Home > Electric >

Fluorescent

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2013
Original album - Electric
Producer - Stuart Price
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - Limited-edition 12-inch vinyl single exclusive to independent U.K. records shops for "Record Store Day" 2014

Beginning life as an instrumental demo by Chris, this was the last song written and recorded for Electric, created by the Boys during April 2013. In fact, as Neil revealed in an interview with Robbie Daw of Idolator, it bears the distinction among PSB tracks of "the quickest turnaround from being written to being on a record." Its late birth even largely accounted for pushing the album's release out a month from its originally scheduled June date.

In the song, Neil (or his lyrical persona) is addressing a specific person:

You've been living in a looking-glass scene
Since you were seventeen
I can't deny you've made your mark

"Fluorescent" (as well as another adjective used in the song, "incandescent") refers to the way in which this person can "light up a room." He or she is a nightlife habitué ("At midnight it's time for business") with beauty and fame who lives life on the edge, gambling with danger and scandal. Neil intones, "Brighter and brighter and brighter you burn," strongly suggesting (though never coming right out and saying) the corollary: that this person will inevitably burn out. The only question then is when—to extend the lyrical metaphor—the fluorescent light will start to flicker. As such, this song serves as commentary on the fleeting nature of that aforementioned beauty and fame: observing it, if only for the sake of documenting it for its eventual passing.

Incidentally, this track includes sampled "pops" and "crackles" from an old vinyl record, a technique that has been used with varying degrees of subtlety on tracks by various artists for well over a decade. In this digital era, such technically needless sounds serve as a trendy sonic conceit—an "audio objective correlative," if you will—invoking both an earlier age of analog recordings and nostalgia for when they were a virtually inevitable by-product of listening to one's favorite music over and over again. Stuart Price's production of the track also plays around with the tunings of its instrumentation, dominated by analog synthesizers, lending it a loose, warped quality that strongly suggests seediness, imperfection, and decay. Then again, considering those "vinyl cracks and pops," the "warping effect" might also simply suggest an old 12-inch vinyl dance record that's been played to death—because it's that good.

Meanwhile, Neil sings in somewhat lower tones than to which we're generally accustomed, his voice even sounding strangely weary and detached. Together, these qualities cast an ominous pall over the proceedings, which serves to heighten the mood of inevitable burnout. One can't help but feel that the person about whom Neil is singing, will not—for all of his or her "brightness," beauty, and fame—come to a good end.

In 2014 the Boys re-recorded "Fluorescent" in a different key, a slightly modified melody, and a very different style with additional lyrics—memorably described by NME as "fantastically bitchy"—that are spoken by Neil aside from his repeatedly sung and bitingly caustic "Are you past your sell-by date?" line. The results, two new versions of the song, were released in April as a special vinyl single exclusive for U.K. "Record Store Day."

Annotations

The Boys have acknowledged the influence of the British new wave/new romantic band Visage on this track. Visage is probably best known for "Fade to Grey," a big 1980 hit single in the U.K. and many other countries, although neither it nor any other Visage single cracked the U.S. pop charts. In fact, there's a pronounced similarity in chord structure and certain stylistic aspects of "Fade to Grey" and "Fluorescent," although the melodies of the two songs are completely different. As a sidenote, Neil and Chris have also talked of going out clubbing with Visage founder and frontman Steve Strange back in the 1980s.
One of my site visitors has told me that he asked the Boys about this song while meeting with them during the "Meet and Greet" session before one of their shows on the North American leg of their Super Tour in 2016. He reports that Neil said that it was inspired by British supermodel Kate Moss. It turns out that Neil has confirmed this fact in print, as I've noted in his succinct statement quoted in my "What it's about" list.
One of my site visitors has observed that some of the language employed in this song carries connotations of prostitution, such as:
- "At midnight, it's time for business"
- "… how well you've played the game" (since "on the game" is British slang for prostitution)

Even the "fluorescent" references may suggest the UV and red fluorescent lights used in the windows of hookers in urban red-light districts, perhaps most notoriously in Belgium and the Netherlands. While the character addressed in the song may not not literally be a prostitute, Neil may be hinting with such language that they're essentially "prostituting themselves" with their behavior.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: Stuart Price
- Album/single mix (6:14)
- Instrumental (6:20)
  - Released on an official promo CD
Mixer: Pet Shop Boys

Indio Mix (7:10)
Cali Mix (7:10)
- Available on a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl single released exclusively in independent U.K. records shops for "Record Store Day" 2014

List cross-references

All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2023 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Nielsen Business Media, Inc.