What PSB track (or part of a PSB track) moves you emotionally? (Crying, goosebumps, etc.)

[Pinhead44]

All these tracks could make up a compilation album, or more practically a playlist… Emotionally. Pet Shop Boys.

They could do a one off show playing the songs.

For one night only Pet Shop Boys are 'emotionally yours'.

'Get your branded PSB pocket tissues here, £20 a pack'.

[scousepsbfan]

Lots of good examples here but one I've not seen mentioned is the middle section and final verse of Footsteps - the desperation in the delivery of "I'm longing to see you, I want you, I need you", then the dramatic key change into the verse, the sitar melody, and finally the pained resignation in "like a child who feels afraid" - it's just a series of hammer blows. This song is the highlight of the album for me and I'm always surprised that so many people seem to dislike it. In particular that unexpected instrumental opening to verse 3 (I always figured the absent vocal represented the absent person) just ruins me.

You are absolutely right. It is a beautiful lyric. Prefer the live version. I always found the album version a bit over-produced and the 'sitar' sounding riff is a bit irritating.

[luca857]

Great suggestions overall. For me it's the middle eight of DJ Culture.

[Old Soak]

Top three currently (in no particular order):

Cricket Wife.
Invisible.
The Way It Used To Be.

[sterlinglush]

Being boring. I lost a friend to Hodgkin's while we were at uni. We were in New Orleans for Spring Break, and this video came on in one of the bars in the Quarter (I think it was Lafitte's). This was the last good time before he fell ill. This plus the constant overhang of grief and loss from the HIV/AIDS pandemic back then always come back to me when I hear this one, even after all this time.

Decide. Came out right after I moved to the UK from Hong Kong, where life got a bit nightmarish in 2019-20 because of the conflict there (it shouldn't be characterized as riots), and arrived here just in time for the lockdowns. There's an amateur video on YouTube made up of footage from several major Asian cities, but HK gets most of the screen time. That one has left me sobbing more than once.

Why am I dancing. Basically my autobiography condensed down to three and a half minutes.

A few others: A red letter day. My October symphony. King's Cross. Tonight is forever. Here. This must be the place I waited years to leave. It couldn't happen here. A new Bohemia.

[Pinhead44]

Being boring. I lost a friend to Hodgkin's while we were at uni. We were in New Orleans for Spring Break, and this video came on in one of the bars in the Quarter (I think it was Lafitte's). This was the last good time before he fell ill. This plus the constant overhang of grief and loss from the HIV/AIDS pandemic back then always come back to me when I hear this one, even after all this time.

Decide. Came out right after I moved to the UK from Hong Kong, where life got a bit nightmarish in 2019-20 because of the conflict there (it shouldn't be characterized as riots), and arrived here just in time for the lockdowns. There's an amateur video on YouTube made up of footage from several major Asian cities, but HK gets most of the screen time. That one has left me sobbing more than once.

Why am I dancing. Basically my autobiography condensed down to three and a half minutes.

A few others: A red letter day. My October symphony. King's Cross. Tonight is forever. Here. This must be the place I waited years to leave. It couldn't happen here. A new Bohemia.

A lovely post ❤

[petshopgrrl]

All these tracks could make up a compilation album, or more practically a playlist… Emotionally. Pet Shop Boys.

They could do a one off show playing the songs.

For one night only Pet Shop Boys are 'emotionally yours'.

'Get your branded PSB pocket tissues here, £20 a pack'.

I’m already on record saying they should do alternating ballads and bangers nights. PSB Therapy tour, sponsored by Kleenex.

[S-sense]

When you recognize songs at the beginning that will touch you, you wait for the special moment that usually comes. Nonetheless delivered for me with:
Why am i Dancing "...when i am so alone, i can feel tears in my eyes, my comdort zone".

Bohemia - "I wished i lived my live free- and easier"

Love is the law with this whole section
'Love is the law
but you can’t regulate it
The desire is so strong
and you won’t moderate it
That one’s a gambler
This one’s a thief
Both make it easy
and that’s a relief

Great that they still write such haunting songs 40 years on.

[stussyboy]

Something in my eye:

Last verse of BB
I made my excuses and left
LIAC - “never been lonelier in my life”
Requiem and denim and leopardskin
Bridge of Go West
A New Bohemia video when Neil looks at camera “I’m always in love / so easily led / my life is a mess / like an unmade bed”
Postscript
Chris in We Came from outer space “don’t leave me / I love you”

Goosebumps:

Vocal in its full-on poppers bit
When the keyboards kick back in in Always on my mind/In My House
2nd verse of Hallo Spaceboy
Most of The Lost Room
Most times when Neil starts singing

[ChrisLove]

"Horoscopes can’t forecast how we’ll feel" - Closer to Heaven

[OakeyDokey]

The Pop Kids, in particular the "I loved you" line. Absolute killer...nostalgia, missed opportunity, sacred relationship...just so effective.

[BugBoy]

The intro of One More Chance on Actually ALWAYS makes the hairs on the back of my neck tingle as does the segue from the intro into the song proper of the It's A Sin Disco Mix. Being Boring and The Way it Used To Be are a given.

Although not technically a PSB track special mention should go to Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible), I've found myself welling up on the tube when that pops up on my headphones!

[Andie]

The way it used to be. the part where Neil sings "then & there I knew I'd lost you"

[donbrae]

A couple of very obvious ones for me. ‘Being boring’: whether listening to a recording or when I saw them live at Hogmanay in 2023, it aye gars me greet! ‘Always on my mind’ is also liable to bring a lump to my throat. And generally anything that evokes the early AIDS period (‘It couldn’t happen here’, ‘Kings Cross’).

[petshopgrrl]

Ooh I've got another one.

Chris reciting "one hand, one heart" in the middle of Somewhere. There's something about his gritty Northern accent that gives it extra pathos.