I Don't Wanna
Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2020
Original album - Hotspot
Producer - Stuart Price
Subsequent albums - Smash
Other releases - single
Beginning life as an instrumental composed by Chris, this song—the fourth and final single from Hotspot—has been described by Neil as being about someone who doesn't want to go out partying, but nevertheless finally decides to do so anyway. He notes that he was consciously trying to mimic Madonna's singing style when he recorded the vocal, which largely explains his use of the slang "wanna" rather than the more standard "want to."
It's a remarkably straightforward song by PSB standards. The most interesting part, at least from a lyrical perspective, comes in the final stanza, when the song's protagonist, a "lonely boy" with "his head in the clouds," who has always preferred staying at home to going out on the town, is lifted from his solitude by a song:
In a song he hears that rhythm's a dancer
And it won't take no for an answer
"Suddenly," Neil sings, he decides "reluctantly" to go out in search of "some company." And off he goes. One can't help but feel that music has just set his life on a new, more gratifying course.
On a very personal note, I identify strongly, at least in retrospect, with this song's central character. Back in my high school years, I, too, was a "lonely boy" who would sit alone in my room listening to music, feeling shy, isolated, and misunderstood. Although during the school year I was usually out on Friday nights involved in school sports programs, I would always "stay in" Saturday nights. And when school wasn't in session, I'd stay in Friday nights as well. Music was, more often than not, my only companion, and I would spend hours listening to my stereo. But, unlike this song's protagonist, it wasn't a song that got me out of my room. In fact, in some ways music helped keep me there, at least making my isolation more tolerable. Rather, it was finally leaving home and heading off to college that began my process of removing the walls I had built around myself. Nevertheless, I do see quite a bit of my teenage self in "I Don't Wanna."
Annotations
- "In a song he hears that rhythm's a dancer" – An allusion to the big 1992 dance hit "Rhythm Is a Dancer" by the German group Snap!
- Rather unusually, the lyrics of this song repeatedly shift in perspective, alternating among the first, second, and third persons. "There was a long debate," Neil said in Annually 2020—though he doesn't say whether the debate was between him and Chris or only with himself—"about the person it's being sung in, and in fact it's sung in three different persons. The chorus is sung from the perspective of the boy…. Then the [omniscient third-person] narrator takes over.… But then the second verse is in the second person.… And then you return to the third person, and then again to the first person in the chorus."
- Fate has cast an ironic light on this song. It was released as a single in late April 2020, at the very time that nations around the world were starting to implement "lockdowns" and other sanctions in response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. Surely the Boys had already planned to release "I Don't Wanna" as a single before anyone knew just how bad COVID-19 would be and how drastically it would affect society. Its storyline, however, of a young man who prefers to stay in and not interact with others would prove strangely prescient.
Mixes/versions
Officially released- Mixer: Stuart Price
- Album version (4:02)
- Instrumental (4:02)
- Radio edit (3:20)
- Mixer: Mano Le Tough
- Mano Le Tough Remix (7:25)
- Mixer: David Jackson
- David Jackson Remix One (6:19)
- David Jackson Remix Two (6:03)
List cross-references
- Pop songs mentioned by title in the lyrics of PSB songs
- How PSB singles differ (if at all) from the album versions
- PSB songs for which the Boys have acknowledged the influence of specific tracks by other pop artists
- What it's about: Neil's succinct statements on what a song is "about"
- Early titles for Pet Shop Boys songs
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