Cricket May 2020

Pet Shop Boys has released their new two-track CD single, "Cricket Wife".
The dramatic new song - almost 10 minutes long - features orchestral sounds and was written by Chris as a classical-style instrumental piece; the lyrics, meanwhile, are taken from a poem Neil Tennant had written. Pete Gleadall mixed the final track. The second track is a lockdown version of Pet Shop Boys classic "West End Girls", a completely new version of the classic song which debuted online in June 2020. Both tracks were recorded during the first lockdown last year, with Chris and Neil recording their parts in their respective homes.

With a generally deadpan singer and another guy behind a bank of synthesizers, the Pet Shop Boys just aren't built for live albums, even if the songs are exquisite, there's an orchestra behind them, and some very special guests appear. While the duo can deliver in a live setting, the experience relies heavily on the visual, check the Performance or Somewhere concert videos for proof. Still, for fans, Concrete must exist since it captures the duo's May 2006 appearance at London's Mermaid Theater, an invite-only affair with the BBC Concert Orchestra as backing band. The song selection doesn't read like a greatest-hits compilation because save "It's a Sin" and "West End Girls," everything here was originally recorded with various sized orchestras…

South Of Reality, The Claypool Lennon Delirium’s epic sophomore album might be just the antidote this sick world needs. Music so potent it could repel an asteroid impact from space, these seasoned warriors of psychedelia have crafted timeless songs that may as well be chiseled in stone. The monolithic dream team’s record was produced by Les Claypool and Sean Lennon themselves, and engineered and mixed by Les Claypool at his own Rancho Relaxo studio in Sonoma County, California. Grab your goggles and a month’s supply of Kool-Aid because The Claypool Lennon Delirium is about to take you for a ride on a rock ‘n’ roll rocket ship, and frankly you may never come back!