The Pet Shop Boys have always made erudite dance music. Few other groups, after all, would take a song title from an Anthony Trollope novel (1993’s “Can You Forgive Her?”). And in Nightlife, their first studio album since 1996’s Bilingual, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe stick to their forte.
True to the album title, Nightlife sees the boys step up a notch from their traditional synth-pop to do some out-and-out dance music. The album opens with the one-two punch of “For Your Own Good” and “Closer to Heaven,” both of which adopt the sharp high hats and deep basslines of trance music. But no matter how much the music pumps, no matter how optimistic the lyrics, Tennant’s vocals continue to inject their trademark hopelessness on witty pieces such as “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk.” “I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Any More,” their David Morales-produced first single, brilliantly revisits their favourite theme of broken-down communication. The slower tunes don’t quite work: “the Only One”is overly melancholy, while the resurfacing of Kylie Minogue (on “In Denial”) does her career no favors. And Nightlife is certainly no Behavior or Actually. Still, the other Morales track, “New York City Boy” is a camp anthem to behold. If life is bittersweet, perhaps you should dance. Like the boys once sang, “we were never being boring.” A-