How do they manage it? Few acts have thrived doing exactly the same electroclash thing over two decades and nine studio albums, but the Pet Shop Boys seem totally exempt from the gravitation laws that govern chart success.
But good will out. Somehow, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, never anybody’s idea of hip young things, have elegantly survived a cutthroat industry to become the most successful pop duo of all time. By now, you know the drill. Fundamental, though lacking the instantaneous hi-energy clout of yesteryear, perfectly showcases the cool irony and dramatic euro-plonk that have defined the Boys’ corner since their eighties heyday.
The brilliantly theatrical ‘I Made My Excuses And Left’ – perhaps their neatest title since 1999’s ‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk’ – opens with a two-minute mood music mute play before Tennant walks in on a lover up to no good and reacts with characteristic reserve (“Each of you looked up but no one said a word/I felt I should apologise”).
Elsewhere, he’s rather less understated. ‘I’m With Stupid’ tackles the Blair/Bush alliance with withering aplomb, ‘The Sodom And Gomorrah Show’ is a fun Abba-esque helter-skelter into depravity and the plaintive melodrama of ‘Casanova In Hell’ plays like a tearful late Douglas Sirk-Rock Hudson collaboration – “Her sharp suggestion/He couldn’t get an erection/His ageing fate, to contemplate/Cassanova in hell”.
Is that a boiled sweet in your mouth, Mr. Tennant, or are you just glad to see us? We’re glad to see you, at any rate.