WITH NEIL TENNANT’S WITTY LYRICS AND CHRIS LOWE’S CULTURED SYNTHS AND BEATS, THE DUO’S CONSISTENTLY STRONG BACK CATALOGUE HELPED TO REDEFINE THE POP LANDSCAPE
JON O’BRIEN
ALBUM BY ALBUM
Five years after first bonding over a shared love of Soft Cell and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark at a King’s Road hi-fi store, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe officially joined the pantheon of British electro-pop duos themselves. The pair’s 1986 debut studio album undeniably shared elements of their musical inspirations: the lustful pick-up anthem I Want A Lover (“No need for conversation as we’re driving home”) could have been lifted from Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, while Stephen Hague was recruited in-between producing OMD’s Crush and The Pacific Age. However, Please also proved that Pet Shop Boys were capable of carving out their own distinctly arch path.
From Tennant’s deadpan delivery and Noel Coward-esque witticisms to Lowe’s banks of arpeggiated synths, all the hallmarks of PSB’s career are here, coalescing to perfection on West End Girls, a tale of inner-city life that remains one of the all-time great No.1 records, both in the UK and US. But like much of the album, its unusual melting pot of mournful trumpets, bustling traffic noise and hip-hop beats didn’t come easily.
Indeed, the pair had spent an entire year working with Hi-NRG maestro Bobby Orlando, only to abandon all their efforts after signing with larger-than-life impresario Tom Watkins and major label Parlophone. Luckily, five tracks were rescued by new partner-in-crime Hague, including their transatlantic chart-topper, the melodramatic Tonight Is Forever (later revived for their collaboration with Liza Minnelli) and TV soundtrack favourite Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money), a majestic anti-Thatcherite anthem regularly misconstrued as a celebration of yuppie culture.
Suburbia, an ode to the disaffected youth inspired by the Brixton riots of the early 1980s, and the domestic androgyny of closer Why Don’t We Live Together?, further underlined PSB’s penchant for lyrical themes that require deep diving.
But the romantic comedy-friendly sentiment of Love Comes Quickly, apparently the first song that the pair ever wrote together, and Later Tonight’s unequivocal sense of longing showed they could tackle the straightforward love song, too.
Smash Hits, the pop bible for which Tennant had previously served as deputy editor, cheekily published a mock obituary in the issue that followed his departure from the mag (“In a matter of weeks, Neil’s pop duo Pet Shop Boys wi
