so hard

Classic Pet Shop Boys: angelic vocals from Neil Tennant, and strong but not too strong hints of depravity in the lyrics:

I’m always hoping you’ll be faithful

But you’re not, I suppose

We’ve both given up smoking ’cause it’s fatal

So whose matches are those?

“Fatal” is very fine: it gives hints of drug overdoses and AIDS, of the wages of sin. A modern song would most likely eschew even the hint, and go into sordid, tedious detail. I also like the “I suppose” – a little overly polite, as if in discomfort.

a song I suddenly like

The Tallest Man on Earth, ‘Hotel Bar’, another in a line of rock songs about hotels. I vaguely liked the tune but only after playing it for weeks did this line take me:

if it’s true we’re all just one

who do we turn to when the day is done

I think it’s a mistake to treat music lyrics like poetry, but all the same I think this is very fine. It captures a similar melancholy to Big Star’s seedy Motel Blues.