So Hard

"So Hard" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released in September 1990 as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Behaviour (1990). The song is about "two people living together; they are totally unfaithful to each other but they both pretend they are faithful and then catch each other out". It peaked at 4 in the United Kingdom and reached the top three in at least seven European countries, including Finland, where it reached No. 1. Background "The original was harping back to Giorgio Moroder with loads of all these retro instruments", recalled Chris Lowe. "Then David Morales took the chord progression from the middle section and made this classic pumping house track. It's quite funny, because we did this gig in Los Angeles and Frankie Knuckles played this track at the party afterwards. Neil came over and said, 'Why don't we make records like this?' I said, 'Neil, it is us.' So that's how much we know about dance music!" Critical reception Larry Flick from Billboard felt that "So Hard" "maintains the fun and frothy disco melodrama of past efforts, while striking enough of a modern pop stance to encourage alternative and top 40 radio airplay." James Muretich from Calgary Herald said the song, "about a couple faithfully unfaithful to each other", "reflect a detached sadness set against a dreamy synthesizer background that barely sashays across the dancefloor." Liverpool Echo stated, "It might be called "So Hard" but the Pet Shop Boys make it all sound so easy. That's probably why people think they're too clever for their own good. But they do make excellent pop records.