Following on from the PSB (Public Service Broadcasting) at number 13 in the Breaking More Waves album of the year list we have another duo with the initials PSB at number 12. After Elysium, the band’s previous release, it looked like the Pet Shop Boys were dead musically. The record sounded tired; we assumed the synth pop legends had lost their zest.
We were wrong. 2013’s release Electric is a stormer. It found the band rediscovering their love for the dancefloor and high energy pop. Forget Miley Cyrus and her Bangerz, all the pop bangers you really need are on this record. From the opening pulses of Axis, which sounds like the MDMA version of Jean Michel Jarre, complete with a Kraftwerk like vocal intoning “electric energy", through to its euphoric final track Vocal, Electric finds the Pet Shop Boys reinvigorated, super-sharp and doing what they do best. Whilst there are obvious nods to their long and esteemed past on tracks like the West End Girls referencing Thursday (which features a guest vocal from Example) and the brilliant intelligent euro-disco of Love Is A Bourgeois Construct - a distant cousin of their cover of Go West - Electric is undeniably the Pet Shop Boys finest record for a very long time.
Pet Shop Boys - Thursday (Video)
1 comment:
"Vocal" is the first great Tennant/Lowe in a long long time, and I'd almost given up on there ever being another classic.
It's funny how its possible for a group to not release a single bad track for probably 15 years and then barely one decent tune for the next 10. I didnt quite buy into the whole album but it at least gave me hope that one of my all time favourite acts might still have something vital up their sleeve.
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