Description:
It’s testament to the evergreen appeal of the Pet Shop Boys that they can enlist all manner of skilful and popular collaborators and come out sounding more like the Pet Shop Boys than ever. Yes the duo’s tenth album, finds them working with Xenomania, the production team behind Girls Aloud, with former Smith Johnny Marr guesting on guitar and Owen Pallett, string arranger behind the Last Shadow Puppets, providing orchestral flourishes. The result, though, might be the duo’s best record since 1999’s Nightlife, and perhaps longer still. There’s an epic opening salvo in the shape of "Love, etc", a sardonic skewe
It’s testament to the evergreen appeal of the Pet Shop Boys that they can enlist all manner of skilful and popular collaborators and come out sounding more like the Pet Shop Boys than ever. Yes the duo’s tenth album, finds them working with Xenomania, the production team behind Girls Aloud, with former Smith Johnny Marr guesting on guitar and Owen Pallett, string arranger behind the Last Shadow Puppets, providing orchestral flourishes. The result, though, might be the duo’s best record since 1999’s Nightlife, and perhaps longer still. There’s an epic opening salvo in the shape of "Love, etc", a sardonic skewering of the rich and famous, and the Tchaikovsky-sampling "All Over the World"--a tender eulogy to the love song born up on magnificent orchestral synthesisers. Pet Shop Boys still excel at mixing intelligence and wit: "Building A Wall" is a deft mix of politics and play, Tennant announcing "There’s nowhere to defect to anymore!" But the record’s most ambitious moment comes with the closing track, "Legacy". Heavy on the ennui and and genuinely affecting, it’s about a politician--Tony Blair?--relinquishing power and returning to normal life: "Public opinion may not be on your side/There re those who think they’ve been taken for a ride/You’ll get over it". --Louis Pattison
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Manufacturer: Parlophone
Release date: 23 March 2009
EAN: 5099969534522
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