Don't be scared for only the dark can show you the stars

January 26, 2020 4:59 PM

Pet Shop Boys are back with their 14th album, Hotspot. This brings to a close their trilogy of albums with producer Stuart Price, who helmed the previous albums Electric and Super. Side A: Will-O-The-Wisp, You Are The One, Happy People, Dreamland (Featuring Years & Years) [official lyric video], Hoping For A Miracle

Side B: I Don't Wanna, Monkey Business [official video], Only The Dark, Burning The Heather, Wedding In Berlin

Bonus B-sides: An open mind, No boundaries [from Dreamland single], Decide [from Monkey Business single]

Bonus side project: Musik, a caberet show featuring Frances Barber as Billie Trix [a character from the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer To Heaven]. [6 songs, YouTube Playlist]

posted by hippybear (7 comments total)

Kermit_arms.gif
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:21 PM on January 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

When I first heard "West End Girls" over 35 years ago, I thought it had "one hit wonder" written all over it. One of my worst musical judgements ever (and I usually overrated acts that turned out to be one hit wonders).
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:15 PM on January 26, 2020 [6 favorites]

I saw the "The acoustic guitar should be banned." quote, and wondered why they should happen to be in the news but didn't investigate at the time. (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/24/pet-shop-boys-the-acoustic-guitar-should-be-banned). Carl Newman's response to that was great: https://twitter.com/ACNewman/status/1220724179437223942. Anyway, I missed the last decade of their work, I'll have to go check it out.
posted by 3j0hn at 6:16 PM on January 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

My favorite thing of theirs from the past while was the score for Battleship Potempkin. My second favorite thing of theirs was probably Electric. Their Pandemonium tour was astonishing. Their ballet was really beautiful and was a great mix of traditional and modern styles. I feel like they've been more interesting in the past 10-15 years than they ever had been before that, and they were super interesting even before that.
posted by hippybear at 6:35 PM on January 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

Just ordered and downloaded it - loving it so far. I hope they bring the tour to the US.
posted by mogget at 9:09 PM on January 26, 2020

Got it, liking it. None of it is yet rising to the level of Inner Sanctum from Super or Thursday from Electric for me, but those albums also took time and I needed to hear them when my guard was down.
posted by migurski at 10:26 PM on January 26, 2020

When I saw their Electric tour I did the rap from Thursday along with the video of Example that played and several people around me seemed shocked that I would know it. That was fun. That entire show was fun. I missed the Super tour. I hope to see this one, if it comes to my area.
posted by hippybear at 7:44 PM on January 27, 2020