cake. Blending both smart-alec and sentimental lyrics with the catchiest pop hooks, the Pet Shop Boys have truly packed a veritable punch against the pop establishment. Almost immediately, anybody who hears this album for the first time, is taken aback by the intensely mood-driven and extraordinary lyrics and subject matter set to simple, albeit boy-bandish hooks and rhythms. Before this album, the Boys had consistently obscured themselves behind a veil of listless apathy and cold, icy indifference. But with 'Very,' Neil and Chris (wisely) decided to expose their vulnerability and inner-most emotions. In fact, 'Very would prove to be a watershed moment for them, leading to more intimate and mature records. The major highlights of this album include the subtle, yet in-your-face mischief of "Can You Forgive Her", a sneaky and taunting tale of a faux-straight closet queen; "Liberation," an idealistic love song set to one of the Boys' sweetest and most melodic soundtracks; the foreboding "Dreaming of the Queen," which is a haunting and eerie testament to AIDS; "To Speak is a Sin," a rather dark and cryptic "back-alley" portrayal of the gay underworld; the brazen and audacious "screw showbusiness" approach to "Yesterday, When I was Mad; and the beat-driven anecdote of juvinility in "Young Offender." Yet the ultimate showstopper to this record is the song for which this album is most remembered: "Go West." Upon first listen, one would think this to be a simple, perhaps perfunctory call for Utopia, first appealed for by the Village People. But upon realization, one discovers that the Pet Shop Boys have turned it on its head into a haunting and bizarrely moving requiem to those who have been taken by AIDS. What makes this song so eerie and yet poignant, is Tennant's weak, thin voice set up against pop grandeur. In fact, Tennant's voice conjures up that of a weak and wounded "soldier," trying to bring hope to compatriots lying dead all around him in a field, yet knowing all along that he and his countrymen have lost the War against AIDS.
All in all, this album showcases the best of what the Boys have accomplished in their career. Even though the Boys have been vastly underappreciated here in the States, they have proven themselves over and over again to the world as both innovators to be wreckoned with, and incredibly talented songwriters.

"Very" has got to rank as nearly the best Pet Shop Boys album ever made. Perhaps "Behavior", their 1990 masterpiece, has slightly more poignant lyrics, but it is "Very" which manages to meld together vocal, lyrical, and musical excellence. The re-issue, though probably a waste of money for the long-time collector, features some hard-to-find gems that are worth the extra few dollars, if you do not already own them.

"Very" is a full-on, throbbing, delicate, fever-pitched album which flows together seamlessly. From the opening number of "Can You Forgive Her?", to the shameless "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing", to the somber "To Speak Is a Sin", and the grand finale of "Go West", the Pet Shop Boys have crafted a collection of nearly every emotion represented, every sound utilized. It is marvelous. The style of music is somewhat dated as early-nineties "techno" (sort of), but it is the quality of its production, lyrics, and sequencing which propels it into the stratosphere of sublime pop recording.

Hmmm, wonder if I like it?

The album has been re-issued in July of 2001, fully-remasted (though it didn't really need to be), and accompanied by a bonus disc entitled "Further listening". The bonus disc comprises demos, various remixes, and alternate versions of songs from the "Very" period, some material making its release debut on the CD. This is part of the mass re-issue of the Pet Shop Boys' first six albums, "Very" being the sixth.

The main problem is this: If you have been a Pet Shop Boys fan for awhile, as I have, the bonus disc for "Very" isn't anything new. It has, out of the five other re-issued albums, the least amount of 'unreleased material', and consists mostly of b-sides. The b-sides from this period were already released in 1995, and help to make-up their "Alternative" collection. There is nothing wrong with them, persay, it is just that they are some of the more recent and readily accessible works of the Boys. And "Very", the most recent re-issue, really wasn't in need of re-mastering.

If, however, you are a relatively new Pet Shop Boys fan, and do *not* have any of the material on the bonus disc, then by all means purchase it. It contains music of outstanding depth and quality, and if you haven't even experienced "Very" itself yet, then now is most certainly the time.

This new release of Very (for my money the best of the Pet Shop Boys albums) is expensive. There's also very little that hasn't already been released on CD. That said, it's still well worth buying.

The first CD is Very itself, which you should all know and love, right down to the hidden track at the end. (Titled Postscript in the linear notes.)

The second CD contains sixteen tracks and lasts over 77 minutes, but only three of the tracks are previously unreleased, and all three songs have been released in different versions. There's a version of Go West, that while not radically different from the more familiar mix, offers enough to be worth listening to. Forever in Love is a version of a track from Restless, that's most notable for the addition of some extra vocals. Falling will be new to anyone who hasn't heard the Kylie version, as far as I'm aware. It's average Pet Shop Boys (which means it's great, obviously). The other tracks on the second CD are previously released mixes and b-sides, as you can see from the track listing above. Highlights include Shameless, Decadence and Some Speculation.

The 36 booklet surprised me by being full of information. After a short introduction you get lyrics and comments from Neil and Chris for each track. Informative, and frequently very funny, it really adds to the value of the package.

Overall, then, you're not getting an awful lot of new music. It doesn't matter. Very is a classic album, it's nice to have the music on the second CD included in one place (and especially nice for people who didn't buy all the singles) and the sleeve notes are superb. A great package all round.

As a lifelong Pet Shop Boys fan, I had some reservations about purchasing an album that I already owned, simply for a bonus CD that was included in the reissue. However, this is essential listening for both completists and for casual listeners. For those new to the Pet Shop Boys, there is probably no better introduction to their output, with the possible exception of their greatest hits disc, "Discography."The reviews for "Very" (the original album) speak for themselves. This is a brilliant and highly listenable album. The extra CD features remixes, single versions, b-sides, demo tracks, a live recording, and a fascinating commentary on each song by Chris and Neil.Highlights on the extra disc include a live version of Blur's "Girls and Boys" (which sounded like a PSB song when Blur recorded it), a PSB version of a song that they produced for Tina Turner on her "Wildest Dreams" CD ("Confidential"), the rare single version of their tribute to the BBC show "Absolutely Fabulous," and a nearly eight-minute remix of "Go West." The remixes are true to the source material, though, and one can still recognize the song on which they were based. There are also several tracks that appeared on the b-sides compilation "Alternative," and while there may be some duplication in a true fan's CD library, it is worth it just to see what influences were working back and forth between the duo while recording "Very."The songs themselves are faithful to the sound that the duo were exploring during this time. Lots of Hi-NRG tracks with a touch of techno. One song on the bonus CD, "Euroboy," sounds as if it may be the "What was that song?" track one hears every night in a club.To sum it up, this is worth your money.

This album, Very and its much more rare companion, Very Relentless, can be summed up in the Pet Shop Boys' own words (one of the lyrics taken from the song Yesterday When I was Mad) -- they've 'both made such a little go a very long way'. A very long way, indeed.

All of the songs on this album have the same feel -- the same texture, the same lyrical quality, the same 'groove' if you will -- which is remarkable for a collection of different songs, from ballads to a roaring remake of the Village People's Go West (a song Toyota still uses occasionally in advertising -- listen for the backing music). One would almost swear that the actual Village People are making up the chorus as Neil Tennant's high-pitched, flat voice calls out 'Life is peaceful there' as the gruff, deep voices growl, GO WEST!

All the songs are dancable (not true of all the songs on all the albums) -- the videos which accompany this album all have the same computer-generated motion and costume and background (someone in the Pet Shop Boys camp obviously had recently discovered computer-generated graphics and animation and decided to have some fun!). I was frankly a bit disappointed with the videos, because the idea was original, but it was the same idea for each video (and we fans are used to stylish, original videos for each song).

This album will please Pet Shop Boys fans; it may find a good home with electronic/disco music fans. As with all Pet Shop Boys songs, listen to the lyrics -- they are witty and thoughtful -- the song Dreaming of the Queen actually plays on a recurrent nightmare/stress dream that the average Brit would have but Americans don't -- the stress that the Queen drops by for a visit when you're not ready (either undressed, or dirty house, &c.) -- probably the closest equivalent stress dream in American terms would be the test-anxiety pop-quiz-you-haven't-studied-for dream.

Other songs include the poignant The Theatre, in which one can sense the frustration of struggling artists as they watch their more successful compatriots pass by; To speak is a sin, recapturing a word from a previous hit, It's a sin, something the no-longer Roman Catholic Tennant likes to muse over now and again; the first semi-hit Can you forgive her, a crashing, triumphant, psychological song that reinforces the ambiguous sexuality of this duo (later to be made less so).

So, pay attention to the lyrics, and have a Very Very good listen.