YEAR OF THE BOYS
Back with a brand new album — which only Attitude has heard — as well as a Lifetime Achievement Brit award, 2008 is set to be the year of Pet Shop Boys

Neil Tennant recently said he’d happily spend the rest of his days writing songs for Girls Aloud. Thank goodness he hasn’t, else the latest Pet Shop Boys opus might not have seen the light of day. Instead, a wonderful compromise has been carved out — a full on collaboration between GA producers Xenomania and the Pets. And Attitude has exclusively got its ears on the almighty 11-track beast for a special preview. As you’ll understand, we were very excited about this.

If you don’t understand, then you need a history lesson. If Pet Shop Boys have taught us anything over their long career it’s that pop stars can be smart. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe write lyrics with intellectual content. They collaborate with avant-garde artists when it comes to making videos and doing shows. Bright, arty, witty. They taught us you don’t have to be lowest common denominator to be popular.

And they have the sales figure to back it up. They have proved that pop stars can be all those things and clean up big time into the bargain: they can sell 50 million records, bag four number one singles, work with Robbie Williams, Tina Turner, Madonna, Liza Minelli and not forgetting Dusty Springfield. And this year is set to be their year. They are going to be awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Brits where they will finally be given long overdue recognition for being brilliant and not having to resort to being a boring guitar band to be liked.

While straight boys have always looked down on gay men’s taste in music, Pet Shop Boys (there’s no ‘The’, they’re very insistent) have stuck to their stridently anti-rock stance (while playing Glastonbury!), focussing on those naturally gay genres of disco — even Italian disco! — pop and electronica. A cover of a Village People track? A record for Kylie? A remix on Madonna’s finest Confessions album? And then some work with Girls Aloud? Bring it all on.

So to Yes, the Pet Shop Boys tenth album. Is it the point where Noughties pop meets culture defining art? Or just one lengthy pop orgasm? It’s more of the former. It is not the huge pop explosion that a spot of knob twiddling between Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe and Brian Higgins might initially suggest. It’s more restrained than that. More considered. Intelligent, obviously. Catchy, completely. Great? Yes.

By the sounds of this, it’s going to be a momentous, celebratory year for the Pet Shop Boys. Their return to action at the Brits, the ceremony where they once had a miners’ choir back them up on Go West, offers a opportunity for these middle aged popstars to go absolutely wonderfully mental. And lead single Love Etc is certainly ripe for pulling out the miners again with its Go West meets Chumbawamba call and response.
There are plenty of other big theatrical moments on Yes. Building a Wall sees more toing and froing between Chris and Neil on lines like “Protection! Prevention/ Detection/Detention” and a classic Tennantism “I’m building a wall/a fine wall/not so much to keep you out/More to keep me in”. Oh, and a ridiculous talky bit where Neil gets romantic about British things like a cup of tea to which Chris responds: “Who’d you think you are? Captain Britain?” It’s very funny.

Elsewhere, the politics-meets-the-personal thread that dominates last album Fundamental is shed. Instead, Yes is stuffed to the gills with LOVE. There’s unashamedly sunny pop like Did You See Me Coming? and drop-down-on-yourknees epicness on the six minute Legacy as Neil begins: “That’s it/The end/But you’ll get over it/My friend”.

An instant hit is The Way It Used To Be, which takes the electronic euphoria of Faithless and submerges it in sadness. It is completely beautiful with a brilliant final bit where Neil sings “Then and there/I’d knew that I lost you” as it gets all swizzy. You will want to go for a lie down in a darkened room afterwards and have a little blub. There’s plenty of evidence too of the mutual love between the band and Bernard Summer. A lot of Yes feels quite New Orderish. It’s clean and fresh. And yes, you can imagine Girls Aloud singing some of it, like the summery 60s Beautiful People. But in a Pet Shop Boys way.

So yes, Yes is a welcome addition. It’s got a real dignity to it, like the Pet Shop Boys go folk but in their own signature synthy way. It seems like a record celebrating all the best things about Pet Shop Boys. It’s time to fall in love with the best British pop band — and dare we say — possibly the best British band ever, all over again.

Yes is out on 23 March on Parlophone