Album Review: Pet Shop Boys - Electric

The Pet Shop Boys have a lot to answer for. Their '80s chart-topping hits can take a lot of the credit for bringing electronic music into the mainstream.  And while that revolutionary sound stopped being evolutionary very soon after, there's a lot to be said for a band who recognises their strengths and work to them. Electric is the Pet Shop Boys embracing the new, while building on the old at the same time. Neil Tennant has one of the most unique and recognisable voices in pop, and it's that unique nature that gives the Pet Shop Boys a sense of sameness, both good and bad.

Their vintage shows here and there, especially on Love Is A Bourgeois Construct – not just musically, but lyrically. The idea of anything being 'bourgeois' seems even more '80s than any of the synthesisers unleashed on Electric. Fluorescent ramps up the thumping bass while Inside A Dream sounds just like its title would suggest, all ephemeral synths and floating sonic vibrations that feel just out of reach. Shouting In The Evening shows even the Pet Shop Boys can't resist buying a ticket for the dubstep bandwagon, but they still find room amongst the banging beats for some of their signature, more restrained sounds. Meanwhile, Thursday and album closer Vocal sound like they could have been on any Pet Shop Boys album from the last 30 years, which is meant as compliment.

It sounds like the Pet Shop Boys still have all the same instruments and gadgets they've been using for almost three decades, but at the same time, there's nothing overly derivative, old fashioned or cheesy about Electric.