Post-modern ironists cloaked behind a veil of buoyantly melodic and lushly romantic synth pop confections, Pet Shop Boys offer wry yet strangely affecting cultural commentary communicated by the Morse code of synth washes and drum machine rhythms. After first emerging in the mid-'80s with "West End Girls" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe quickly established themselves as hitmaking singles artists who were also able to craft emotionally resonant albums, like 1988's Introspective and 1990's Behaviour. The duo navigated the constantly shifting landscape of modern dance-pop with grace and intelligence, moving easily from disco to house music to thoughtful synth pop without losing their distinctive style in the process…
Post-modern ironists cloaked behind a veil of buoyantly melodic and lushly romantic synth pop confections, Pet Shop Boys offer wry yet strangely affecting cultural commentary communicated by the Morse code of synth washes and drum machine rhythms. After first emerging in the mid-'80s with "West End Girls" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe quickly established themselves as hitmaking singles artists who were also able to craft emotionally resonant albums, like 1988's Introspective and 1990's Behaviour. The duo navigated the constantly shifting landscape of modern dance-pop with grace and intelligence, moving easily from disco to house music to thoughtful synth pop without losing their distinctive style in the process…
Documentary covering "every ground-breaking step in the 20-year career of the Pet Shop Boys…" Features appearances Robbie Williams, Trevor Horn, Jake Shears, Frances Barber, Tony Wadsworth, David Walliams, Matt Lucas and more. Bonus material: recent promo videos and live television performances…
The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound. Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more. It wouldn't have been a classic without great songs, and this has some of the group's most stunning melodies, as well as lyrical themes which evoke both the intensity of newly born love affairs and the disappointment of failed romance (add in some general statements about loss of innocence and modern-day confusion as well).
A few years after their foray into musicals, the Pet Shop Boys, who are quite possibly disco-pop's most intellectual act, have returned with another project: a live score to Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. Battleship Potemkin was a silent film made in Leninist Russia in 1925, and tells the (somewhat idealized) story of a revolt among sailors of the Czar's Black Sea fleet. Given the Pet Shop Boys' history of playing with Leninist imagery (take, for example, the lyrics to 'West End Girls'), they were a suitably apt choice to do a live score to this film.
Ultimate is a greatest hits compilation album by UK electronic music band Pet Shop Boys. It is their third greatest hits album, released on 1 November 2010 by their long-time label Parlophone. The album contains 18 previously-released singles, in chronological order, and one new song ("Together"). Ultimate was released to celebrate 25 years since the band's first single release "West End Girls" in standard single-CD and expanded CD/DVD configurations. It charted at #27 on the UK Albums Chart on 7 November 2010 and at #50 on the European Hot 100 Albums on 20 November 2010. In addition to the hits, the deluxe package also includes a DVD with previously unreleased performances from the BBC as well as their 2010 headlining performance at Glastonbury.