Album Review: Pet Shop Boys, Nonetheless

Though they occupy vastly different ends of the musical spectrum, in recent times, I have come to believe that the Pet Shop Boys and Manic Street Preachers are the perfect case studies in how to maintain long and satisfying careers in music.

As well as being responsible for my three all-time favourite songs – the PSB masterpieces ‘West End Girls’ and ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’ joining the Manics’ ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’ on my own personal podium – the two acts continually thrill in their quest for fresh artistic terrain.

Much like Bowie, one of their overlapping influences, both acts also boast huge cult followings decades into their careers, which is some fucking achievement. Similarly to the 14 PSB albums that preceded it, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s latest offering, Nonetheless, is pure pop pleasure from start to finish.

Described by Tennant as the group’s “queer album”, the record finds the singer – one of pop’s greatest-ever lyricists – reflecting on his experiences in the early ’70s, when he arrived in London as a young gay man. Additional resonance comes from the fact that PSB’s ’80s mega-hit ‘It’s A Sin’ provided the title for Russell T. Davies 2021 AIDS-themed It’s A Sin, one of the most acclaimed TV dramas of the decade so far.

Highlights include the LCD Soundsystem-style electro banger ‘Feel’ and the gorgeous ballad ‘New London Boy’. But Tennant outdoes himself on ‘Dancing Star’, wherein – over a vintage slice of electro-pop – he imagines a gay member of the Russian intelligentsia escaping to the west (end girls and east end boys).

“Jumped the barrier at Orly Airport,” croons Tennant. “Claimed political asylum there/ Took all the KGB boys by surprise”. The Boys are back in town – rejoice.

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