Electric was the boys’ most successful album chart-wise since Very in 1993. It also received rave reviews from the critics, deservedly ending up on many 50 Best Albums of 2013 lists. Happily, this dramatic career resurgence (that said, I’ve loved pretty much everything they’ve ever done) continues unabated on album number 13, Super, once again produced by Stuart Price.
Neil Tennant (61) and Chris Lowe (56) have always injected their well-crafted material with dark humour and acute observations of life and love – and these factors come to the fore early on, most noticeably on second track “The Pop Kids” (opening number “Happiness” is also a very enjoyable song).
Incorporating everything that’s great about the Pet Shop Boys (witty lyrics, an innate understanding of the way we were, ’80s-influenced beats and a catchy melody), the tune is a wry love story about two people who met at university in London in the early 1990s.
The buoyant “Twenty-something” offers a sympathetic, non-condescending look at the difficulties today’s young people face living in London, a capital city moving further and further out of reach (financially speaking) for almost anyone under the age of 30.
“Groovy” is a hands-in-the-air anthem, recalling PSB at their most bombastic and that time in the early to mid 1990s when dance music ruled the world. “Inner Sanctum” also harks back to said decade, revisiting the trance explosion and throwing in some superb, suitably ambient ‘drops.’
“Undertow” should also please those who remember the nightclub craze of 20 years ago – as should “Burn,” another highlight that swirls, swoops and dives before building up into a smile-inducing crescendo.
Amazingly, for a group that sounds so fresh and alert, 2016 marks 30 years since the release of PSB’s very first LP, Please. Far from considering retirement, however, Super is the second part of a planned trilogy with the aforementioned Stuart Price. So don’t go anywhere, Petheads, there’s plenty more to come.
Super is out now on the band’s own x2 label and can be downloaded from iTunes.
For more information on the Pet Shop Boys, visit their official website.
