Nightlife - time for reappraisal?

[stussyboy]

I think Rollo should have done the whole album

[Gabby]

"Footsteps" is my least favourite PSB song ever. I can't even listen to it. I quite like "Boy Strange"...definitely hear some Bowie influence there.

"Drunk" deserves to be covered by a huge C&W singer.

"Vampires" is better on the CTH soundtrack...much more emotive.

As albums go it was OK. Probably sits at the lower end of my PSB album ranking but enjoyed the Nightlife tour at Birmingham NEC. A memorable night where those that had front row seats were asked by security to stand up and go right up to the stage because the PSB had requested it. So when the curtain went up wasn't Chris Lowe right there in front of me! Thrilling.

[Disco.]

The promoter of the U.K tour went bankrupt, so tney didn’t receive any money for the tickets already sold, it cost them £1.4 million.

[Debussy]

On reflection, there is actually a lot I like about Nightlife

The first three tracks - what an opening?
For Your Own Good - brilliant Rollo production, but of its time.

I don't know what you want - classic 90s Morales. Superb. Was it Love Letters they also did with him? That must have been a stinker to have stayed on the shelf all this time.

Happiness I love. Drunk is a total classic - surprised it's not been a big hit for someone else.

Vampires - I recall a Dance Dummy (?) 12minute mix I have on CD somewhere - I loved that.
Boy Strange and Footsteps - also really like.

New York city boy I thought was going to be a massive hit.. The instrumentation and deliberate disco reference is still fantastic, but the lyrical theme usurped it. Not until Requiem in Denim did this disco breakdown return.

The Only One and In Denial - both skips.




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[Old Soak]

Probably the best opening triplet of any album. But side 2 is a complete mish mash. The Only One and Footsteps are very low quality. But Boy Strange is one of just a handful of PSB tracks I actively hate. As for NYC Boy, never a single in a million years, OK as an album track.

[Towa]

I wish they would have kept New York city boy all-disco/70s (as the long Morales mix) instead of adding 90’s sprinkles (such as the 909 drums) to it. The 12” is a wonderful pastiche, very true to real 70s disco, but the single/album remix (by Goetz?) loses that aspect due to the 90s stuff. I guess it makes it fit better on the album, but I would have preferred a true disco versio.

[jasonjohn]

Well each to their own!

I find the Rollo opening number incredibly dated and verging on boring, but still don't mind it. Price did a far better job with Electric, so I'm glad he got the whole-album task and not Rollo.

All the ballads are terrific to my ears, but In Denial might of just stayed in the theatre

[Nicholas]

Sorry for the dumb question, but which of the tracks on Nightlife do people actually regard as the ‘ballads’? The only one and Footsteps for sure, but everything else feels a bit vaguer to define. On release, I dunno if Drunk, In denial or Boy Strange felt like ballads to me… but maybe the production distracted me a bit. In denial is clearly one!

On Very and Bilingual it felt much more obvious which were the the slow, reflective songs and which were not. (To my mind, both albums had two ballads apiece… god, I was far too clean on neat categorisations back then.)

[britboy]

I'm a life long PSB fan, if I'm brutally honest Nightlife is the middle album of three that weren't totally ok to my ears, they didn't fill me with the usual feeling I get from the boys work, only a handful of tracks from those three albums still had the thing I love about them .Thank goodness Fundamental was a return to form.

[stormynight]

A mixup with the B-Sides and the C2H demos would lift it up for me. But that’s what you can do with any of their albums.

[Lleonard Pler]

It was my favourite PSB album until Electric arrived. Perfect sleeve, perfect design, perfect costumes, perfect shots, perfect videos, perfect singles selection, perfect remixes...

The only one dull track for me is The only one. I would have switched it with Ghost of myself, which suited the theme better.

Also For your own good is one of their stronger opening numbers, alongside Two divided by zero, One more chance, Discoteca and Left to my own devices.

Drunk and I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more are just perfect, I love the campiness of New York city boy, Boy Strange always fascinated me, it's something that David Bowie would have loved to sing for sure.

[jules]

It's an album with an amazing sound but maybe the ballads are not that good. Some songs doesn't fit the album. The album has a lush production which is a good thing.

For your own good, cth, radiophonic, don't know what you want and footsteps are fantastic.
Boy strange, you only tell me, in denial and New York city boy are just too campy or boring contrary to the other songs.
Hapiness is an option and the only one are interesting but not really their best stuff either.
Nightlife could have been better, it goes in too many different things.
The sleeve design, costumes, etc were awesome.

[jasonjohn]

Sorry for the dumb question, but which of the tracks on Nightlife do people actually regard as the ‘ballads’?

That's a good question! I personally was thinking Drunk, Only One, Boy Strange, Footsteps

For me the definition is slow(er) tempo romantic songs.

I love their ballads not only for the soft heartedness, lyrics, and Chris' normally magical mid-section break, but also because that's when they record Neil's voice in it's fully timbre. I think that's why FYPG bugs be a bit - Neils vocals are over processed and dissolved in the overdone soundscape.

[Nicholas]

Listening to Nightlife today (after all this chat) and tbh in my new AirPods it sounds lush and layered and sharp and gorgeous. There’s a LOT happening in the production, even if some of the songcraft feels a bit ‘repeat title twice there that’s the chorus’. And Drunk is just perfect.

[domino]

A mixup with the B-Sides and the C2H demos would lift it up for me. But that’s what you can do with any of their albums.

It's just your little tribute to Caligula, darling.