Pet Shop Boys, Hotspot - album review
The staying power of Pet Shop Boys is incredible.
Released on x2 Records/Kobalt, the latest offering - Hotspot - is their 14th full-length studio album, and if you chuck in live records, compilations, remixes, EPs and soundtracks its the 34th release to carry their name. And there's the singles too.
It's pure Pet Shop Boys for half of it, with the other tracks dicing more with modern pop then you are perhaps used to hearing Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe do.
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The opening salvo Will-o-the-wisp is one of those prime PSB numbers. Big beats and synths that comfortably straddle retro and modern, Tennant's unmistakeable vocal style, and a grandiose melody that screams suave and sophistication.
They create atmospheres of respectability that few in their electronic field, or any other for that matter, manage to concoct. They are one of the elder statesmen of the whole synth pop movement and when you hear high quality tracks like Will-o-the-wisp you immediately look up to them in the way tennis fans still adore Roger Federer.
Happy People carries this on, but with a dashing of 90s dance mania thrown into those sunshine choruses that break up the faster-paced and serious versus. It sounds a bit like a dance remake of R.E.M.'s Shiny Happy People with its lyrical content, but the big instrumental and vocal interlude just past half-way is more energetic than even the guitar-lite hit for the Americans could be.
There's the exceptional dancehall tune Monkey Business too with its deep bass and jiving synths holding court - complete with robotic backing vocals.
These guys still write songs of quality, but this isn't quite up there with other recent records such as 2013's brilliant Electric. It's in fact when they 'modernise' that things fall a bit flat.
Dreamland, a collaboration with Years & Years, has a big, almost orchestral chorus, but it takes a little while to build to it. And your views on Years & Years' vocal style might shape your opinion of this song.
There are plenty of airy, drifting tracks too, like Hoping For A Miracle and Only The Dark, which meander and ponder a little too much. The slower speeds affect their ability to hit home.
It's still great to have these guys producing new music. And they continue to be one of the greatest acts these Isles have produced. But this isn't their finest.
Rating: 6/10
Pet Shop Boys will perform at Birmingham's Resorts World Arena on May 30
