Sense of Time

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2024
Original album - none
Producer - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - bonus track with the single "Dancing Star"

This song has been announced as one of the bonus tracks with the "Dancing Star" single. The Boys apparently composed it back in 2018 during the sessions for Hotspot. Originally calling it "In the Moment," they've said that it "sounds like Tel Aviv beach music." I'm afraid I don't know what to make of that since I haven't the vaguest idea what "Tel Aviv beach music" sounds like.

The lyrics describe in multiple ways a feeling of profound disorientation of trying to make sense of things that really don't seem to make any sense at all. Though Neil (or his narrative persona) points to a recurring dream he's had as the at least initial source of feeling out of sorts in this way, you get the distinct impression that there's far more to it than just a dream. In fact, the song's bridge spells it out all too plainly:

In these imminent dark ages
If you find it too bizarre
And nothing seems to make sense any more
Just remember who you are

It would seem that Neil is of the opinion—and, if so, he's hardly alone in this belief, what with the likes of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on the world stage—that our world is on the cusp of a very "dark," confusing period. Yet amidst this darkness and chaos, remaining steadfast in your belief in yourself may offer a measure of certainty and stability. In other words, gain meaning from yourself.

Perhaps there's "no sense of time" because the world in which we live today seems to offer an inexplicable mix of the past, present, and future, a strange melding of the progressive, the static, and the regressive. One of the things I find most interesting is the repeated assertion "No sense of time. It all made perfect sense." Things have become so disorienting that disorientation itself has become sensible. In a world where confusion is the rule, then confusion seems perfectly logical.

Annotations

"No perfect tense" – In grammar, perfect tense refers to verb forms that describe actions that are already completed when they are spoken about, such as "I have made the arrangements" (present perfect tense), "I had prepared dinner by then" (past perfect tense), and "I will have done that by this time next year" (future perfect tense). If Neil intends for his grammatical terminology to be taken literally, the recurring phrase "No perfect tense" may therefore indicate that he (or at least his narrative persona) has no sense of completion, as if he feels he can't get anything done. It's possible, however, that Neil is using it in a more figurative way, perhaps to mean that he has no longer has any sense of time being "perfect." When I first heard it, I mistakenly thought he was singing "no present tense," which fits better with the idea of "no sense of time," and I suppose it's remotely possible that's what he actually means. But I wouldn't bet on it.
"In these imminent dark ages" – The designation "Dark Ages" (upper case) has been applied to the Early Middle Ages—roughly from the fifth through tenth centuries A.D./C.E.—since the 1600s. It's used to describe those centuries as a period of intellectual and cultural decline, coming in the wake of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Since then, the term "dark ages" (lower case) has been used from time to time even more metaphorically to refer to other periods that the speaker or writer believes are characterized by similar declines. As noted above, by saying in this song that "dark ages" are "imminent," Neil (or at least his narrative persona) isn't expressing much hope for the immediate future.
The worldwide sense of worry and uncertainty triggered by the COVID pandemic may have contributed to the gnawing feeling of unease that Neil expresses in this song, although that would depend on when he finalized its lyrics: back in 2018 (pre-pandemic) when he and Chris composed the song in its original form, or later on during or after the pandemic lockdown.
Is it my imagination, or does the tempo of the song suddenly, very subtly decrease at one point (at about 2:34), only to pick the pace back up again just few seconds later (at about 2:40)? If that's indeed not just a figment of my imagination, it amounts to a musical pun on the Boys' part, as if the song itself has lost its sense of time.
One of my site visitors has noticed a number of parallels between this song and George Orwell's great dystopian novel 1984. To cite just a few of the many examples he has outlined:
- In the novel there is no "sense of time" since Big Brother has erased all history except what the party wants its people to know about.
- The song's first line deals with thinking about a dream, and in the novel the protgaonist Winston's dreams figure heavily in the narrative.
- The line "I was wondering if you were here somewhere nearby" seems to reflect how when Winston is being interrogated/"treated" he wonders whether his lover Julia is nearby.
- Another line, "I couldn’t remember where I was or if we’d said goodbye," is again paralleled in the novel when Winston and Julia are arrested and they say "We may as well say goodbye." Later, during the "treatment," Winston loses nearly all memory of Julia.

There are others as well, but this should suffice to demonstrate the feasibility of this theory. As far as I know, however, the Boys haven't yet commented on any possible relationship between "Sense of Time" and 1984.

List cross-references

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