Pet Shop Boys - Violence (Album version)

Violence, like I Want A Dog and Can You Forgive Her has the honor of featuring on an album in one version and also being reworked into a different song to serve as a B-side. Violence originally was featured on debut album Please, and would resurface for one of the B-sides for I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing. It was the last song written for their debut album actually. This song means a lot to me, as it actually deals with a subject that is very close to my heart, on a literal level actually. Lyrically, this track was inspired (at least partially) by the conflict that has plagued my home country, Northern Ireland for decades. I've never read much with regards to Pet Shop Boys views on the subject of Northern Ireland - they've only ever played here once as part of the Performance Tour. Whether that is supposed to reflect their views on Northern Ireland or not I really have no clue. I'd certainly be interested in hearing their views about here really. Having said that, if you listen to the song's lyrics they have a slight ambiguity about them. They do state the downsides to violence but they don't relate it to a specific event (nor do they reference Northern Ireland at all in the lyrics). The line "violence breeds violence" is so succinct yet so true I think, one of my favourite Pet Shop Boys lyrics I would say. As mentioned before, Violence exists in two versions: the ordinary album version and the version they performed live in the Hacienda (which they liked so much they recorded a studio version of it and released it as a b-side). Anyhow, honestly I'm not the biggest fan of the album version. For me its the most dated track on Please and I prefer how Neil's vocals sound in the second version. I quite like the synth effects on Violence but for me I've always felt that it doesn't bring out the somber lyrics to the best effect. It's a decent enough song but it lacks the wow factor the Hacienda version has for me at least. It sounds like a standardized piece of 80's synth pop really (if that doesn't sound too cruel). By no means a bad song but this isn't one of my favourite Pet Shop Boys songs - its not even close to my favourite track from Please.