Pet Shop Boys
Electric

LA RECENSIONE

Bye bye Parlophone, their historic label, we'll do it ourselves because we're big now.

 Back to the dance floor, literally, after the more ethereal and anxiety-inducing "Elysium," which seemed to have put an end to the highly successful career of the London duo.

Production entrusted to Stuart Price, not by chance the deus ex machina of "Confessions On a Dancefloor," which marked the comeback of a certain Veronica Ciccone (if you listen to the tune of "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct", the radio hit "Hung Up" immediately comes to mind).

 Four-on-the-floor beat and off you go, you're twenty again and letting loose in the best clubs in the world. 100% PSB sound, baby!

Danceable pop, okay, but the production is top-class, and the attention to sound highlights the refined taste that has always distinguished the group.

The appealing version of Kraftwerk, after all.

The fresh and irresistible "Bolshy", the elegant "Fluorescent", with drum machine metronomic, dominant atmospheres and dynamics, and leaden synthesizers hitting you straight in the face. Finally, the catchy "Vocal": "I like the people, I like the song, this is my kind of music, they play it all night long"... it doesn't get better than this...

The nightclub is the perfect backdrop for this album. With "Shouting In the Evening" blasting at full volume and a pill in your mouth, you're straight back to the '90s, with bass throbbing in your chest, sweating in the middle of the dance floor without understanding a damn thing. You remember "Freestyler", right?

 But a quick glance at the lyrics is enough to understand that the lightness of the music is just a lure, hiding a deeper loneliness and personal discomfort.

Although they resort to the same minimalist aesthetic as the fathers of Düsseldorf, made of video, lights, and programmed music, they know how to hold the stage much better. With Tennant who doesn’t shy away from frequent costume changes, through which he showcases all his ambiguous sexuality, and Chris Lowe always in a statuesque pose: cap with visor and standard-issue Ray-Bans, does not move an inch yet, with a Promethean attitude, manages to convey all the confidence the audience needs.

In short, this is the trendiest dance music, guys. Dance.