After the release and promotion of their previous album, Bilingual, Pet Shop Boys started work with playwright Jonathan Harvey on the stage musical that eventually became Closer to Heaven (at one stage during the writing process, the musical was given the name of 'Nightlife'). the band soon had an album's worth of tracks and decided to release Nightlife as a concept album and in order to showcase some of the songs that would eventually make it into the musical.
The album incorporates a variety of musical influences, including hard trance on the Rollo-produced 'For Your Own Good' and 'Radiophonic'; dance-pop on 'Closer to Heaven' and 'I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More"; disco pastiche on 'New York City Boy'; and country music on 'You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk'.
The track 'Happiness Is an Option' is based on Sergei Rachmaninoff's classical piece Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14.
Personnel[]
Craig Armstrong produced most of the tracks on the album with the band. Rollo Armstrong from Faithless, produced 'For Your Own Good', 'Radiophonic' and 'Boy Strange'. David Morales added his signature style to two of the single tracks, 'I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More' and 'New York City Boy'.
British vocalist Kylie Minogue co-vocalized 'In Denial' with Neil. This may have had some impact on her career which was in a slump at the time. She signed with Parlophone a year after her work on this track.
Track Listing[]
5:13
For Your Own Good
4:06
Closer To Heaven
5:09
I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any MoreSingle Release
3:48
Happiness Is An Option
3:11
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're DrunkSingle Release
4:43
Vampires
3:31
Radiophonic
4:21
The Only One
5:09
Boy Strange
3:20
In Denial
5:15
New York City Boy
4:16
Footsteps
Releases and Versions[]
Nightlife was released worldwide on CD and cassette. No vinyl copies were a part of the initial release.
Design and Packaging[]
For the promotion of the album, the band adopted a stark new appearance, designed in consultation with theatre designer Ian McNeil. Now, the duo ubiquitously appeared wearing thick, dark eyebrows, inspired by Kabuki theatre; yellow or orange wigs in a variety of hairstyles, inspired by the punk subculture (especially several spiked wigs); and black sunglasses. This was supported by a series of outfits in dark, muted colours, the most deviant of which incorporated culottes, inspired by the attire of samurai, instead of trousers. Photographs involving the costumes, taken by Alexei Hay, were often set in urban environments; the Midland Grand Hotel in Kings Cross, London was used as the setting to debut the look. The costumes were used for promotional photographs, the album cover and liner notes, all the single covers, as well as the Nightlife Tour.
Some limited editions of the album were housed in a clear plastic slipcase instead of a jewel case. The CDs were housed in a gatefolded cardboard sleeve configuration.
A limited edition two-CD set of Nightlife was released in the United States. The bonus disc, titled Nightlife Extra, contained all the B-sides from the UK releases of the 'I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More' and 'New York City Boy' singles, as well as remixes of these singles, some of which were only available in the US on promotional releases.
