Tennant and Lowe hit L.A. to calm down and carry on with surprisingly lacklustre results
6/10
Someway through the sixth track on Elysium, Pet Shop Boys' eleventh album in 26 years, I'm remaining unconvinced about this new set of songs and I can't work out why. The track, Ego Music , would have been billed as subversive back in, say, 1986 when debut long-player Please first hit the racks yet, in 2012, because PSB's potential audience has perhaps arrived at a point where it shrugs its collective shoulders at "vacuous slogans/innocuous sentiment" and the antics of stars, icons and royals, the message seems lost in today's socially networked society, less vapid, less cutting than it might have been. Has Neil Tennant lost his bite? Has Chris Lowe misplaced the bounce from his bungee? Speaking as a fan of the duo's superb canon, this jury is out.
But, before swinging the critical axe, let's not discount what is great and good about Elysium, a title that, at the very least, promises some form of a mortal afterlife with exotic overtones, even if the contents don't. Lyrically, Tennant is on fine form - the aforementioned Ego Music is a candid observation of stardom's ill-effects, the only disco-bouncer A Face Like That shimmies with sexually-intoned lines like "thunder and lightning/tension was heightening" and the closing soap-opera homage to 'school, punk-rock, Johnny wearing brothel-creepers, Malcolm's round the block' and looking 'solemn and shabby like a requiem' (Requiem In Denim and Leopardskin) are perhaps the key highlights of an album that fails to charm and ignite in the way that so many PSB albums have before.
For career triumphs, think Very, think Behaviour, think Bilingual, think Actually. Now, in this case, think again. Release, Fundamental or the last two Disco albums - you can now reluctantly add Elysium into that mix. Sure, Invisible is pleasingly sun-kissed soul-pop, Your Early Stuff is perhaps a sideways glance at how an ageing band are questioned by critics and fans as they chalk up another tour schedule success or failure and Breathing Space is one of those wistful Tennant interludes up there with I Get Along or Only The Wind, but the rest lacks their typical dazzling magic. Hold On sounds like a 'musical' cast-off, Give It A Go is wet and Memory of the Future is as cloy as its moniker. And don't get me started on the Olympically-themed single, Winner. Gah.
What Elysium seriously needs is a slew of hi-energy heavily-sequenced party-bangers, but they just don't happen. Instead, by the concluding strains of the admittedly excellent closing Requiem In Denim and Leopardskin, you're left wishing for one of those hidden tracks to appear five minutes afterwards to lighten the mood. It doesn't. Purchasers of the 2CD box-set edition are treated to straight-forward instrumental versions of the album-tracks, an exercise that might have been peppered with dubs, reworkings and innovation a decade or more ago.
Not a disaster, by any means, but far from their peerless, glitzy and pioneering best.
For information about any forthcoming Pet Shop Boys concerts, head to Allgigs here
6/10
But, before swinging the critical axe, let's not discount what is great and good about Elysium, a title that, at the very least, promises some form of a mortal afterlife with exotic overtones, even if the contents don't. Lyrically, Tennant is on fine form - the aforementioned Ego Music is a candid observation of stardom's ill-effects, the only disco-bouncer A Face Like That shimmies with sexually-intoned lines like "thunder and lightning/tension was heightening" and the closing soap-opera homage to 'school, punk-rock, Johnny wearing brothel-creepers, Malcolm's round the block' and looking 'solemn and shabby like a requiem' (Requiem In Denim and Leopardskin) are perhaps the key highlights of an album that fails to charm and ignite in the way that so many PSB albums have before.
For career triumphs, think Very, think Behaviour, think Bilingual, think Actually. Now, in this case, think again. Release, Fundamental or the last two Disco albums - you can now reluctantly add Elysium into that mix. Sure, Invisible is pleasingly sun-kissed soul-pop, Your Early Stuff is perhaps a sideways glance at how an ageing band are questioned by critics and fans as they chalk up another tour schedule success or failure and Breathing Space is one of those wistful Tennant interludes up there with I Get Along or Only The Wind, but the rest lacks their typical dazzling magic. Hold On sounds like a 'musical' cast-off, Give It A Go is wet and Memory of the Future is as cloy as its moniker. And don't get me started on the Olympically-themed single, Winner. Gah.
What Elysium seriously needs is a slew of hi-energy heavily-sequenced party-bangers, but they just don't happen. Instead, by the concluding strains of the admittedly excellent closing Requiem In Denim and Leopardskin, you're left wishing for one of those hidden tracks to appear five minutes afterwards to lighten the mood. It doesn't. Purchasers of the 2CD box-set edition are treated to straight-forward instrumental versions of the album-tracks, an exercise that might have been peppered with dubs, reworkings and innovation a decade or more ago.
Not a disaster, by any means, but far from their peerless, glitzy and pioneering best.
For information about any forthcoming Pet Shop Boys concerts, head to Allgigs here