Pet Sounds

Over the past two decades, the Pet Shop Boys have kept their music and their agenda fresh.

by Justin Hampton

Despite what anyone might think of them, there’s no faulting the Pet Shop Boys for taking too few risks in their careers. While others in their early-80s synth-pop peer group have fallen by the wayside or found themselves languishing away in the retro pigeonhole, the Boys have always managed to throw their audience a few curveballs to keep them guessing over the past twenty years. The latest one comes in the form of their newest album, Release, which shows the boys abandoning the forlorn gay dance sound of their early years for a more organic if still wistful musical approach. "[Modern] dance music is about what will work on the dance floor. And on this album, we decided that what we do best is write great songs," says band Boy Chris Lowe. "So we’ve realized those songs in the way that best suits them. It’s totally liberating to get on with accessing emotions and telling stories and doing what we do best, really."

Cooped up in partner Neil Tennant’s home studio in Northeast England, Chris also comments on the change of environment for the making of this album’s songs. Outside of the largely instrumental "The Samurai in Autumn," the songs of Release focus on guitar-driven ballads, filled in largely by the duo’s old cohort Johnny Marr (The Smiths). The lyrics themselves, in the meantime, also quietly jar the listener, whether they’re posing Eminem as an enthusiastic partner in a gay romance ("The Night I Fell in Love") or drawing parallels between Jesus Christ and Matthew Shepard ("Birthday Boy"). Lowe himself insists neither he nor Tennant have any politics they hope to push on their listeners. Rather, it’s about presenting something honest, real and different. Relates Lowe, "In England, there’s so much manufactured pop music now that it’s sort of unbearable now. The record industry seems to be very conservative at the moment. It doesn’t seem to be a very good time for pioneering musical styles. The latest thing in dance music is ‘80s retro. Everyone seems to be looking back rather than forward. I like the idea of the future more than the past."

Ironically enough, Lowe admits to enjoying the Felix da Housecat LP, mentioning that it sounds a lot like the Pet Shop Boys’ initial demos, and joking that they might re-release those tracks for DJs. Still, Tennant and Lowe appear more concerned now with broadening the stereotype of their music and of gay music in general. Lowe does hold out hope for a renewed attempt at Wotapalava, the ill-fated gay/lesbian national tour that folded last year when Sinéad O’Connor pulled out of the bill at the last minute. Creatively, the tour’s "anti-gay gay statement" still makes sense to Lowe, as he explains. "[Gay music] is not just a load of clichés. It’s not just a load of disco dollies who like Hi-NRG music, you know what I mean? You’ve got Rufus Wainwright, Sinéad - I just think everyone should be tolerant of everybody, regardless of anything. It’s a funny issue, the whole thing. I don’t approve of any type of ghetto. I just want one community - mankind - where everyone is tolerant of everybody."

Yes, Lowe knows he just let a cliché slip. But many a Pet Shop Boys fan worldwide trusts they’ll continue to say it in many different and inventive ways. That’s what allows them to keep doing it. "We’ve written songs that mean a lot to people in their lives. They weren’t just hits. And that allows us to carry on. And when you know that you have that, you just feel like you’re wanted, and it’s a good feeling to have."