Pet Shop Boys – Somewhere (Radio Version)

This track could have opened "Bilingual" and build a bridge between it and "Very". Unfortunately, it was released as a single a year or so after the album, in a relative indifference from the public. How sad. The production on this is a masterpiece. The orchestra gives that cinematic, imposing touch. The beat adds the action, the anticipation. Some samples taken from the movie "Menace II Society" adds the urban touch of "Westside Story" (as Neil Tennant states). The song is transformed into a grab bag of meanings and references, which is one of the many reasons why I like it. "The View From Your Balcony" is a very good B-Side, calmer, with typical PSB synth strings and arrangements. Although the Ralphi Rosario remix of "To Step Aside" is structured around the bassline of "You Used To Hold Me" (which he re-used a lot over the years), he still succeeds in surprising me, looping a sample of the word "Side" to apply it to both words "Decide" and "Aside". Not bad. Forget about the remixes of "Somewhere" thought. None of them recaptures the essence of the original in my point of view. Catch the extended mix instead (available on the Japanese EP of "Somewhere", "Biligual Special Edition" or on the "Further Listening 1995-1997" CD).