"I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" (1993)

[listen]

The second song on Very comes with one of the most typically wordy yet laconic and very dry Pet Shop Boys titles ever (though perhaps still no match for my personal favorite, "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk"). It was the third single from the album, released late in 1993, and saw a fair amount of success in the US, where it peaked at #2 on the Dance Club Song chart, finishing #8 for all of 1994. In the Further Listening package Neil Tennant says he came up with the song when he spent a day flying to Scotland and back to look at a painting he owned by James Pryde, which he had loaned to a museum. I would not normally do that kind of thing either, having never done anything like it even once. As Tennant points out, it's basically a list song, running through things the singer would not do because, of course, at the moment he is presumably giddy with love and no longer knows himself for the moment. Well, that's love for you all right. Tennant allows himself a humble-brag about the Rite of Spring line: "I feel like taking all my clothes off / Dancing to The Rite of Spring." It's worth bragging about. That line has always jumped out at me, not least because the Stravinsky is one of my favorite pieces of music, so weird, dark, and thrumming. Perfect for this time of year. The Rite of Spring is probably worth dancing to too—it's a ballet, after all—but I remember more often being regularly flattened by awe of it. By comparison, "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" is practically a ditty. But a lovely little pop thing all the same and a nice setup for what's ahead.