Flix
1-24-02, 04:21 PM
The mailman arrived late as always today. But today he will be forgiven. He brought me a silver envelope from Parlophone Records in London. I was thrilled - Wow, they are sending me the new Pet Shop Boys single. I got super excited when I realized that I had in fact received a promo of the latest album instead.
From the first track, Home And Dry (the new single), I was in love. Johnny Marr's smooth guitar riff hits this soon-to-be hitsingle from the first single. Neil's voice sounds great as always and the chorus reminds me of New Order.
I Get Along starts with an piano-intro not unlike a classic Elton John ballad. The ballad builds up nicely around Neil's voice and Marr's guitar dances in the background. The chorus is very Beatles like - full of harmony and depth.
The third track on the album is Birthday Boy. This is a 6:27 ballad that sounds like old Pet Shop Boys. This song brings back memories of the "Actually" album and King's Cross in particular. This song even features a guitar-solo. Something I never thought I would hear from Tennant/Lowe. Again, this track owes a lot to Johnny Marr. This seems like the perfect marriage between the PSB pop-sound and Marr's abilities as a guitar player.
Next track is London. This will probably be the second single of the album. It's an extremely laid-back pop song with the most catchy chorus on the album. Think Love Comes Quickly in a laid back acoustic version and you got London.
E-mail is the fifth track. Another ballad sounding song. The "send me an email that says I love you" chorus is catchy along with a nice bassline that "makes" the song. There is no doubt that this is an album-filler, but this is still a very PSB sounding little tune.
Sixth track of the CD sort of breaks with what the album has been so far. The Samurai In Autumn is a dancefloor friendly disco-like song. This is familiar territory for PSB. They can make a million songs like these and score a hit blindfolded. This sounds like their 2001 collaboration with Peter Rauhofer on Break For Love. It screams dancefloor hit and I'm sure it will be.
Love Is A Catastrophe starts out like a rock ballad. Heavy bass along with a nice guitar riff. Neil takes over and the song sounds more poppy. But the song has a general feeling of old rock ballads with the melancholy of Neil's voice. This is a completely new side of PSB. I'm not so sure I like or understand this song. It will definitely take more listenings to like this song.
And just to make the listener completely confused - The next track Home starts out with an electronic sounding intro like an old Kraftwerk song. We are back to the more electronic sounding PSB and it's easy to like this song, since it follows the worst track on the album.
The Night I Fell In Love is yet another slow song. The song is very much like Rent, but a little more complex musically. The lyrics deal with homophobia and tells a wonderful story about falling in love. It is definitely the most interesting track on this album lyrically.
Last song of the album is You Choose. The song is build up around Marr yet one more time and is the seventh ballad of the album. This is probably also the weakest song on the album. It's very dark and the melody get's lost throughout the tune.
All in all, this is a very new and very different Pet Shop Boys album. If anyone had expected Johnny Marr's influence to make PSB more rocking, then they were very wrong. This is by far the slowest, most adult album from Neil & Chris. We all know they can write a great pop-song and they do it very well here. 8 out of 10 of these songs are really interesting. Pet Shop Boys is not about disco-dance tunes and light electronic pop anymore. This is music for all ages and will probably get them a lot of new fans.
The cover of the sleeve says that the album will be released in April of 2002. I was under the impression that this was a February release, but it could be a mis-print.
From the first track, Home And Dry (the new single), I was in love. Johnny Marr's smooth guitar riff hits this soon-to-be hitsingle from the first single. Neil's voice sounds great as always and the chorus reminds me of New Order.
I Get Along starts with an piano-intro not unlike a classic Elton John ballad. The ballad builds up nicely around Neil's voice and Marr's guitar dances in the background. The chorus is very Beatles like - full of harmony and depth.
The third track on the album is Birthday Boy. This is a 6:27 ballad that sounds like old Pet Shop Boys. This song brings back memories of the "Actually" album and King's Cross in particular. This song even features a guitar-solo. Something I never thought I would hear from Tennant/Lowe. Again, this track owes a lot to Johnny Marr. This seems like the perfect marriage between the PSB pop-sound and Marr's abilities as a guitar player.
Next track is London. This will probably be the second single of the album. It's an extremely laid-back pop song with the most catchy chorus on the album. Think Love Comes Quickly in a laid back acoustic version and you got London.
E-mail is the fifth track. Another ballad sounding song. The "send me an email that says I love you" chorus is catchy along with a nice bassline that "makes" the song. There is no doubt that this is an album-filler, but this is still a very PSB sounding little tune.
Sixth track of the CD sort of breaks with what the album has been so far. The Samurai In Autumn is a dancefloor friendly disco-like song. This is familiar territory for PSB. They can make a million songs like these and score a hit blindfolded. This sounds like their 2001 collaboration with Peter Rauhofer on Break For Love. It screams dancefloor hit and I'm sure it will be.
Love Is A Catastrophe starts out like a rock ballad. Heavy bass along with a nice guitar riff. Neil takes over and the song sounds more poppy. But the song has a general feeling of old rock ballads with the melancholy of Neil's voice. This is a completely new side of PSB. I'm not so sure I like or understand this song. It will definitely take more listenings to like this song.
And just to make the listener completely confused - The next track Home starts out with an electronic sounding intro like an old Kraftwerk song. We are back to the more electronic sounding PSB and it's easy to like this song, since it follows the worst track on the album.
The Night I Fell In Love is yet another slow song. The song is very much like Rent, but a little more complex musically. The lyrics deal with homophobia and tells a wonderful story about falling in love. It is definitely the most interesting track on this album lyrically.
Last song of the album is You Choose. The song is build up around Marr yet one more time and is the seventh ballad of the album. This is probably also the weakest song on the album. It's very dark and the melody get's lost throughout the tune.
All in all, this is a very new and very different Pet Shop Boys album. If anyone had expected Johnny Marr's influence to make PSB more rocking, then they were very wrong. This is by far the slowest, most adult album from Neil & Chris. We all know they can write a great pop-song and they do it very well here. 8 out of 10 of these songs are really interesting. Pet Shop Boys is not about disco-dance tunes and light electronic pop anymore. This is music for all ages and will probably get them a lot of new fans.
The cover of the sleeve says that the album will be released in April of 2002. I was under the impression that this was a February release, but it could be a mis-print.