“You always wanted a lover, I only wanted a job,” Tennant sings on the latter.
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Other hits from this era such as Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) and What Have I Done to Deserve This?, a duet with Dusty Springfield, reflect the emphasis placed on personal financial gain during the Thatcher and Reagan years. To take a few examples, their 1986 single Suburbia, partly inspired by the Brixton and Toxteth riots of 1981, explores the rise of social unrest in once-prosperous city areas. As Fairclough puts it, they've managed to achieve a “rare combination of huge commercial success with an intelligent approach to creating pop music which has consistently commented on the cultural moment”. Indeed, since they broke through with West End Girls, which reached number one in the US and UK in 1986, Tennant and Lowe have displayed a masterly ability to weave both social commentary and political satire into their infectious electro-pop songs. “We’re gonna have a party where we all cross the line.” There are other subtly political moments, too, including Hoping for a Miracle, whose privileged central character is described as a “child of the sun”, and perhaps bears a resemblance to Boris Johnson. “Bring me margaritas, Champagne and red wine,” he sings. Tennant imagines a fantasy world where “you don't need a visa – you can come and go and still be here” – seemingly a dig at both Brexit Britain (he was a vocal Remain supporter) and current US immigration policy.Įlsewhere, Hotspot pivots effortlessly between classic Pet Shop Boys melancholy – see Burning the Heather, which features lovely guitar parts from Suede's Bernard Butler – and club-ready hedonism, on tracks like Monkey Business, which sees Tennant assume the role of a reckless extrovert. The album’s sleek lead single Dreamland teams them with Olly Alexander, singer in chart-topping trio Years and Years, and includes a winning hint of political subtext. On Friday, they release their 14th studio LP Hotspot, the third in a row that they’ve recorded with Grammy-winning producer Stuart Price, a longtime fan-turned-trusted collaborator. “‘You’ve both made such a little go a very long way.’” They may at times have felt underestimated, but in 2020, with a new album on its way and a greatest-hits tour booked, it’s only correct to celebrate Tennant and Lowe as the cleverest men in pop. “And someone said: ‘It’s fabulous you’re still around today,’” he sings archly. Tennant has said he started writing the song “in a bad mood” during their 1991 tour, imagining “the kind of things people say to you after the show”. Yesterday, When I Was Mad isn’t one of the duo’s biggest hits, but this underrated 1994 single does contain some of their most devastating and revealing lyrics.
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They’ve been even more successful on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, where they’re the fifth most successful act ever behind Madonna, Janet Jackson, Rihanna and Beyoncé. During their late 1980s and early ’90s imperial phase – to borrow a term coined by Tennant – they also sent 12 songs into the US Billboard Hot 100.
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Listed in The Guinness Book of Records as the most successful duo in UK music history, Tennant and Lowe have racked up a staggering 44 UK top-40 hits, including iconic and era-defining songs such as West End Girls, It’s a Sin, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Left to My Own Devices and Go West. Did culture embrace queer people this decade?Īt the same time, perhaps because we’re so used to seeing them described as “pop’s elder statesmen”, it’s easy to overlook their incredible chart record. Close your eyes and you can picture them standing side by side – they may or may not be wearing statement hats, but Lowe will definitely be in shades. “Their detached and ambivalent approach to success is refreshing at a time where so many artists are clamouring for attention in digital spaces,” says Dr Kirsty Fairclough from the University of Salford’s School of Arts and Media.īut although Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe don’t post on social media (other than through carefully-curated official accounts), they remain an immediately recognisable pop partnership. They’re the banger-crafting lovable uncles who keep their fingers on the musical pulse, while maintaining the mystique of performers from a different era. Thirty-five years after Pet Shop Boys scored their first significant hit, they occupy a unique and pretty enviable place in the pop landscape.