Rocktrospectiva: Pet Shop Boys' Top Ten Single "Suburbia" Turns 40

Released on 22 September 1986 "Suburbia" was a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys from their debut album, Please. It was re-recorded with producer Julian Mendelsohn for release as the fourth single from the album. Peaking at number eight on the UK Singles Chart, "Suburbia" was the band's second top 10 hit after "West End Girls", and in their view it saved them from becoming a one-hit wonder.

The song's primary inspiration was the 1983 Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia, and its depiction of violence and squalor in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The recent events of the Brixton riots of 1981 and of 1985 were another influence. The lyrics convey the boredom of suburbia ("I only wanted something else to do but hang around") and the underlying tension among disaffected youth. The music is punctuated by sounds of suburban violence, riots, and smashing glass, along with barking dogs—a motif derived from scenes in Spheeris's film.

"Suburbia" was written in 1985 at Terminal Studios in London. Chris Lowe composed the music; according to him, the bassline was inspired by Madonna's hit song of that time, "Into the Groove". Neil Tennant wrote the lyrics afterwards. They added car crash samples from an Emulator and riot noises from a film. The duo did not have time to rework the track during the 10-week recording session for Please, and the album version is essentially a polished version of their demo.

A completely new version was made for the single, using barking dogs recorded at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, audio of riots obtained from the BBC, and real breaking glass. Julian Mendelsohn brought in Fairlight programmer Andy Richards, who created a horn section sound with the synth line. Gary Barnacle played saxophone on the track. The single version is an edit of a longer piece called "Suburbia (The Full Horror)", which includes a spoken word segment with the refrain, "Suburbia, where the suburbs met utopia…", and ends in a series of explosions.

Pet Shop Boys had thought that their career might be on a downward trajectory when "Love Comes Quickly", the follow-up single to their number one hit "West End Girls", only reached 19 on the UK Singles Chart, but "Suburbia" alleviated those concerns. 

"Suburbia" was released on 22 September 1986. It spent four weeks in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, with two weeks at its peak position of number eight. The duo promoted the single heavily in Europe, where it received widespread radio airplay. In West Germany, "Suburbia" was in the top 10 for nine weeks from 10 November 1986 to 12 January 1987; its peak position was number two, which it held for four weeks. The song was also a top 10 hit in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Sweden, and Austria.

The B-side of the 7-inch single had Lowe's first lead vocal appearance, "Paninaro". A 7-inch EP in a double pack sleeve, limited to 25,000 copies, came with the standard single on one disc and a Shep Pettibone remix of "Love Comes Quickly" backed with "Jack the Lad" and the short edit "Suburbia Part 2" on the other. "Suburbia (The Full Horror)" was released as a 12-inch single and is also on Disco and the reissue Please: Further Listening 1984–1986.

The 7-inch version of "Suburbia" has been included on the compilation albums Discography: The Complete Singles Collection, Ultimate, and Smash: The Singles 1985–2020. PopArt: The Hits includes the "Video Mix" from the music video, which has an intro featuring the spoken word refrain.

Two remixes of "Suburbia" by Arthur Baker, the "Club Vocal Mix" and the "Dub Mix", were originally used on a promotional 12-inch EP. In 2023, both remixes were released by Pet Shop Boys as digital downloads, and the "Club Vocal Mix" was included on Arthur Baker: The Classic Dance Remixes from Baker's Dance Masters series.

The sleeves for the single were designed by Mark Farrow with photos by Eric Watson. The standard 7-inch single (pictured) has a motion-blurred image of Tennant holding Lowe in a headlock. The main 12-inch single has a selenium-toned portrait of Lowe wearing a striped Poshboy shirt and a pair of Issey Miyake shutter sunglasses. Farrow won a Design and Art Direction silver award for the 12-inch sleeve, and Watson's portrait of Lowe is in the Photographs Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The video was directed by Eric Watson and features footage of the duo in a Los Angeles suburb, while they were there for that year's MTV Video Music Awards, and a contrasting image of British suburbia, filmed in Kingston-upon-Thames, a suburb of south-west London. It opens with the barking dog motif in an extended "Video Mix" of the song, and dogs appear throughout. Tennant and Lowe are shown walking in the streets among the residents and sitting on a sofa in a house full of unpacked boxes, which represent sudden wealth and the acquisition of things that haven't been used, according to Watson.

Suburbia Track List: 

7-inch: Parlophone / R 6140 (UK)

 

1. Suburbia

2. Paninaro

  

2×7-inch: Parlophone / RD 6140 (UK)

 

1. "Suburbia" 

2.  "Paninaro" 

3.  "Love Comes Quickly" [Shep Pettibone Mastermix] (Early Fade) 

4.  "Jack the Lad" 

5.  "Suburbia Pt. Two" 

 

MC: Parlophone / TC R 6140 (UK)

 

1. "Suburbia" 

2.  "Paninaro" 

3.  "Jack the Lad" 

4.  "Love Comes Quickly" [Shep Pettibone Mastermix]

 

MC: Parlophone / TR 6140 (UK)

 

1. "Suburbia" (The Full Horror) 

2.  "Paninaro"

3.  "Jack the Lad" 

4.  "Love Comes Quickly" [Shep Pettibone Mastermix] (Even Earlier Fade) 

 

12-inch: Parlophone / 12 R 6140 (UK)

 

1. "Suburbia" (The Full Horror) 

2.  "Paninaro" 

3.  "Jack the Lad" 

 

12-inch: EMI America / V-19226 (US)

 

1.  "Suburbia" (The Full Horror)

2.  "Suburbia" (7-inch version) 

3.  "Jack the Lad"

News: Pet Shop Boys Announce The Release Of "A Man From The Future"

 

The Pet Shop Boys are pleased to announce the forthcoming album release of  "A Man From The Future", along with a special listening and conversation event in Manchester to mark the occasion.

Created in collaboration with Alan Turing biographer, Andrew Hodges, and performed by Pet Shop Boys and the Manchester Camerata Octet with narration by Juliet Stevenson and string arrangements by Sven Helbig, the work explores eight significant chapters in the life and death of Alan Turing, the pioneering British mathematician and cryptanalyst who laid the foundations of modern computing. The work has been revised and updated since its first performance at the BBC Proms in 2014. This new version, produced by Pet Shop Boys and Sven Helbig, will be released as an album on October 9th., via Parlophone Records. It is now available to pre-order in various formats at this link: AMFTF

Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Hodges will take part in a listening and conversation event for “A man from the future” on Thursday, 8th.,  October at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester which will feature a full playback of the album followed by a discussion about the work by Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Hodges. Tickets for the event go on sale on Monday, 7th., September at 10am BST via the link below. The conversation will also be filmed and made available online shortly afterwards.

Rocktrospectiva: The Adventurous And Successful "Bilingual" Turns 30

Released on 2 Septembre 1996 "Bilingual" was the sixth studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. The album reached number four on the UK Albums Chart, lower than their previous five studio albums which had all reached the top three. It yielded four successful singles, with three of them—"Before", "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)" and "A Red Letter Day"—reaching the UK top 10; the fourth one, the English/Spanish-language composition "Single-Bilingual", peaked within the top 20.

Bilingual continues the heavily instrumented arrangements and backing vocals Pet Shop Boys began adding to their music with the album Very (1993). As the title suggests, a number of the songs on Bilingual have international influences. On their 1994 Discovery Tour in South America, the duo were influenced by the beats and rhythms associated with Latin American music. Initially, the whole album was intended to have a Latin American sound, but the concept was not fully realised.

Three songs have bilingual lyrics, mixing English with Spanish on "Discoteca" and "Single-Bilingual" and with Portuguese on "Se a vida é", which was based on a song by the Brazilian group Olodum."It Always Comes as a Surprise" opens with a sample of Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto and features percussion sounds from a berimbau and cuícas. A sample of Spanish gypsy music was used on "To Step Aside", and a Russian choir sang on "A Red Letter Day". Neil Tennant described four of the songs—"Metamorphosis", "Electricity", "Before", and "Saturday Night Forever"—as a "New York dance album" within the album.

In August 1994, Pet Shop Boys started writing songs for the album, including "Discoteca", at Unique Studios, where they had originally recorded "West End Girls". While in New York, they heard live samba drums at the Sound Factory Bar, which inspired their Discovery Tour later that year. For the album, they worked with the Scottish women's drumming ensemble SheBoom, who specialised in samba rhythms, as well as samba percussionist Robin Jones.

Recording began in April 1995 and continued on and off into the following year. The duo worked at Sarm West and Bunk Junk & Genius in London, and they also set up their own studio in a rented house outside Henley-on-Thames and used nearby Sarm Hook End as well. In June 1995, they went to New York to record the single "Before" at Axis and Bass Hit studios with Danny Tenaglia, who later came to the UK to produce the track "Saturday Night Forever". Pet Shop Boys worked with producer Chris Porter on five tracks: "Se a vida é", "It Always Comes as a Surprise", "Up Against It", "The Survivors", and "To Step Aside". One track, "Metamorphosis", was produced by Paul Roberts and Andy Williams of K-Klass. In March 1996, Tennant traveled to Moscow to record the Russian choir on "A Red Letter Day" at the State House of Broadcasting and Sound Recording.

Prior to the album's release, Pet Shop Boys collaborated with David Bowie on the song "Hallo Spaceboy", which reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1996. In April, Bilingual was preceded by the top 10 single "Before", followed by another hit single, "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)", in August. The album was released on 2 September 1996 by Parlophone in the UK and on 10 September by Atlantic Records in the US.

In late 1995, Pet Shop Boys ended their contract with the American branch of EMI and signed with Atlantic Records. A renewed marketing campaign was launched to promote the band in the United States via both radio airplay and club play. Bilingual was positioned as one of Atlantic's top releases for the fourth quarter of 1996, with an aggressive pricing strategy. 

The CD cover (pictured) had a screen printed frosted finish of dirty varnish, with the album title in clear plastic revealing a yellow booklet and the band name through the lettering. The LP was yellow with white lettering. The concept, designed by Mark Farrow, was meant to convey luxury packaging; however, a Parlophone executive later described it as giving the message "I'm not for you" instead of "Buy me". Rather than doing a photoshoot of the duo, informal pictures were used for the booklet and inner sleeve. The photos were in duplicate, playing on the "bi" theme. The special edition cover had a double image of the duo taken by Andy Earl. Lyrics were included in the packaging for the first time.

Bilingual debuted at number four on the UK albums chart and spent nine weeks in the top 100 in 1996. The album was certified gold upon release by the British Phonographic Industry. Worldwide, Bilingual had sold 1.5 million copies by February 1997, with the top markets for the album being Italy, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Asia. In the US, where Bilingual peaked at 39 on the Billboard 200, the album sold 149,000 copies by 2006.

In 2001, Pet Shop Boys reissued their first six studio albums; Bilingual was re-released as Bilingual: Further Listening 1995–1997. It was digitally remastered and included a second disc of B-sides and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release. A remastered single-disc edition followed on 9 February 2009, under the title of Bilingual: Remastered, containing only the 12 tracks of the original. In 2018, a newly remastered edition of Bilingual: Further Listening 1995–1997 was released, with the same contents as the 2001 edition.

Critics were mixed and positive on their reviews, some cited Bilingual as further proof that even if the Pet Shop Boys aren't gracing the top of the charts as frequently as they did during the late '80s, they are crafting albums that are more adventurous and successful than they did when they were one of the top singles acts in pop music", a near-perfect album for converting discophobes to the pleasures of dance music", a fresher and far more commercially accessible album than the act has offered in years".

 

Bilingual Track List: 

 

1. Discoteca

2. Single

3. Metamorphosis

4. Electricity

5. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is)

6. It Always Comes As A Surprise

7. A Red Letter Day

8. Up Against It

9. The Survivors

10. Before

11. To Step Aside

12. Sturday Night Forever 

News: Pet Shop Boys Announce A New Recording Of "A Man From The Future" Will Be Premiered On BBC This October

Made in collaboration with Turing's biographer, Professor Andrew Hodges. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, it was first performed it at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014, as part of the BBC Proms, with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers. For this new version, both the text and the music have been revised.

BBC Radio 6 Music will broadcast the 2026 edition on Sunday 4 October, within Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone (8–10pm) and Maconie will also speak to Tennant, Lowe and Hodges about the reworking, including their approach to combining electronic and orchestral music.

A man from the future will then air on BBC Radio 3 later the same evening, within Unclassified (11.30pm–12.30am), with Pet Shop Boys and Hodges joining presenter Elizabeth Alker in the studio to discuss the original performance and its revision. After that, both broadcasts will be available on BBC Sounds for 30 days afterwards.

The piece follows Turing's life chronologically across eight parts: his school days and early interest in mathematics, his time at Cambridge, his work breaking the German Enigma machine's codes during the Second World War, his role in the invention of the digital computer and his early predictions about artificial intelligence, his trial and conviction for a homosexual relationship, his death in 1954, the royal pardon granted to him in 2013, and his lasting influence.

The duo explain the piece was intended as a tribute to Turing's life and treatment. "Our motive in creating this work was to make a musical memorial to Alan Turing, who gave so much to his country and the world and was rewarded for it by being prosecuted for his sexuality. In both his professional and private lives, he was ahead of his time."

Lorna Clarke, BBC Director of Music adds: "When Pet Shop Boys debuted A man from the future at the BBC Proms twelve years ago, audiences were treated to an ambitious and moving tribute to the life and legacy of Alan Turing."

The 2026 recording is co-produced by Pet Shop Boys and German composer Sven Helbig, who also worked on the original 2014 orchestrations. This version leans further into electronic production, alongside a more intimate string arrangement from Helbig. Olivier-winning actress Juliet Stevenson, who appeared in the 2014 Royal Albert Hall performance, returns to deliver narration adapted from Hodges' biography, Alan Turing: The Enigma, which Hodges has updated for this revision. Manchester Camerata Octet perform the strings, with Manchester Grammar School choir also featured.

Rocktrospectiva: Pet Shop Boys' Summery And Fun Single "Se A Vida É" Turns 30

Released on 12 August 1996 "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)" was a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, as the second single from their sixth studio album, Bilingual (1996). The song was based on "Estrada Da Paixão" by African-Brazilian band Olodum, which Pet Shop Boys heard during the South American leg of their Discovery tour in 1994. The band shares songwriting credits with Pet Shop Boys. The correct English translation of "Se a vida é" from Portuguese is actually "If Life Is...". ("That's the way life is" would be "É assim que a vida é..." or "A vida é assim".) The other Portuguese lyric is "Essa vida é..." ("This life is..."), which sounds very similar to "Se a vida é". Neil Tennant acknowledged that he started writing the lyrics with a mistranslation of the phrase but decided he liked it as is. The addition of "Essa vida é" was intended as a more accurate way to convey "that's the way life is".

"Se A Vida É" spent eight weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number eight, and became a top-five hit in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, and Spain. It topped the European Hit Radio chart, with airplay on 98 stations in 23 countries. 

In the United States, the song was released in 1997 as a double A-side with "To Step Aside". This version reached number eight on the Billboard Maxi-Singles Sales chart while "To Step Aside" by itself reached number one on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart.

The single covers (CD1 pictured) featured photos from the music video shoot at a water park, taken by Lynda Churilla. The photos were printed on a yellow background in duotone pink, blue, green, red, and orange, with flecks of spot varnish to give an effect of splashing water. The 12-inch double vinyl cover had plain panels of the same colours, with the photos on the inner sleeves. The compact discs were yellow, and the vinyl records were green for side A/B and yellow for side C/D. Designer Mark Farrow described the look as "summery and fun and wet and sexy".

The accompanying music video for "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)" was shot at the Wet 'n Wild water theme park in Orlando, Florida, and was directed by Bruce Weber, who had also directed the video for "Being Boring" (1990). Actress Eva Mendes appeared in a small role as a teenager with her friends at the park. The video entered heavy rotation on MTV and VH1 that summer.

The single has been described as "a sexy and vibrant song", and a "life-affirming lambada". Other described it as the best Pet Shop Boys single in years. Justice demands it be the biggest of summer hits." An extremely commercial and very positive song, it features a four-piece brass section, a guitar and 20 female drummers. The latter's inclusion gives a sometimes thunderous rumble to appropriate sections of the song, but the rest is very lightweight and breezy, with a vaguely Latin flavour floating in with the brass section.

 

Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) Track List: 

 

UK And Australian CD1 Japanese Maxi-CD Single: 

 

1. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is)

2. Betrayed

3. How I Learned To Hate Rock 'n' Roll

4. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) (Pink Noise Mix)

 

UK And Australian CD2:

 

1. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) (Mark Picciotti's Deep And Dark Vocal) 

2. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) (Mark Picciotti's Shelter Dub)

3. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is)" (Deep Dish Liquid Remix)

 

UK Cassette Single And European CD Single

 

1. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is)

2. Betrayed

 

Japanese Mini CD Single: 

 

1. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is)

2. Go West 

US CD Single: 

 

1. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) (Album Version) 

2. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) (Mark Picchiotti's Deep And Dark Vocal)

3. To Step Aside (Album Version)

4. To Step Aside (Ralphie's Disco Vox)

5. The Calm Before The Storm

6. Betrayed

 

US 2x12 inch Single: 

 

1. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) (Mark Pricchiotti's Deep And Dark Vocal)

2. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) (Deep Dish Liquid Remix)

3. To Step Aside (Ralphie's Disco Vox)

4. To Step Aside (Hasbrouck Heights Mix)

5. To Step Aside (Davidson Ospina Dub)

6. To Step Aside (Ralphie's Old School Dub) 

7. To Step Aside (Brutal Bill Mix)

8. To Step Aside (Ralphi's House Vox)

Rocktrospectiva: The Back To The Form "Fundamental" Turns 20

Released on 22 May 2006 "Fundamental" was the ninth studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was released in May 2006 in the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, and Canada, and in late June 2006 in the United States. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number five on 28 May 2006. In the US the album peaked at number 150 on the Billboard 200, selling 7,500 copies in its first week. The album spawned three singles "I'm With Stupid", "Minimal" & "Numb." Fundamental earned two Grammy nominations at the 2007 Grammy Awards for Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording for "I'm with Stupid".

 

The album featured eleven Pet Shop Boys compositions and a song by Diane Warren, "Numb", which was originally intended to be a new track on PopArt: The Hits (2003). Two other songs, "Casanova in Hell" and "Luna Park", were written by the duo during the PopArt sessions; they wrote the rest between January and April 2005 in London and Naples.

 

In planning for the album, Pet Shop Boys drew up a manifesto of their intention to write songs about authoritarianism and fundamentalism in the contemporary world, with minimal electropop music. The songs turned out to be more epic in scope, and they decided to approach Trevor Horn, with whom they had worked on "Left to My Own Devices" (1989), to be the producer. Recording took place from May to November at Sarm West in London. The title is intended to convey that the album has a fundamentally Pet Shop Boys sound, in addition to touching on the subject matter.

 

So far, the album has been noted for being more political than any other of the duo's albums to date; even the title, in one sense, is a reference to religious fundamentalism – portrayed here in a light, critical manner, which singer Neil Tennant attributes to the relatively relaxed status of religious freedom in the United Kingdom. Specific contemporary issues discussed in the lyrics include tensions and fears in the United States caused by the war on terrorism, addressed in songs such as "Psychological" and "Luna Park". Other songs refer to the politics of the band's home country; "Indefinite leave to remain" refers to an immigration status in the United Kingdom, while "Integral" criticises the Identity Cards Act 2006. (A statement from a band spokesman cites the issue as the reason that Tennant ceased his well-publicized support of Tony Blair's Labour Party.) "I'm with Stupid", meanwhile, touches upon both countries by satirizing Blair's alliance with George W. Bush. 

 

Other subject matters are dealt with as well. "Casanova in Hell" is about the 18th century historical figure Giacomo Casanova, and how he immortalized himself by writing memoirs about his history of sexual seduction of numerous women. Tennant refers to, specifically, the book Casanova's Homecoming by Arthur Schnitzler as his inspiration for the song. "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show" references two of the biblical cities of sin, Sodom and Gomorrah, in saying that to learn to 'go where angels fear to tread' (i.e. to sin) is to learn to live freely.

 

The music featured in the album was Pet Shop Boys' first collaboration with Trevor Horn since the 1989 single "It's Alright". Its sound bears the producer's heavily orchestral style (also present on that song), most frequently associated with the 1982 ABC album The Lexicon of Love as well as the 1984 Frankie Goes to Hollywood single "Two Tribes" and subsequent album Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Horn was also musical director for the Radio 2 concert, which featured the BBC Concert Orchestra.

 

The album reviews were the best in over a decade sitting the record neatly between their previous career highpoints of Very and Behaviour, and it propels them back into the pop premier league". Reuniting the duo once again with Trevor Horn, Fundamental is a confident affirmation of the PSBs' musical strengths. The result may be the very best album of their career, a mature and considered work which satisfies head, heart and feet simultaneously," some have said that this album was the best Pet Shop Boys album in 10 years, but looking back at their last decade of work, that's not really saying that much. 

 

Fundamental Track List: 

 

1. Psychological

2. The Sodom And Gomorrah Show

3. I Made My Excuses And Left

4. Minimal

5. Numb

6. God Willing

7. Luna Park

8. I'm With Stupid

9. Casanova In Hell

10. Twentieth Century

11. Indefinite Leave To Remain

12. Integral  

Rocktrospectiva: The Energetic "Super" Turns 10

Released on 1 April 2016, "Super" was the 13th., studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was released on the band's own label, x2, through Kobalt Label Services. Super debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart, and it was number one on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, the album spawned five singles "The Pop Kids", "Twenty-Something", "Inner Sanctum", "Say It To Me", & "Undertow".

Super was the second in a trilogy of albums produced by Stuart Price, preceded by Electric (2013) and followed by Hotspot (2020). As on the first album, the music on Super was purely electronic, with no additional instruments. Pet Shop Boys wrote 25 songs between November 2014 and July 2015, working in London and, mainly, Berlin. Twelve were ultimately used on the album, with an emphasis on upbeat electronic dance tracks.

"The Pop Kids" was the first song written for Super. The music originated as a demo titled "Munich", written in that city by Chris Lowe during the Progress Live tour in 2011. Neil Tennant added the lyrics during the album writing sessions, telling a story about two students and their shared love of pop music. The music of "Twenty-something" was inspired by reggaeton, which Lowe heard at a club in Bogota, while the lyrics refer to young professionals in London. "Sad Robot World" was written after the duo were given a tour of the Wolfsburg Volkswagen Plant, where they saw cars being washed by robotic arms.

Some tracks on Super were largely instrumental, with only a few lyrics and non-traditional song structures. "Pazzo!", meaning "crazy" in Italian, was made using a collection of sounds saved from another track. "Inner Sanctum" celebrates an exclusive club experience; the duo imagined how it would sound in the Berlin nightclub Berghain as they worked on it. Tracks that were not used for Super included more conventional pop songs, as well as some dark, topical songs like "In Bits", which became a b-side of "The Pop Kids", and "The Lost Room", which was eventually released with other Super-era tracks on the Lost EP (2023).

Pet Shop Boys teased Super in January 2016 with an anonymous poster and social media campaign using the circle logo (pictured), leading to the now-defunct website What Is Super, which featured a brief music clip. On 21 January, the site went live with the album announcement, along with a video preview of the song "Inner Sanctum". Super was made available for pre-order on compact disc, vinyl, or digital download. 

The album was released with colour variations of cover. Each format was given its own fluorescent colour scheme. The different music streaming services also have their own colour schemes

Super received generally favourable reviews from music critics. Some described it as a record that's frequently playful, vibrant and witty and shows off all the hallmarks of classic Pet Shop Boys… 'Super' was confirmation of their position at the head of the pop pantheon with an album brimming with excitement and fizzing with energy". Other critics said that  Super was a grower and a brave rejection of pipe and slippers, embracing the mythical dance floor with admirably vacuous experimentation, even if it mines the mid-nineties, when dance music grew least interesting, but other stated that the album offered nothing new but definitely it was made for fans caused the brand was already established.

 

Super Track List:  

 

1. Happiness

2. The Pop Kids

3. Twenty-Something

4. Groovy

5. The Dictator Decides

6. Pazzo!

7. Inner Sanctum

8. Undertow

9. Sad Robot World

10. Say It To Me

11. Burn

12. Into Thin Air

Rocktrospectiva: The Inmaculate Synthesizes Dance Pop Album "Please" Turns 40

Released on 24 March 1986 "Please" was the debut studio album by English legendary and prolific duo Pet Shop Boys, the album's title was chosen so that people could go into a record shop and say "Can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, please?" Please featured the number one hit "West End Girls" and nine other songs, including the singles "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", "Love Comes Quickly", and "Suburbia".

Pet Shop Boys signed with Parlophone, a subsidiary of EMI Records, in March 1985. By that time, Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant had been writing songs together for over three years. Their music was influenced by Italian disco, the emerging American hip-hop scene, and American producer Bobby Orlando's lo-fi electronic dance music. The duo had recorded some of their material with Orlando, including "West End Girls", which had been released as an unsuccessful single in 1984. Lyrically, the songs were inspired by their life in London at the time, with lyricist Tennant assuming different characters and occasionally writing satirical songs, such as "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)".

"Opportunities" was the first single for their Parlophone deal. They had written the song in 1983 and had subsequently worked on it with Orlando but never released it. Pet Shop Boys picked J. J. Jeczalik of Art of Noise as producer. The recording session took three weeks and cost £40,000. When the single was released in July 1985, it only reached 116 on the UK Singles Chart.

For their debut album, Pet Shop Boys wanted to work with Stephen Hague, the producer of Malcolm McLaren's "Madame Butterfly" and The World's Famous Supreme Team's "Hey DJ". Their record company initially wanted them to use Stock Aitken Waterman, but Pet Shop Boys were allowed to record "West End Girls" with Hague as a trial. Hague suggested slowing the song down and making it moodier, with more focus on the story and a filmic intro of street sounds. "West End Girls" was released in October, and the single climbed to the top of charts as they went on to record the rest of the album.

Please was made in 10 weeks, between November 1985 and January 1986, at Advision Studios in London. They sequenced the songs to form a loose storyline: "They run away in the first song ("Two Divided by Zero"), they arrive in the city ("West End Girls"), they want to make money ("Opportunities"), they fall in love ("Love Comes Quickly"), move to suburbia ("Suburbia"), go out clubbing ("Tonight Is Forever"), there's violence in the city ("Violence") and casual sex ("I Want a Lover"), someone tries to pick up a boy ("Later Tonight")" and then the sequence ends with "Why Don't We Live Together?"

"Two Divided by Zero", dating back to 1983, was co-written by Tennant and Bobby Orlando, who wrote the backing track; it was the only Pet Shop Boys song, excluding cover versions, for which Lowe does not share a songwriting credit. For the album version, Hague used a similar arrangement but gave it a bigger sound that conveys the sense of excitement of running away. The track features the voice of a talking calculator that Tennant bought in New York as a Christmas present for his father.

Hague shared a songwriting credit with the duo on "Love Comes Quickly" for coming up with the chord changes of the middle eight. The song was released as a single in February 1986 and just made the top 20 at number 19. "Opportunities" was reworked following the disappointing chart performance of its initial release. They did not have time to record a new version, but Hague used elements from the single as well as the 12-inch mix by Ron Dean Miller, and re-recorded the vocals. A portion of the original single, featuring a party scene, was used as the sixth track on the album, titled "Opportunities (reprise)". "Opportunities" was re-released as a single in May 1986, and reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

"Suburbia" was the last song completed for Please; due to time constraints, the album version is a polished version of the Pet Shop Boys' demo. When it was released as a single in September 1986, "Suburbia" was redone with producer Julian Mendelsohn and became the Pet Shop Boys' second top 10 hit in the UK.

For their first album cover, Pet Shop Boys manager Tom Watkins presented them with a fold-out latticework model, but they thought it was too complicated. In reaction, Mark Farrow created a minimalist white cover with a tiny photo of the duo in the center with their name and the title in small type underneath. The photo, taken by Eric Watson, shows Lowe and Tennant with white towels on their shoulders and was chosen from existing images for the way it blended into the background. The inner sleeve had 98 more small images by Eric Watson, Paul Rider, John Stoddard, Joe Shutter, Ian Hooton, Chris Burscough, and Chris Lowe. Some international distributors made changes to the cover: EMI America redid the cover with the name on the top, and in France a cover with a larger picture was made.

The album received a mix of reviews at the time of its release, describing the content as "ten thoroughly catchy songs", a very accomplished debut album, except for Los Angeles Times that heavily attacked the album by called it a loaded with disco material of course... The problem is that most critics regard disco (or dance music, as they call it now) as one-dimensional noise pollution." Over the decades, revieres had change a lot by  acknowledged the strength of the album as a starting point for the Pet Shop Boys' career. "The debut Pet Shop Boys album does what all good debut albums should do and established the aesthetic of the band which would endure right to the present day," In a 2009 review for the BBC, Ian Wade wrote: "Please really hasn't dated at all and should be the textbook example of how brilliant a pop debut could be

 

Please Track List: 

 

1. Two Divided By Zero

2. West End Girls

3. Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)

4. Love Comes Quickly

5. Suburbia

6. Opportunities (reprise)

7. Tonight Is Forever

8. Violence

9. I Want A Lover

10. Later Tonight

11. Why Don't We Live Together? 

Rocktrospectiva: Pet Shop Boys Hit Medley "Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) " Turns 35

Released on 11 March 1991 "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" was a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. The song was a medley of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", a 1967 song by Frankie Valli, though in an arrangement informed by the 1982 disco version of the song by the Boys Town Gang rather than the original.

The song accompanied "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?", the third single from their fourth studio album, Behaviour, as a double A-side in the United Kingdom (both singles were released separately in the United States). Released in March 1991 by Parlophone, the song became the duo's 15th consecutive top-20 entry in the UK, peaking at number four on the UK Singles Chart.

Chris Lowe had the idea for the unusual mashup, realising that "you could sing the one going into the other", while recording "I'm Not Scared" with Patsy Kensit for her band, Eighth Wonder. Lowe and Neil Tennant then noticed that "the guitar on U2's record sounded like a sequencer". The duo intended to record it with Eighth Wonder as a follow-up to "I'm Not Scared"; instead, they recorded it themselves several years later, as they "needed a big hit. It was absolutely shameless." Having "turn[ed] a mythic rock song into a stomping disco record".

The Pet Shop Boys version differs significantly from that of U2 in its musical arrangement. In contrast to the U2 version's instrumental build-up, the Pet Shop Boys version opens abruptly with synthesized and sampled noises and a drum machine. The musical climax of the song was also changed in other elements; a background vocal sample of "burning down love" was played right at the start, and synthesised horns erupt with even higher notes immediately following each chorus. Tennant performed the lyrics with no vocal exertion or stresses, in contrast to Bono's performance. In addition, at the transition between "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", Tennant sang the two lines one after the other, with no change in pitch, demonstrating the similarities in the two songs.

The single's other A-side, "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?", criticised the insincere humanitarian messages of a number of pop stars during the 1980s and the institutionalization of rock and roll. The band noted that "one song is about rock stars so to have a U2 song with it serves as a further comment." 

Following the release of the single, U2 joked, "What have we done to deserve this?", referring to a Pet Shop Boys song. Critics were mixed and fairly good by saying the track was a cool, happy music no-one else took the piss quite so shockingly. A bizarre mixture of two completely different songs, on paper it read and felt like a painful nightmare. But on record, it gels rather well. Neil and Chris' Hi-NRG treatment of both tracks run ridiculously smoothly with added eloquence, forcing even the Boys' detractors to give credit where it's due.

 

Where The Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off You Track List:

 

1. UK/Australia 7-inch and cassette single 

• Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)
• How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?

2. UK 12-inch single

• Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) Extended Mix
• How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?
• Bet  She's Not Your Girlfriend

3. UK 12-inch single (remixes)

• Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) David Morales Remix 
• How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? Mo Mo Remix
• How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? Ragga Zone Remix 

4. UK CD Single

• Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)
• How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?
• Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend
• How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? Classical Reprise 

5. US 12-inch single

• Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)  12-inch dance mix
• Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)  red zone mix
• Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)  eclipse mix
• Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) ska reprise
• Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) 7-inch version

6. US And Canadian CD Single

• Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) original 7-inch mix
• Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) 12-inch dance mix
• Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) red zone mix
• Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend
• I Want A Dog techno funk mix 

7. US And Canadian Cassette Single

• Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) original 7-inch 
• Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend 

Rocktrospectiva: David Bowie's Breakthrough "Hallo Spaceboy (Pet Shop Boys Remix) Turns 30

Released on 19 February 1996 "Hallo Spaceboy was a song by the English musician David Bowie from his 20th studio album, Outside. It originated as an instrumental by Reeves Gabrels called "Moondust", which Bowie and Brian Eno stripped down and used to form the final track. An industrial rock and electronica track influenced by artists such as Nine Inch Nails, the song featured synthesisers, loops and distorted guitar lines. The lyrics were influenced by the sound poet and painter Brion Gysin, and contained images of apocalypse and continued the androgynous lyrics of former Bowie songs such as "Rebel Rebel" and "Boys Keep Swinging".

It was the third and final single from Outside in February 1996, "Hallo Spaceboy" was remixed by the Pet Shop Boys, who added a disco sound and lyrics referencing the Major Tom character from Bowie's "Space Oddity". The single reached number 12 in the UK and charted in other European countries. Its accompanying music video, directed by David Mallet, mixes shots of both Bowie and Pet Shop Boys with footage of science fiction clips, atomic bomb testing footage and television advertising clips. Both versions of "Hallo Spaceboy" have been positively received and have appeared on lists of Bowie's best songs. Bowie performed "Hallo Spaceboy" frequently on his concert tours, recordings from which have appeared on live albums.

Written by David Bowie and Brian Eno, "Hallo Spaceboy" developed from an ambient instrumental piece written by the guitarist Reeves Gabrels called "Moondust". Initial work on the track began during a recording session at Mountain Studios in Montreux in 1994, shortly after the main sessions for the Leon project concluded. Bowie's biographers Nicholas Pegg and Chris O'Leary point to the influence of the poet and artist Brion Gysin, who developed a cut-up technique with William S. Burroughs that Bowie had, on several occasions, utilised for song lyrics. During the recording, Bowie spoke "If I fall, moondust will cover me", reportedly Gysin's final words before his death in 1986. Work halted on the track following the session, as Bowie believed "there wasn't anything special going on with that piece".

The track resurfaced on 17 January 1995 during the Outside sessions in New York City at The Hit Factory. Eno wrote in his diary that it was "stripped down to almost nothing [before] I wrote some lightning chords and space and suddenly, miraculously, we had something." The final track featured Bowie, Eno, Gabrels, Carlos Alomar (guitar), Yossi Fine (bass), Mike Garson (piano) and Joey Baron (drums). After finishing the song, Bowie said, "I adore that track. In my mind, it was like Jim Morrison meets industrial. When I heard it back, I thought, 'Fuck me. It's like metal Doors.' It's an extraordinary sound." Gabrels later expressed disappointment in not receiving a co-writing credit for the song.

Commentators have characterised "Hallo Spaceboy" as industrial rock and electronica. Pegg describes the song as "a hardcore maelstrom of sci-fi noise, hypnotic high-speed drumming and an insistent, speaker-hopping four-note guitar riff". The song's influences range from the Pixies and Pornography-era Cure to Nine Inch Nails and the Smashing Pumpkins; Bowie reportedly stated that he was aiming for a Nine Inch Nails-type sound. Featuring synthesisers, loops and distorted guitar lines, a few reviewers compared the song's sound to Bowie's 1974 album Diamond Dogs and his work with the rock band Tin Machine. The author Dave Thompson argued that the song would not have felt out of place as a bonus track on that album. Lyrically, Pegg states that "Hallo Spaceboy" captures the "millennial angst" of the Outside album and continues the androgynous lyrics of songs such as "Rebel Rebel" (1974) and "Boys Keep Swinging" (1979) with the line "Do you like girls or boys? / It's confusing these days". Some of the words and ideals, such as "chaos", "dust" and "hallo", and visions of a science fiction apocalypse were recycled from Tin Machine's "Baby Universal" (1991).

The album Outside was released on 5 September 1995, with "Hallo Spaceboy" sequenced as the sixth track. The song was a mainstay on Bowie's 1995 Outside Tour, and was often played with Nine Inch Nails and later as the closing track. Bowie intended "Hallo Spaceboy" to be his next single after "Strangers When We Meet". 

Believing the original version of "Hallo Spaceboy" was unlikely to be commercial sucessful, Bowie commissioned Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys to remix the song for release as the third single from Outside. As a lifelong Bowie fan, Tennant agreed and remixed the track at Mayfair Studios in London between 11–15 December 1995. Tennant replaced the song's anger with electronics and added Pet Shop Boys' signature backing vocals to the track. Since the original contained only a single verse, and a lyric featuring feelings of alienation, Tennant and his bandmate Chris Lowe added lyrical fragments from Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity", using a Gysin-style cut-up technique to create a second verse: "Ground to Major, bye bye Tom / dead the circuit, countdown's wrong / Planet Earth is control on?" O'Leary argues that the additions turned the song's cry of "this chaos is killing me" into a plea from an astronaut "strung out in heaven".

Bowie initially expressed reservation about the additions when Tennant told him during a telephone conversation, but later agreed that they worked well. Bowie rerecorded his lead vocal so the single became a duet with Tennant. Tennant told NME in a 1997 interview that he and Lowe, working alongside Bowie, had completed what Tennant called the "Major Tom trilogy", in reference to the fictional astronaut who first appeared in "Space Oddity" and later appeared in "Ashes to Ashes" (1980). Tennant explained, "I said to Bowie, 'It's like Major Tom is in one of those Russian spaceships they can't afford to bring down,' and he said, 'Oh wow, is that where he is?'" Compared to the original version, the remix features a disco edge.

The single was finally released on 19 February 1996, through several formats, including a 7" single through BMG/RCA, a CD single through Arista/RCA and a 12" promo in the US through Virgin. The CD single was packaged with a reissue of "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" and live renditions of "Under Pressure" (1981) and "Moonage Daydream" (1972). The single was a success across Europe, reaching number 12 in the UK, becoming Bowie's highest charting single since "Jump They Say" (1993). The remixed "Hallo Spaceboy" topped the singles chart in Latvia, further charting in Australia (36), Austria (37), Belgium Flanders (48) and Wallonia (30), Finland (8), Germany (59), Ireland (21), the Netherlands Top 40 and Single Top 100 (24 and 33, respectively), Scotland (10) and Sweden (12).

The music video for "Hallo Spaceboy" was directed by Bowie's longtime director David Mallet. Bowie performed the song with Pet Shop Boys at the Brit Awards on 19 February 1996, and again on Top of the Pops on 1 March. According to O'Leary, Bowie "thrashed around" during these performances while Tennant sang calmly.

Both versions of "Hallo Spaceboy" have received positive reviews from music critics and biographers. Discussing the original, the biographer Marc Spitz called it Bowie's "most convincing rocker" since "Rebel Rebel", and David Buckley said the track is "quite daring, with a hard, industrial menace and a great use of dynamics". Reviewing the Pet Shop Boys remix, Simon Price from Melody Maker said that "this sounds like the Pet Shop Boys without anything you could call a chorus. The bit where Bowie's gin-and-lemon voice mixes with Neil Tennant's Amaretto Disaronno on the line Do you like girls or boys? It's confusing these days... is one to hoist aloft around the room on a red velvet cushion, though." Mojo magazine's Mark Paytress opined that adding Pet Shop Boys was a "masterstroke"

News: Pet Shop Boys Announces "Annually 2026"

Pet Shop Boys today announce the 2026 edition of “Annually” which will be published on 16th April and is now available to pre-order at the link:   Annually 2026

 

The 64-page, hardback book will include:

• Archive: A history of the Pet Shop Boys in 20 objects. Chris and Neil talk about a selection of random but revealing items pulled from their studio basement.

• Chris Heath documents PSB’s summer weekend in Warwickshire during which they performed Dreamworld Live at historic Warwick Castle.

• A feature on an iconic 80s moment (which one you’ll have to wait and see).

• Plus exclusive photographs, your letters answered, news and more.

Annually 2026 is exclusively available from the official PSB store for £20.00 (plus P&P) and will ship from the UK on April 16th. Please note delivery dates will therefore vary depending on local postal services

News: Obscure Pet Shop Boys/Volume

The Pet Shop Boys have announced a five-show run in London dedicated to the most obscure corners of their catalog. Aptly titled "Obscure Pet Shop Boys", the shows at Camden's 1,500-cap Electric Ballroom will see Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant perform non-album singles, B-sides and other deep cuts. 

 

The residency runs from April 6th through 10th next year, and all profits from the April 8th show will go to War Child. In a statement, Lowe and Tennant said they're "very excited at the prospect of going deeper into our song catalogue in these shows." 

The run follows Pet Shop Boys' greatest hits tour in 2023, which saw the duo play in Glasgow, Manchester, Belfast and more last year. Their July 2023 show at Copenhagen's Royal Arena was turned into a concert film, Dreamworld, which premiered in August 2024.

Also, marking the 40th., anniversary of the release of their first album, Please, in 1986,  the beloved Pet Heads are announcing "Pet Shop Boys Volume" which is the definitive retrospective and complete visual record of the duo’s career, presented year by year in a contemporary literary format. The limited edition of 750 is now sold out.

Pet Shop Boys:  Three-time Brit Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, including No. 1 hits ‘West End girls’, ‘It’s a sin’ and ‘Always on my mind’, and platinum-selling albums Please, Actually, and Very. Uniquely spanning the worlds of music, art, film, theatre, design, and fashion, Pet Shop Boys have forged an identity as unforgettable as their sound. From the seminal graphic design of their record sleeves to their groundbreaking videos and innovative stage shows, they have set the bar for the visual presentation of pop.

Expanding upon Pet Shop Boys Catalogue, published two decades ago, this book presents their entire visual output to date year by brilliant year. Sleeve artworks and packaging, stills from every video, film, and performance, stage sets and costume designs, photoshoots, publications and even Christmas cards all feature, as does every collaboration with luminaries including Mark Farrow, Wolfgang Tillmans, Martin Parr, Bruce Weber, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Scott King, Zaha Hadid, Tom Scutt and Es Devlin.

Concise commentaries by Chris Heath and Philip Hoare provide illuminating insights into the genesis of each project. Hoare’s original introduction is accompanied by a new introduction from Libby Sellers, who considers the importance of Pet Shop Boys within the history of design, while a new foreword by Jeremy Deller reflects on the enduring impact of their music and image. 

With a cover and slipcase designed by Farrow and a brand-new conversation between Heath, Tennant and Lowe, Pet Shop Boys Volume is a visual feast and a sumptuous tribute to four decades of creative innovation.

Specification:

234 × 156 mm
592 pages
Hardback
Slipcase