SummersRadio™ New Music! Pet Shop Boys!

SummersRadio™ New Music! Pet Shop Boys - 'Memory Of The Future'

Pet Shop Boys have released their eleventh studio album called 'Elysium' this week! That's the good news. The bad news is that they've lost their irony! I couldn't stand the album's first single 'Winner' and I deemed it unpostworthy. I reckon that I'm not the only fan who felt that way as it debuted at #86 on the U.K. Singles Top 100 - and then vanished the very next week - far and away their worst chart placing for a lead single off of a proper album ever.

I'm waiting to hear the remixes of the next scheduled single 'Leaving' (released October 15th) before deciding on that one. How can the Ironic Duo write a song called 'Winner' without any irony in it anyway? Blasphemous!

As a lifelong fan I still love them overall, but they've lost their way here - for the first time they sound old. 'Elysium' is their first album recorded in America - and I beg them never to do so again. It was produced by Andrew Dawson in Los Angeles who's worked with Kanye West, Jay Z, Snoop Dogg (although you'd never guess from the lack of beats here) and 30 Seconds To Mars (!) to name a few - so he's to blame.

Some people are comparing the album to the brilliance of 'Behaviour' - perhaps simply because it's laid back - but on that album they sang about NOT being boring. 'Elysium' is no paradise (as the title suggests) it's just too lifeless - far too adult contemporary. It would be a good album to put on if you want to take a nap. I feel guilty saying that but it's a case of cruel to be kind. As a former music journalist surely Neil Tennant would want me to be honest here - not every artist's new album is their best ever - even though they're always promoted that way.

However I admit that I still need to give the album more time to grow on me, but I can't ever imagine listening to the album's eighth track 'Hold On' without cringing. There is one song that was to my liking immediately though - 'Memory Of The Future' - the tenth track on the album (perhaps because it's one of the few with a pulse). It's classic Pet Shop Boys - with it's gurgling synths, beautiful strings, disco hi-hats, and romantic but not sappy lyrics - I reckon it sounds like it could be track seven on 'Introspective'... Enjoy!



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