{"id":6343,"date":"2024-01-11T12:46:59","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T12:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/?p=6343"},"modified":"2024-01-11T12:47:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T12:47:00","slug":"single-review-west-end-girls-pet-shop-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/2024\/01\/11\/single-review-west-end-girls-pet-shop-boys\/","title":{"rendered":"Single Review: &#8220;West End Girls&#8221; &#8211; Pet Shop Boys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"844\" height=\"853\" src=\"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_1638.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6344\" srcset=\"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_1638.jpg 844w, https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_1638-297x300.jpg 297w, https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_1638-768x776.jpg 768w, https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG_1638-59x60.jpg 59w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 844px) 100vw, 844px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/2Di0qFNb7ATroCGB3q0Ka7?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameBorder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n<p>On 11th January 1986 The Pet Shop Boys scored their first UK No.1 single with &#8216;West End Girls.&#8217; The first version of the song was released in April 1984, becoming a club hit in the United States, after the duo signed with EMI, the song was re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague.<br \/><br \/>Now I remember the first time I heard this it was on Top Of The Pops, Chris Lowe in his baseball cap at his PPG, Neil Tennant at the microphone. <br \/><br \/>It starts off with street sound effects and the chords on a synth, over hi hats and a kick. <br \/><br \/>Snare hit with long decay! <br \/><br \/>Then the bass line drops. <br \/><br \/>Neil deadpans the lines (Pretty much a rap) to this: <br \/><br \/>\u201cSometimes you\u2019re better off dead, <br \/>There\u2019s a gun in your hand <br \/>And it\u2019s pointing at your head,<br \/>You think you\u2019re mad too unstable <br \/>Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables <br \/>In a restaurant in a west end town<br \/>Call the police there\u2019s a madman around <br \/>Running down underground to a dive bar<br \/>In a dead end town.\u201d <br \/><br \/>This could easily take its influence from \u201cThe Message\u201d by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. <br \/><br \/>Then Neil launches into a vocal with a catchy chorus, one that will inspire late 80s pop songs to come, and set the stage for what they would do &#8211; redefine synth pop. This set the stage for making me want to learn how drum machines work, which would happen over a year later in secondary school. Brilliant pop and still stands up 37 years later.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 11th January 1986 The Pet Shop Boys scored their first UK No.1 single with &#8216;West End Girls.&#8217; The first version of the song was released in April 1984, becoming a club hit in the United States, after the duo signed with EMI, the song was re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague. Now I remember the &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,118,40,129,174,172,31,143,132,288,180,149,142,182,73,150,186,287,162,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-band","category-bass","category-dance","category-drums","category-electronica","category-hip-hop","category-keyboards","category-london","category-lyricist","category-pet-shop-boys","category-pop","category-pop-music","category-producer","category-rap","category-singer-songwriter","category-songwriter","category-spoken-word","category-track-of-the-day","category-uk","category-vocals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6345,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6343\/revisions\/6345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}