"Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
"Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
I've been reading other posts talking about this track, so we are going to create a post for it and free another posts related to the new stuff.
Last edited by Nickname on Fri 22 Jan 2016, 3:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
It was an obvious single, but just like the whole of Elysium, it works much much better as an instrumental (which always puzzled me, as the idea behind the album was 'Neil meets soulful american backing singers' -they were even going to call it "Vocal" at some point!). And the video was unbelievably cheesy.
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
Polls are never useful when there is so much emphasis and opinion loaded into the answers.
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
I understand that there is something...mmmm...awkward...with the vocal version, but the instrumental is a beautiful and perfect piece of music!!!
This is not my signature.
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
The worst thing lyrically they have EVER written
I've been a Teenager since before you were born.
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
I like the Midnitemen remix, which kind of plays up the silliness of it all.
And we did get "A certain "Je ne sais quoi"" out of it, which is just awesome
And we did get "A certain "Je ne sais quoi"" out of it, which is just awesome
“Unless you consciously include, you will unconsciously exclude”
-Stephen Frost
-Stephen Frost
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
I think the real battle is between fans of the Pop era 1981-2012 and fans of the Dance era 2013-present.
I'm a proud sycophant because I like Wedding in Berlin

http://www.last.fm/user/FFancy24
Dublin 19/06/2011, Manchester 20/06/2013, Edinburgh 31/12/2013, London 23/07/2014, London 23/07/2016, London 02/04/2017

http://www.last.fm/user/FFancy24
Dublin 19/06/2011, Manchester 20/06/2013, Edinburgh 31/12/2013, London 23/07/2014, London 23/07/2016, London 02/04/2017
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Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
The thing about PSB is that they often write great songs that don't actually suit them. Winner is actually a decent little pop song that would have been a reasonably sized hit for someone like Take That. Imagine Kylie singing a version and you can see what the song is supposed to be, and in that context it works. But on a Pet Shop Boys record with Neil on vocals... it's awful.
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
Winner is the Guantanamo of Elysium; that remote, God-forsaken place where their creativity underwent a process of extraordinary rendition. As far as I'm concerned, it represented the water boarding of my fandom.*
Drico.
*Views expressed may cause offence. Not as much as Winner, though.
Drico.
*Views expressed may cause offence. Not as much as Winner, though.
The pale kid that hides in the attic behind his PC...
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
This song has a special place for me because it came out around the same time I was told I was cured of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. So I can really feel an attachment to the lyrics.
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
I'm amazed Simon cowell has never try to nick it for his X factor winners singleNotInvisible wrote:The thing about PSB is that they often write great songs that don't actually suit them.
It's even got the ruddy chord change
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
The mistake wasn't releasing the version that became known as the HappySad mix as the prime version on the album - that really is a winner. It's not their best effort, but I really don't think it deserves the level of hate mail it receives.
And at the end/ Your funny Uncle staring / At all your friends / With military bearing
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
Winner was fine. Not out of place on the album or indeed for the Olympics.
Move on.
Move on.
I'm too weak to be strong
Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
Bloody awful, end of.
Just for the sake of it, make sure you're always frowning. 
It shows the world that you've got substance and depth.

It shows the world that you've got substance and depth.
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Re: "Winner" - the love and hate battle of this forum
I have mixed feelings about this song. I think the album/single version is pretty weak. I would say it is second only to Before as their worst single. On the other hand, I think the Andrew Dawson Extended HappySad Remix is one of the best remixes they've ever put out and I love it. The long version of The Way Through the Woods is brilliant and I also like the video for Winner. So the overall single package was very satisfying for me. Still, I think A Face Like That should have been the lead single from Elysium.
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