English synth pop duo Pet Shop Boys have amassed a remarkably consistent and influential catalog, pairing wry cultural commentary with buoyant melodies and lush electronic arrangements that sound like no other. 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. Continuing to evolve artistically, Pet Shop Boys incorporated Latin music on 1996's Bilingual, expanded into theater and ballet, and eventually morphed into elder statesmen of electronic pop, producing an array of inventive late-period highlights like 2016's Super and 2024's Nonetheless. Pet Shop Boys formed in London in August 1981, when vocalist Tennant (a former editor at Marvel Comics who later gained recognition as a journalist for Smash Hits magazine) first met keyboardist Lowe (a onetime architecture student) at an electronics shop. Discovering a shared passion for dance music and synthesizers, they immediately decided to start a band. After dubbing themselves Pet Shop Boys in honor of friends who worked in such an establishment -- while also obliquely nodding to the sort of names prevalent among the New York City hip-hop culture of the early '80s -- the duo's career first took flight in 1983, when Tennant met producer Bobby "O" Orlando while on a writing assignment. Orlando produced their first single, 1984's "West End Girls." The song was a minor hit in the U.S. but went nowhere in Britain, and its follow-up, "One More Chance," was also unsuccessful. Upon signing to EMI, Pet Shop Boys issued 1985's biting "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)." When it too failed to attract attention, the duo's future appeared grim, but Tennant and Lowe then released an evocative new Stephen Hague production of "West End Girls," which became an international chart-topper. Its massive success propelled Pet Shop Boys' 1986 debut LP, Please, into the Top Ten, and when "Opportunities" was subsequently reissued, it too became a hit. Disco, a collection of dance remixes, was quickly rushed into stores, and in 1987 the duo resurfaced with the superb Actually, which launched two more Top Ten smashes -- "It's a Sin" and "What Have I Done to Deserve This?," a duet between Tennant and the great Dusty Springfield. Later that year, "Always on My Mind," a lovely cover of the perennial Elvis Presley standard, reached number one in several countries and the Top Ten in the U.S. A documentary film titled It Couldn't Happen Here was released one year later. In October 1988, Pet Shop Boys issued their third studio LP, the eclectic Introspective. "Domino Dancing" and "Left to My Own Devices" both reached the Top Ten in Great Britain. The following year, Pet Shop Boys collaborated with a variety of performers, most notably Liza Minnelli, for whom they produced the 1989 LP Results. They also produced material for Springfield, and Tennant joined New Order frontman Bernard Sumner and ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr in the group Electronic, scoring a hit with the single "Getting Away with It." Tennant and Lowe reconvened in 1990 for the muted, downcast Behavior, produced by Harold Faltermeyer. Their hit medley of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" and Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" was released in 1991, and was followed in 1993 by Very, lauded as one of the duo's finest efforts. After a three-year absence, Pet Shop Boys resurfaced with 1996's Bilingual, a fluid expansion into Latin rhythms. Nightlife followed in 1999 and sparked the dance club hit "New York City Boy," whose success allowed the group to tour the U.S. for the first time in eight years. While on tour, the pair also collaborated with playwright Jonathan Harvey on a musical surrounding gay life and societal criticisms. Closer to Heaven made its West End debut in 2001 and had a successful run for most of the year; the score of the original cast recording was also a hit in the U.K. The duo kept up their prolific run with April 2002's Release, and another remix album, Disco 3 which arrived the following February. Pet Shop Boys continued releasing material throughout the decade's latter half. In 2005, they put together a volume of the Back to Mine series and released music designed to accompany the 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin, a soundtrack they'd performed a year earlier at a free concert/screening in Trafalgar Square. A year later, they issued Fundamental, a mature, sometimes political album produced by Trevor Horn. The live album Concrete: In Concert at the Mermaid Theatre appeared at the end of the year, and Yes -- a collaborative effort with the production crew Xenomania -- marked the band's tenth studio effort in March 2009. While playing shows in support of that album, Pet Shop Boys also released a hits compilation, Party, to coincide with the Brazilian leg of their tour. That tour was documented on the 2010 CD/DVD release Pandemonium, followed by another greatest-hits compilation, Ultimate. Their 2011 effort, The Most Incredible Thing, was a two-disc ballet score composed for the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, while 2012's Format rounded up the duo's B-sides and bonus tracks from the years 1996-2009. Also in 2012, Pet Shop Boys released the sports-themed single "Winner" and performed the track at the 2012 Olympics Summer Games, held that year in their hometown of London. The track landed on that year's album Elysium, which was produced by Kanye West affiliate Andrew Dawson. For their next LP, the band pegged Stuart Price (Madonna, Seal, Kylie Minogue) to produce. Released in 2013, Electric avoided ballads and focused exclusively on dance music. In July 2014, the duo debuted an original composition at Royal Albert Hall commemorating British code breaker Alan Turing and including the BBC Concert Orchestra. Stuart Price returned as producer of 2016's Super, which, like Electric, centered on pure electronic music, meaning no guitars, no orchestral support, and no organic instruments. It yielded the US Dance Club Songs number one "The Pop Kids." The following year saw the Undertow EP, which featured two remixes of Super's "Undertow," a remix of "Burn," and a new version of "Left to My Own Devices," produced by Stuart Price. Pet Shop Boys were also awarded the Godlike Genius Award by NME. The duo issued the Agenda EP in early 2019, and the live album CD/DVD/Blu-ray release Inner Sanctum appeared in April; it was recorded during Pet Shop Boys' four-day residency in July 2018 at the Royal Opera House in London. Later in the year, they started issuing songs from their next long-player, including "Dreamland," a collaboration with Years & Years, and "Burning the Heather," which featured Suede's Bernard Butler on guitar. The album, titled Hotspot, arrived in January 2020 and was their third LP to be produced by Price. Discovery (Live in Rio), a concert originally issued on video in 1995, was issued on DVD and CD for the first time in 2021. The duo also released a nearly ten-minute classical-inspired single titled "Cricket Wife." Their soundtrack to the stage production of My Beautiful Laundrette, originally available with the self-published book Annually 2020, was digitally released in 2021. "Purple Zone," a collaboration with Soft Cell, appeared in 2022. 2023's Lost EP featured unused tracks from the Super sessions and was followed a few months later by the multi-disc anthology Smash: The Singles 1985-2020. The duo returned to Parlophone for the first time in over a decade with their 2024 studio effort Nonetheless. An album of electronic pop songs with orchestral arrangements, it was produced by Simian Mobile Disco's James Ellis Ford, who dared the group to give their often complex demos more minimal arrangements. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Dortmunder Music Week 2013

Pet Shop Boys

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