New Single - Loneliness

[daveid]

Am I right that if you purchased the single and the album together then you won't get the single til the end of April?

[TallThinMan]

Am I right that if you purchased the single and the album together then you won't get the single til the end of April?

That’s correct.

[alternativeformat]

I'm in the US and ordered "Loneliness" on Amazon. They still haven't determined a shipping/delivery date, but last night they invited me to download the mp3's, as yesterday was the release day and the single is part of Amazon's AutoRip program. So it's nice having these new tracks in my own library while I wait to hold the physical copy in my hands. Wanted to let people know.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[jyllinge]

Does anyone have a clue how the single is performing chart wise? Mid-week? I know its a long shoot for a good chart placement.

[Drico One]

Does anyone have a clue how the single is performing chart wise? Mid-week? I know its a long shoot for a good chart placement.

It won't make the top 40, if that's what you mean.

It did make the top 20 of the airplay chart, however, though it has fallen from 17 to 21 this week despite increasing its number of plays by 20% to 415.

However, for context, every track above it on the chart - when it was at 17 - was earning 8-10 times the amount of plays - 3,000 v 300. The only reason they got to 17 was because the chart is compiled on reach (the estimated amount of people a radio station reaches). As the BBC have bigger audiences, its 347 plays two weeks ago was estimated to give them an audience share of 20.2. The track one place above them had 2,422 plays and a reach of 21.66. Draw your own conclusions.

Drico.

[Ghost within this house]

Does anyone have a clue how the single is performing chart wise? Mid-week? I know its a long shoot for a good chart placement.

It won't make the top 40, if that's what you mean.

It did make the top 20 of the airplay chart, however, though it has fallen from 17 to 21 this week despite increasing its number of plays by 20% to 415.

However, for context, every track above it on the chart - when it was at 17 - was earning 8-10 times the amount of plays - 3,000 v 300. The only reason they got to 17 was because the chart is compiled on reach (the estimated amount of people a radio station reaches). As the BBC have bigger audiences, its 347 plays two weeks ago was estimated to give them an audience share of 20.2. The track one place above them had 2,422 plays and a reach of 21.66. Draw your own conclusions.

Drico.

This is a message for Drico - Drico, I hope you are safe, and that the Chart Statistician AI Bot that has taken you captive is feeding you well and allowing you the basic freedoms. If not, let us know with the appropriate emojis and we'll try and rescue you.

[Drico One]

[Ghost within this house]

3 weeks on, and Loneliness has settled firmly into elite post-imperial status.

To my taste, it joins Love Etc at the top of the list of post-Very lead singles.

[Drico One]

I suspect I'll soon consider it their best album opener ever. It's a dramatic, atmospheric scene-setter with enough space to draw one in to explore the slowly unfolding soundscape. By contrast, I see it as a mid-table lead single, lacking the excitement of It's a sin and Can you forgive her?, the furtive nefariousness of So hard, the sheer euphoria of Vocal, and the wordy, bittersweet nostalgia of The Pop Kids - which are the gold standard in my view. But then, I've got a pretty old-school view of lead singles which, frankly, is a touch passe in 2024.

I place Loneliness in the classy company of I don't know what you want but I can't type this anymore: a mannered, underrated, and stormy psychological kitchen sink drama that tends to be underappreciated. Even so, it's leagues above Home and dry, Before, and the song that must not be mentioned.

That's not to say that Home and dry and Before are not very good tracks - they just lack the thrills that I think a lead single should possess. See also other hugely enjoyable mid-rangers such as Dreamland and I'm with stupid. And even Winner - which was a hugely saccharine let down - is technically perfectly good. It's just not "them" - at least not to me.

Then again, being "them" can work against them too - with people saying a more typical track is "more of the same" or a Chat GPT simulacrum. Pet Shop Boys have such a catalogue that even their less thrilling lead singles are very often fantastic tracks. Loneliness is an intriguing invitation to Nonetheless.

Drico.

[TwizzleUK]

Thought it sounded okay on first listen. Found that after another listen it kept popping back in my head. Now after about five or six total plays it's in my head most mornings when I wake up. Must mean I like it quite a lot now!

[MikeyC]

and the song that must not be mentioned.

love that!!

[TallThinMan]

Something subtle that occurred to me about 'Loneliness' is that I like the ambiguity in the chorus lyric:

Where you gonna run to now from loneliness?

Is the protagonist running to somewhere or someone because of loneliness, or is there an implied away before from i.e. they're escaping from loneliness?

[jyllinge]

Does anyone have a clue how the single is performing chart wise? Mid-week? I know its a long shoot for a good chart placement.

It won't make the top 40, if that's what you mean.

It did make the top 20 of the airplay chart, however, though it has fallen from 17 to 21 this week despite increasing its number of plays by 20% to 415.

However, for context, every track above it on the chart - when it was at 17 - was earning 8-10 times the amount of plays - 3,000 v 300. The only reason they got to 17 was because the chart is compiled on reach (the estimated amount of people a radio station reaches). As the BBC have bigger audiences, its 347 plays two weeks ago was estimated to give them an audience share of 20.2. The track one place above them had 2,422 plays and a reach of 21.66. Draw your own conclusions.

Drico.

Thanks for this. What I expected. Yet I dont get the marketing strategy. I would think Parlophone would help them on that part. Releasing digital and physical on two dates far apart is strange to me plus remixes maybe at some point. Maybe im old school

[Drico One]

Something subtle that occurred to me about 'Loneliness' is that I like the ambiguity in the chorus lyric:

Where you gonna run to now from loneliness?

Is the protagonist running to somewhere or someone because of loneliness, or is there an implied away before from i.e. they're escaping from loneliness?

Yes - but "wherever you go, you'll take yourself with you, there's nowhere you can hide..."

Escape is impossible - which makes this an interesting take on the dominant PSB theme. Normally, escape is possible - even if it isn't always attempted - but this time even trying is deemed futile (unless the subject smells the roses and sees the "obvious" escape route). In that sense, this is a fairly devastating rebuke for our self-absorbed, pig-headed love interest. Even more devastating, for our narrator this time, is the fact that the object of his attention doesn't really have the same map...

So, ultimately, the most shambolic presence on this record is not actually the lonely love interest, but the even lonelier amateur psychologist whose love remains unrecognised and unrequited.

Drico.

[TallThinMan]

Something subtle that occurred to me about 'Loneliness' is that I like the ambiguity in the chorus lyric:

Where you gonna run to now from loneliness?

Is the protagonist running to somewhere or someone because of loneliness, or is there an implied away before from i.e. they're escaping from loneliness?

Yes - but "wherever you go, you'll take yourself with you, there's nowhere you can hide..."

Escape is impossible - which makes this an interesting take on the dominant PSB theme. Normally, escape is possible - even if it isn't always attempted - but this time even trying is deemed futile (unless the subject smells the roses and sees the "obvious" escape route). In that sense, this is a fairly devastating rebuke for our self-absorbed, pig-headed love interest. Even more devastating, for our narrator this time, is the fact that the object of his attention doesn't really have the same map...

So, ultimately, the most shambolic presence on this record is not actually the lonely love interest, but the even lonelier amateur psychologist whose love remains unrecognised and unrequited.

Drico.

I didn't get a sense of any of that from the promo video.

The '"wherever you go, you'll take yourself with you' line always makes me think of Crowded House taking the weather with them.