Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have been making music as the Pet Shop Boys for over 40 years. In the 1980s, they successfully captured the tense melancholy of the AIDS-influenced Thatcher years in the UK that saw the passing of the odious anti-gay law Section 28. Tennant\u2019s lonely, plaintive voice floated through Lowe’s musical settings, and the duo was the best chronicler of queer life in 1980s Britain. <\/p>\n
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In the 1990s, the Boys rode Cool Britannica with a series of albums that built on the success of their \u201980s triumphs as their career survived and enjoyed longevity that a lot of their New Wave peers didn\u2019t. By the 2000s, the Pet Shop Boys were legends and dance music icons. Though there was whispering that their best work was behind them, they are still revered. <\/p>\n
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Their new album Nonetheless<\/em>, four years after their last studio album, Hotspot, <\/em>is their 15th release. After a smattering of single releases and EPs, the Pet Shop Boys have returned with an LP in an era in which the LP may be obsolete. Though their albums are fantastic, the Pet Shop Boys are primarily a singles band (except for the brilliant 1987 album Actually<\/em>), which is why their compilations are so successful. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Upon listening to Nonetheless<\/em>, one thing is clear: Tennant and Lowe are very comfortable and familiar with their sound. Perhaps too comfortable and familiar. The sound on Nonetheless<\/em> is impeccable\u2026 but it sounds like much of their past work. The mid-tempo beats, the luxurious synths, the hooky refrains, the ethereal background vocalists, it\u2019s all there, and it sounds great, but could be more innovative. One could argue that a band as consistent as the Pet Shop Boys have earned their right to make the kind of music they want. And given that they’ve enjoyed success for over four decades, they may be right to trust their instincts. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s just that it would be interesting to see what the duo could do if they sought a career reset of sorts. I\u2019m not suggesting they abandon dance-pop, but try a different approach, perhaps. One peer who enjoyed a career as long and varied as they did, Madonna, did this in the late 1990s by reaching out to William Orbit to dust her pop with some fancy electronic flourishes. Her Ray Of Light<\/em> album is a classic.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Working with James Ford, the Pet Shop Boys immaculately recreated the sound that made them famous and popular. It’s the first collaboration for the Boys and Ford and he’s able to capture the signature PSB sound to a tee. There are tunes throughout the album that sound like spiritual sequels to previous hits. “Why Am I Dancing?” sounds like vintage \u201980s-era PSB, with its ghostly horn and ingratiating beat. And the barbed “New London Boy” recalls the lite-rap of “West End Girls.” <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The strongest song on Nonetheless<\/em> is buried near the end. “Bullet For Narcissus” is a great melding of PSB’s synth-pop with some airy house-pop. The strutting pace of the song\u2019s beat is fantastic, and the swoony synths that have become a PSB trademark work well, draped on the percussion. Given the increasing mainstreaming of ball culture (due to RuPaul’s Drag Race<\/em>), it\u2019d be interesting if Tennant and Lowe looked to house legends for future collaborations\u2014there’s a natural link between the two: like house, the Pet Shop Boys came of age during a particularly difficult and dire time in queer history, responding to that trauma with dance music. Nonetheless<\/em> is good. But good just isn\u2019t good enough for innovative musical pioneers like Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":35041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7832],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46919","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pet-shop-boys","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46919"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}