Pet
Shop Boys – Super (x2 Records)
LP
/ CD / DL
Out
now
8
/ 10
Legendary
synth pop duo releases their thirteenth album.
One
of the few 80s acts that have continually released material since their debut,
Pet Shop Boys return with the follow-up to 2013s Electric, their highest charting
album for 20 years. Much has been made
of the new album, and in many ways rightly so.
It sees Messrs Tennant and Lowe almost at the top of their game.
‘Almost’
because they aren’t the best lyricists in the World, in fact some words on
Super are positively cringe worthy. Lead
single The Pop Kids is average at best and a strange choice maybe for the
re-launch of the duo. That said, it
contains many of the bands trademarks that have made their songs
unmistakable. Away from the poor chorus,
Tennant gives his almost spoken voice the perfect accompaniment to the
instantly recognisable Pet Shop Boys sound.
Album
opener, Happiness is a curious thing – an electro beat housing a Country chorus
with no verses. It’s catchy and comical
in a slightly annoying way. Third track
in is Twenty-Something which has a drum sounding like a stock beat from a cheap
Casio keyboard giving non synth fans the perfect fodder to diss the genre.
But,
all is not lost. With three opening
tracks that can be pulled apart and dissected comes the Pet Shop Boys charm
that cannot be ignored. There is
something about them that every pop connoisseur loves, and on Super they manage
to re-create that classic 80s sound but somehow with a modern twist. They are, without doubt masters of perfect
pop.
Groovy
has an intro not dissimilar to Erasure’s Love To Hate You, another 80s formed
duo recently resurged and now releasing some of the best material of their
careers, and Pet Shop Boys can be proud. Proud because although they have their
doubters, they have continued to release pop of the highest order. Groovy, with its pseudo live feel is one
such track which may have been a preferred choice as lead single.
And
so, Super continues. The Dictator
Decides begins with hints of Depeche Mode’s I Feel You and sees a low-key tune
work perfectly, and Pazzo!, a near instrumental, sounds at times like that hit
by someone else that goes “bump, bump, boom, boom, bump”, you know the one
don’t you? Even if you don’t it marks an
upbeat centre to the twelve track album.
Classic
Pet Shop Boys arrives in the shape of Undertow.
Pop beats which are simple but catchier than the Nora Virus, and a
chorus which will not be shaken free. The
art of building a model pop song is alive and well with even the opportunity to
add sounds of thunder harking back to the monumental It’s A Sin. On the same subject Burn is full of more lows
and highs than you can shake a low/high stick at and must surely become a
single. Textbook pop.
Is
Super a classic? Probably not, but at
the worst it lives up to its title. It showcases
a duo, that have experimented but seem more at ease and comfortable with
writing good old fashioned ditty’s that are loved by the pop fraternity and
that make them a British institution.
Super is a perfect introduction to the latecomer and contains tracks
with the inimitable Pet Shop Boys stamp.
They are back, but have never really been away and we await the ‘Super
Duper’ remix album with open arms.
Links
x2 Records (Kobalt Music)
Pet Shop Boys website
Pet Shop Boys on Twitter
Pet Shop Boys on Facebook
Erasure on hipaop Blog
Depeche Mode on hiapop Blog
Published on Louder Than War 23/04/16 - here
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