Yes
The new Pet Shop Boys album (Yes, Pet Shop Boys) is now available via the (UK) iTunes store, and is available via traditional channels next week. It’s *cracking* - stop wasting time reading this nonsense and go get it now. It’s the first extended collaboration between the Boys and the Xenamania production team led by Brian Higgins. (He’s the production force behind all the best Girls Aloud stuff, which should be the only recommendation you need.) The first single, Love, etc, has been on an almost permanent loop for me at various points in the last few weeks - how can you not want to hear the line “You don’t have to be beautiful but it helps” as frequently as possible? It’s a *very* PSB line.
Anyway, here’s a fab extra reason to get the download version. The Boys (I always feel weird calling them that, but ‘Chris and Neil” sounds far too familiar) have provided ‘The DVD commentary’. This is an extra track in which they play all the songs on the album and talk about where they came from, how they evolved, and where the influences are (Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, Richard Strauss (one particular chord change, for god’s sake), Tchaikowsky…). It’s a brilliant insight into the process without completely stripping it bare. Neil just observed that “If this was a vinyl album this would be the start of side two, which is very different”, and I love that they actually think about the structure of an album in those terms.
They talk fairly frankly about how the process works. Some of the songs were originally written for Kylie, and then they started working with Higgins and new influences came to bear. It’s *fascinating*.
Highly, HIGHLY recommended for this commentary alone, but actually because you’ll rarely these days get pop this good *and* this intelligent.
EDIT: Oh my god. They just mentioned that my third favourite track, Pandemonium, was originally going to be a Kylie track, and Neil says “Actually, I also think The Spice Girls could have done this really well”. Somebody with enough money - MAKE THIS HAPPEN!