The first time I listened to this album was one of the most revelatory experiences I've ever had with a piece of music. The lyrics are sophisticated, the melodies are childlike and engaging, and the rhythms -- to quote the title of the remix album -- are relentless. But what makes Very really transcend the discotech trappings are Neil Tennant's vocals. The emotional investment he makes in this album is brave, honest, and exhilarating. And it pays off. I don't know of a more cathartic pop song than "A Different Point of View." Like the 70's punk band The Buzzcocks ( whose lead singer was also gay ), The Pet Shop Boys have a gift for smuggling mature adult lyrics into chipper, upbeat, seemingly shallow compositions. You don't notice it at first, but when you do...

Oh yeah -- the songs. God forbid I boil down the Pet Shop Boys to philosophical abstraction. The album-opening "Can You Forgive Her?" is, to my knowledge, the first Pet Shopper track to feature a female pronoun -- not even "West End Girls" has one ( it's also named after an Anthony Trollope novel, for what that's worth. ) It's a sinister and moody arrangement that should have been used in a movie already. The next song, "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing," is another highlight, a giddy, ecstatic rave-up. Then there's "A Different Point of View."

After that, the album settles down into being merely brilliant -- those three songs are something else entirely. "Dreaming of the Queen" is slinkily seductive and conjures up images of a futuristic London; "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" has one of the catchiest choruses I've ever heard; and "Go West" is "Go West" -- a Village People song, updated for maximum inspirational effect.

With Very, the Pet Shop Boys can claim to have accomplished the impossible -- redeemed disco.

"Very" is, without a doubt, my favorite PSB album. There is just not one weak track on the whole thing. From "Can You Forgive Her?" to "Go West" (which is the finale on the current tour), it has a consistency of excellence lacking on most albums. My favorite tracks are probably "One In A Million," "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing" (why do the Boys have this habit of using such long, unwieldy song titles?) and "Go West," which is just plain fun to listen to. None of the other tracks are far behind. If you must own one PSB album, this is the one to get. It's scary how nearly flawless this album is (it's just too bad that "Shameless" was not included on it). Irresistably upbeat and full of hooks, great melodies, sharp lyrics and dance beats that only the Pet Shop Boys can do this well, it remains one of my all-time favorites. I even buy used copies (when I can find them) for my friends; it is really that good. Stop reading reviews and buy it already.

This is one of my favorite albums, and I became interested in one reviewer's idea that it's actually a concept album about leaving the closet for the gay subculture--and the joys and challenges that result. I also love another reviewer's notion that the album may be big and brassy (bright orange and riveted like sheet metal; full of happy house hooks) but it's also soul-baring and vulnerable underneath.

"Can You Forgive Her?" catches our protagonist in a heterosexual bond but indulging in secret gay romps behind the "cricket pavilion" and the "bicycle stand." Titled after an Anthony Trollope novel, the music is spiky and sinister, as if to demonstrate the tumult of a conflicted life.

A wave of euphoria comes next. Our closet case has his first real relationship. He has never known such joy, and he reacts jubilantly, whipping off his clothes and dancing to Stavinsky. Still, he clings to heterosexuality, claiming "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing."

"Liberation" is the final acceptance of his gay identity, a string-sweetened ballad about the moment of realizing a real and genuine love: a ride home with his beloved's head resting against his shoulder.

Our hero has accepted his sexuality but now must negotiate the difficult balancing act of any relationship gay or straight. "A Different Point of View" and "One and One Make Five" recall the possessive lovers that have always been at the heart of PSB songs, including "To Face the Truth," "So Hard," and "Jealousy" from their previous album "Behavior." "Yesterday When I Was Mad" works as a double statement: A lovebird at the end of his rope returning to the nest only because he gets lonely--and a certain duo (ahem) frustrated by the music business.

It's not mentioned, but I think our protagonist breaks up with his boyfriend; next, he moves tentatively into the gay subculture in search of another. "To Speak Is a Sin" describes the eye-intensive contact of a gay bar. "Young Offender," whose chugging music features video game blips in the background, describes our hero's effort to court a delinquent teenager. Their bond seems exciting but ultimately unworkable. The stately "One in a Million" ushers our gay everyman back to euphoria. He has finally found another OR is back in the arms of his previous lover after a handful of miscues.

Our hero's journey has a happy ending, but the album ends ambiguously. Covering a catchy disco song by the proudly gay 70s dance band The Village People leads to a potent statement. "Go West" is a zesty singalong about gay flight to the freedom and "open air" of San Francisco. In the hands of the Pet Shop Boys, who eschew boisterous baritone gang vocals in favor of Neil Tennant's faint fragile tenor, it becomes an elegy for those who came seeking freedom and wound up ambushed by HIV.
This is foreshadowed earlier in the album by the lush "Dreaming of the Queen," which claimed "There are no lovers left alive."

"Very" is the only pop album ever made about specifically male homosexual themes. And it's one of the gems of the synth-pop genre along with Depeche Mode's "Violator," Erasure's "The Innocents," and PSB's own "Behavior."

Although I believe 1990's "Behaviour" to be Pet Shop Boys greatest offering to date, "Very" remains my personal favorite to this day.
I was 17 when I bought my first PSB album. I bought two at once. I bought them at Kmart. "Discography" and "Very".
I was taking a gamble. At that time I only knew the songs "West End Girls" and "Suburbia".
But I am so happy I bought them. Particularly with "Very". Aside from Discography or PopArt, this is a great album for people who are curious about the Pet Shop Boys. It's just a great pop album, I love every single track - every one.

I highly recommend to those who are only vaguely familiar with their music, and are considering owning something of theirs. This is the album to test the waters. And you'll love it!

If ever there was an album which rendered every one of its songs a potential hit single, 'Very' takes the cake. Blending both smart-alec and sentimental lyrics with the catchiest pop hooks, the Pet Shop Boys have truly packed a veritable punch against the pop establishment. Almost immediately, anybody who hears this album for the first time, is taken aback by the intensely mood-driven and extraordinary lyrics and subject matter set to simple, albeit boy-bandish hooks and rhythms. Before this album, the Boys had consistently obscured themselves behind a veil of listless apathy and cold, icy indifference. But with 'Very,' Neil and Chris (wisely) decided to expose their vulnerability and inner-most emotions. In fact, 'Very would prove to be a watershed moment for them, leading to more intimate and mature records. The major highlights of this album include the subtle, yet in-your-face mischief of "Can You Forgive Her", a sneaky and taunting tale of a faux-straight closet queen; "Liberation," an idealistic love song set to one of the Boys' sweetest and most melodic soundtracks; the foreboding "Dreaming of the Queen," which is a haunting and eerie testament to AIDS; "To Speak is a Sin," a rather dark and cryptic "back-alley" portrayal of the gay underworld; the brazen and audacious "screw showbusiness" approach to "Yesterday, When I was Mad; and the beat-driven anecdote of juvinility in "Young Offender." Yet the ultimate showstopper to this record is the song for which this album is most remembered: "Go West." Upon first listen, one would think this to be a simple, perhaps perfunctory call for Utopia, first appealed for by the Village People. But upon realization, one discovers that the Pet Shop Boys have turned it on its head into a haunting and bizarrely moving requiem to those who have been taken by AIDS. What makes this song so eerie and yet poignant, is Tennant's weak, thin voice set up against pop grandeur. In fact, Tennant's voice conjures up that of a weak and wounded "soldier," trying to bring hope to compatriots lying dead all around him in a field, yet knowing all along that he and his countrymen have lost the War against AIDS.
All in all, this album showcases the best of what the Boys have accomplished in their career. Even though the Boys have been vastly underappreciated here in the States, they have proven themselves over and over again to the world as both innovators to be wreckoned with, and incredibly talented songwriters.