Three Times In The Night

No, not a reference to the number of nocturnal bathroom visits now that I am of a certain age, but a nod to Beck's new single In The Night.

This is Beck in reflective, heart-aching mood once more, acoustic guitar and emotive strings underpinning his soft yet deep voice. It's a brief song, clocking in at just under three minutes, but enough to get under your skin and seep into your subconsciousness.

Stick with the video, it's forty seconds in before the first musical note strikes, but casting Denis Lavant was a masterstroke, minimalist performance, maximum emotional impact.

There are two other songs in my music collection titled In The Night that I've plucked for posting, the first by Bauhaus, from their 1982 album The Sky's Gone Out and a bit of overlooked gem. 

The song wasn't a single and therefore wasn't furnished with a video back in the day. However, someone has cleverly cut scenes from 1927 Gothic short Prelude to the music, to great effect.

Last but certainly not least, In The Night by Pet Shop Boys, which you'd be forgiven for thinking was a single, but wasn't. In fact, for me and many other teen fashionistas in the late 80s, it was instantly familiar as the theme tune to The Clothes Show on BBC1.

After such a dramatic intro, presenters Jeff Banks and Caryn Franklin couldn't hope to be as cool as Neil and Chris. The Arthur Baker remix appeared in it's entirety on the Pet Shop Boys' first Disco album in 1986.

I had no idea that there was a video for this song!