Think of a Number
by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Writer - Noel Gallagher
First released - 2023
Original album - Council Skies (Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds) - Deluxe Edition
Producers - Noel Gallagher, Paul Stacey
Other releases - none
Following his acrimonius exit in August 2009 from his phenomenonally successful band Oasis—as he put it at the time, "I simply could not go on working with Liam [his brother] a day longer"—Noel Gallagher formed a new band dubbed Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Their first three albums (released in 2011, 2015, and 2017) all hit #1 in the U.K. and proved quite popular in much of the rest of Europe, while achieving only middling success in the States. A greatest hits album appeared in 2021 and followed its predecessors into the U.K. #1 spot.
Their fourth studio album, Council Skies, was released in June 2023. In addition to its standard edition, it also has a Deluxe Edition with a bonus disc (available in both CD and vinyl) that includes a remix by the Pet Shop Boys of "Think of a Number," one of the tracks on the "album proper." Titled the "Pet Shop Boys Magic Eye 12" Remix," it exchanges the more conventional and somewhat raucous rock of the original for a slick, streamlined technopop setting while, perhaps unexpectedly, retaining the same basic tempo and rhythmic scheme. Some new background vocals also seem to have been added. Based on the common pattern for PSB remixes, we would expect them to be sung by Neil. But they really don't sound very much like him, at least to these ears.
Mixes/Versions
Officially released
Pet Shop Boys mixes only:
- Mixer: Pet Shop Boys
- Pet Shop Boys Magic Eye 12-inch Remix (5:12)
Official but unreleased
Pet Shop Boys mixes only:
- Mixer: Pet Shop Boys
- Pet Shop Boys Magic Eye 7-inch Remix (length unknown at this time)
- Pet Shop Boys Timeless Classic 12-inch Remix (length unknown at this time)
- Pet Shop Boys Timeless Classic 7-inch Remix (length unknown at this time)
List cross-references
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