Very (1993)

Very is the fifth studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 27 September 1993 by Parlophone, nearly three years after the duo's previous studio album, Behaviour, and following the compilation album Discography: The Complete Singles Collection. It is the only Pet Shop Boys album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart, and it produced two top ten singles, "Can You Forgive Her?" and "Go West". Very exhibits one of many turning points the Pet Shop Boys would make to their music, shifting from the subdued electronic pop of Behaviour to richly instrumented dance arrangements. The content and lyrics led to Very being called their "coming-out" album, since it was during this time that Neil Tennant had publicly discussed his long-rumoured homosexuality.

Background and release

Pet Shop Boys made Very in reaction to their previous album Behaviour, which was critically well-received but not as commercially successful as their earlier releases. In particular, "Being Boring", which the duo had considered one of their strongest tracks, was their least successful single at the time, peaking at number 20 on the UK charts. In the United States, their 1991 Performance Tour initially received mixed reviews and did not improve the ranking of Behaviour, which only reached 45 on the US Billboard 200. Journalist and close friend of the duo Chris Heath documented the American leg of the tour in his book Pet Shop Boys Versus America, noting Chris Lowe's comment, "We should write another good dance album, write Behaviour off as a tax loss".

After taking a break in 1992, Pet Shop Boys set out to make an uplifting, dance-pop album in contrast to the style of Behaviour. They worked on songs at Lowe's home studio and finished them at Sarm West. Pet Shop Boys produced Very themselves, with mixing and additional production by Stephen Hague. The title was meant to convey that the album was 'very Pet Shop Boys', but a different Pet Shop Boys. EMI representative Tony Wadsworth recalled in the 2006 documentary Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop that when the record label first heard the songs on Very, "the smiles lit up the room because it was so obviously commercial yet still very high quality".

To promote Very, the duo shed their naturalistic image and adopted a new look, creating an artificial, cartoonish world with visuals designed by David Fielding. This idea was a reaction against the grunge movement of the time, and it incorporated the growing popularity of video games. They wore surreal costumes, like the orange jumpsuits with tall dunce caps for "Can You Forgive Her?", and their music videos, directed by Howard Greenhalgh, made use of the CGI available at the time.

To date, Very is the Pet Shop Boys' most commercially successful album in the UK; it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart shortly after its release. In addition, all singles released from the album entered the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart, including "Go West", which remains one of the duo's highest-charting singles. In the United States, Very debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 album chart, an improvement on Behaviour. The singles failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 but performed better on the dance charts. This was seen partly as a result of the rise of grunge and alternative rock on American radio.

Very Relentless

A limited-edition double album, Very Relentless, was released simultaneously. The bonus disc, Relentless, contains six tracks that are more experimental and instrumental. There were plans to expand upon Relentless in 1994 by releasing the six tracks along with others, making a full dance album, but this evolved into Disco 2. The six tracks were not released elsewhere until Relentless was remastered and reissued as a standalone EP in 2023, although the original version of "Forever in Love" can be found on Very: Further Listening 1992–1994. "Forever in Love" uses the same sample as "One Love" by The Prodigy, "Arabic Chant (Allah)" from the Zero-G sample library compilation Datafile One.

Other releases

Very was re-released on 3 July 2001 as Very: Further Listening 1992–1994. The reissue was digitally remastered and includes a second disc featuring B-sides and previously unreleased material. A remastered single-disc edition of Very, containing only the 12 original tracks, was released in 2009. In 2018, a newly remastered edition of Very: Further Listening 1992–1994 was released, with the same contents as the 2001 edition.

Packaging

The original release of Very was packaged in a unique orange jewel case with raised bumps (sometimes unofficially described as the Lego case), designed by Daniel Weil of Pentagram in London. Very Relentless was similarly unique, with the two CDs in card sleeves (Very in orange and Relentless in pink) with both of these housed in a translucent rubber case with raised bumps.

The case for Very was featured in the 1995 Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition "Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design".