BEHAVIOUR was the Pet Shop Boys' first truly mature album, but its follow-up, 1993's VERY, proved to be their masterpiece. On the surface, VERY is the duo's most carefree album, a modern dance-floor update of the kitchen-sink production and swelling melodies of a classic ABBA album. Just barely underneath, Neil Tennant's lyrics keep their layers of mordant wit, but drop the self-protective irony in favor of writing truthfully about the lives of gay men in the early '90s, regrouping in the face of AIDS.
To that end, the album starts with "Can You Forgive Her?," a drop-dead-gorgeous song directed to a closeted young man whose "girlfriend" wants to call off her part in the charade, and it wraps up with a completely heartfelt and unironic version of the Village People's "Go West" that views the unfettered hedonism of the original with a palpable sense of regret. In between, "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" and "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" are among the duo's finest singles.
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Pop
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