Somewhere/Red Letter Day/View from/Delusions [Maxi Single] by Pet Shop Boys (CD, Oct-1997, Atlantic USA)

Here we find the Pet Shop Boys inbetween album snack for 1997. Instead of relying on the usual string pad backing, the boys bring actual lush strings, a more complex arrangement than can be found on the orchestration heavy "Left To My Own Devices", a heavy house beat which drops out occasionally leaving orchestral only enclaves, and a mostly continuous 16th note synth voice underlying everything, somewhat analogous to that used in "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When Your Drunk" and "Flamboyant". Neils voice, perhaps far from perfection, is interestingly at his most insidious of any Pet Shop Boy song in the last 10 years, yet the actual number itself emotes the gooey sentiment of a "Liberation" and the escapist bravado of a "Go West". After all the starts and stops, the song finally climaxes into a post-coital haze, described by my girlfriend as better than the song itself. It's quite overproduced, really, which I personally love. However, it doesn't really have the soul of some of the Pet Shop Boys finest work. I think the song sounds better on the remastered PopArt, however, this single has much else to offer. Though most Pet Shop boys dance mixes unfortunately tend towards all beat (and a boring one at that) and little vocal, the two dance mixes on this disk sound like they would be a blast in a club. Truly dark hard house. They get a bit tedious for just general listening though. Red Letter Day, though available elsewhere fits the whole mood of the disk well, which I imagine is why it was included. The production is a bit to clip-cloppy, but it's still some decent inspirational Pet Shop Boys gospel music. Nothing sounds overly dated on this disk, surprisingly, nor does it really sound like other pop from 1997. The real winners here are the two B-s ides. The durge "View From Your Balcony"; It's perfection as a B-side to omewhere, a very musical-like track. This song is just a preface for the boys later work on the Closer To Heaven musical, where they truly unleashed their musical skills. The song glistens with simmering synths a spanish guitar and dreamscape lyrics. "Delusions of Grandeur" is a fun romp, a perfect compliment of "Red Letter Day", "Shameless", and "Go West". As some have noted in the past, the vocals could have been turned up a bit more in the mix, but it's still a fun sparkling inventive song. Overall, perhaps the songs on this single don't have the listenability of tracks from earlier Pet Shop Boys eras, but are enjoyable nonetheless, and as usual leave all their dance-pop competitors in the dust.