Pet Shop Boys Albums (11)
What The Critics Say
Coming down from the ambitious, politically charged Fundamental, Yes is the sound of the Pet Shop Boys unwinding and returning to their usual fascinations: isolation, fashion, grand arrangements, and witty synth pop anthems. Unfortunately, they're in a slump with their songwriting, and subject-wise, every song here has a companion piece on some earlier album, but that doesn't mean the party is spoiled. The delicate electro opener "Love Etc." is PSB perfection with its memorable hook and faultless construction. Brian Higgins and his Xenomania team (Saint Etienne, Girls Aloud) share songwriting and production duties on the track, and while that later credit continues for the remainder of the album, the hip crew becomes invisible as singer Tennant and synth-man Lowe take over. Employing an Abbey Road orchestra and hiring Johnny Marr for some Hollywood guitar seems a familiar Pet Shop Boys maneuver, and when Neil Tennant tops it off with some sardonic lyrics, "Beautiful People" becomes a pleasingly comfortable gift for any fan thrown by Fundamental's action committee attitude. "Did You See Me Coming" is the exhilarated infatuation of "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Sort of Thing" all over again, while "King of Rome" is the spitting image of the duo's 1987 chestnut "King's Cross." These are good things, especially for the sworn fan, and so are the few quirky new ideas, like the duo trading lines Run-D.M.C. style on "Building a Wall." The grand closer "Legacy" is the obvious songwriting highlight, partly because of the Kurt Weill-like breakdown in the middle, but mostly because of the grim way it comforts the brokenhearted. Neil proposes that glaciers melt and stars burn out so there's a pretty good chance that given time "you'll get over it." It's much better than the "Is that a riot/or are you just glad to see me" line in "Pandemonium" and just the touch Yes needs to put this above the standard PSB album. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With a generally deadpan singer and another guy behind a bank of synthesizers, the Pet Shop Boys just aren't built for live albums, even if the songs are exquisite, there's an orchestra behind them, and some very special guests appear. While the duo can deliver in a live setting, the experience relies heavily on the visual, check the Performance or Somewhere concert videos for proof. Still, for fans, Concrete must exist since it captures the duo's May 2006 appearance at London's Mermaid Theater, an invite-only affair with the BBC Concert Orchestra as backing band. The song selection doesn't read like a greatest-hits compilation because save "It's a Sin" and "West End Girls," everything here was originally recorded with various sized orchestras. Singer Neil Tennant is obviously proud of the high-profile arrangers the duo has worked with in the past and pays respect to them between the music with special mentions for Craig Armstrong, Angelo Badalamenti, and Anne Dudley whose former partner in Art of Noise, Trevor Horn, is musical director here. These little interruptions make the album like a PSB episode of Storytellers as Tennant brings up some points of interest, like how the fascinating Badalamenti arrangement of "Rent" played here is from the Liza Minnelli album that the Boys curated, Results. Other bits from the fringe of the catalog include selections from the duo's The Battleship Potemkin soundtrack and their musical Closer to Heaven, but more interesting is hearing guests Rufus Wainwright and Robbie Williams pull the bittersweet out of "Casanova in Hell" and "Jealousy," respectively. As a one-off show with a "pick-up" band, it isn't surprising that some tracks are executed brilliantly ("The Sodom and Gomorrah Show," "Dreaming of the Queen") while others stumble and fall ("Numb," "It's a Sin") but there's often a good dialog going between the duo and orchestra, and only "It's Alright" sounds exactly like the studio version. While that's probably not enough to keep everyone occupied, fans and fetishists will embrace this curio. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Working together for the first time since the 1988 single "Left to My Own Devices," the Pet Shop Boys and producer Trevor Horn partner together for Fundamental, an extremely well-crafted effort that is more of its time message-wise than any previous PSB album. Fundamental is heavily influenced by Tony Blair's allegiance to George W. Bush and his dragging of the U.K. into the Iraq War, which has left previously Labour Party-loving vocalist Neil Tennant bitter and disillusioned. Fully aware that the Pet Shop Boys would sound ridiculous if angry and punkish, Tennant and partner Chris Lowe show restraint, putting their venom on simmer on the most riveting songs and searching for a reason not to stick their head in the sand elsewhere. Surprisingly, the usually extravagant Horn follows suit, and while he gives the album a very modern, slick sheen, the production is well designed instead of gloriously decorated. Beautifully polished by Horn, "Luna Park" lazily strolls through a holiday where fortunetellers and fire breathers divert attention from the slowly developing storm. Giving up hope entirely is "Numb," an insular ballad that songwriter Diane Warren originally gave to the duo for the hits collection PopArt that's much more at home here. Better still is infectious and uptempo "I'm with Stupid," which casts Blair and Bush as irresponsible lovers who grin and pose while having their way with the world. It's not the only instantly gripping track -- the paranoid "Integral" speaks out for personal freedom with a wicked hook while the New Order-esque "Minimal" ranks with their best club cuts -- but the majority of Fundamental is like the majority of their great album Behavior in that repeat listens are required to do these rich songs justice. For Pet Shop Boys fans who lean to the left and are skeptical about the future, this is as close to heaven as they want to be. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Pet Shop Boys have never made a bad album, but with Nightlife, they started to seem a little worn out, as if they had explored their sound as far as it would go. But Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are among the smartest, pop-savvy groups to ever record, so they not only realized they were stagnating, they knew what to do about it, bringing Tennant's Electronic partner and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr for several songs, and moving the group toward careful, considered, mature pop for their eighth album, Release (another pun-worth title, worthy of Please). For most artists, the adjective "mature" would seem an epithet, but here it's an accurate description for this elegant, eloquent, knowing music -- it's maturation achieved through experience and worldliness, not an exorbitant bank account. On that level, this is about the most mature pop album released this decade, exhibiting a refined sense of craft and a keen sense of purpose, marrying the particular sentiment of a song with the right production. It's hard to call Release an album of its time, since it hardly falls prey to trends, but it's aware of its time -- an album that's proudly out of step with the particulars of hipness, but knows what they constitute, knows what they feel like, knows what modernism means for somebody who's lived their life with the burden of being hip, whose always felt a compulsion to stay on top of things -- and feeling that desire fade as you get older. So, that means that while Release occasionally sings of the new -- synth lines, vocoders, beats, a song designed to respond to Eminem's homophobia (the exquisite "The Night I Fell in Love") -- it's from the vantage of people who have lived through all of this before, and know particulars will pass while the song remains the same. The great thing is, even if this sentiment has been present in previous Pet Shop Boys albums, they have brought the dance-club to the background (partially due to Marr's presence) and have brought the songs to the forefront, resulting in a record that feels like the Pet Shop Boys, even when it doesn't sound like them. And that's a good thing, since it retains their greatest attributes while giving them a new spin, and it makes for the best Pet Shop Boys album in nearly ten years. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Nightlife is a loose concept album -- more of a song cycle, really -- about nightlife (naturally), a collection of moods and themes, from love to loneliness. In that sense, it's not that different from most Pet Shop Boys albums, and, musically, the album is very much of a piece with Very and Bilingual, which is to say that it relies more on craft than on innovation. Depending on your point of view, this may not be such a bad thing, since Pet Shop Boys specialize in subtle craft and masterful understatement. Such skills serve them well when they're essentially following familiar musical territory, which they are on Nightlife. At its core, the record is very much like Very -- a clever, skillful updating of classic disco, highlighted by small contemporary dance flourishes, and infused with a true sense of wit, sophistication, and intelligence. Pet Shop Boys do this music better than anyone else ever has, and they're at the top of their form here, but it's hard to shake the initial impression that they've done this before. Each individual song works beautifully, from the wistfully dejected "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More" to the exhilarating Village People homage "New York City Boy," but as a whole, Nightlife seems less than the sum of its parts. Repeated listens reveal the songs' charms, yet Nightlife coasts on its craft a bit too much, which makes it feel like one of their second-tier albums. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
As a title, Bilingual is a double-edged sword. Disregard its sexual connotations and concentrate on its musical implications -- Bilingual is a rich, diverse album that delves deeply into Latin rhythms. It's not a crass, simplistic fusion, where the polyphonic rhythms are simply grafted over synthesizers and a disco pulse. Instead, Bilingual is an enormously subtle album, with shifting rhythms and graceful, understated melodies. The music isn't the only thing subtle about the album -- Neil Tennant's voice and lyrics are nuanced, suggesting more than they actually say. Furthermore, Bilingual consists of the most optimistic, happy set of songs the Pet Shop Boys have ever recorded. Whether it's the smooth disco of "Before" or the insistent rhythms of "Se a Vida E," Bilingual is filled with joyous, if subdued, sounds. If anything, it's further proof that even if the Pet Shop Boys aren't gracing the top of the charts as frequently as they did during the late '80s, they are crafting albums that are more adventurous and successful than they did when they were one of the top singles acts in pop music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Because they work in a field that isn't usually taken seriously, the Pet Shop Boys are often ignored in the rock world. But make no mistake -- they are one of the most talented pop outfits working today, witty and melodic with a fine sense of flair. Very is one of their very best records, expertly weaving between the tongue-in-cheek humor of "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing," the quietly shocking "Can You Forgive Her?," and the bizarrely moving cover of the Village People's "Go West." Alternately happy and melancholy, Very is the Pet Shop Boys at their finest. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Behavior was a retreat from the deep dance textures of Introspective, as it picked up on the carefully constructed pop of Actually. In fact, Behavior functions as the Pet Shop Boys' bid for mainstream credibility, as much of the album relies more on popcraft than rhythmic variations. Although its a subtle maneuver, it would have been rather disastrous if the results weren't so captivating. Tennant takes this approach seriously, singing the lyrics instead of speaking them. That doesn't necessarily give the album added emotional baggage -- all of the distance and detachment in the duo's music is not a hindrance, it's part of the concept -- but it does result in an ambitious and breathtaking pop album, which manages to include everything from the spiteful "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" to the wistful "Being Boring." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With their second album, Actually, the Pet Shop Boys perfected their melodic, detached dance-pop. Where most of Please was dominated by the beats, the rhythms on Actually are part of a series of intricate arrangements that create a glamorous but disposable backdrop for Neil Tennant's tales of isolation, boredom, money, and loneliness. Not only are the arrangements more accomplished, but the songs themselves are more striking, incorporating a strong sense of melody, as evidenced by "What Have I Done to Deserve This?," a duet with Dusty Springfield. Tennant's lyrics are clever and direct, chronicling the lives and times of urban, lonely, and bored yuppies of the late '80s. And the fact that dance-pop is considered a disposable medium by most mainstream critics and listeners only increases the reserved emotional undercurrent of Actually, as well as its irony. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
