Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys

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Essential Albums

  • Actually: Further Listening 1987-1988 (2018 Remastered Version)

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About Pet Shop Boys

The duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have been crafting witty, hooky synth-pop since a chance meeting at a hi-fi shop in 1981. Tennant’s reserved vocals and Lowe’s crisp instrumentation added a sardonic existentialism to New Wave. Their first single, the 1984 chronicle of urban life “West End Girls”, became a minor club hit before being reworked with producer Stephen Hague; the revamped version became an international hit a year later. In the decades that followed, Pet Shop Boys would be revered as one of synth-pop’s most beloved acts, with songs like the storming yet irony-tinged “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” and the winking examination of money and love “Rent” crossing over from clubs to mainstream radio. Pet Shop Boys had a publicly coy relationship with queerness; although Tennant, who came out in 1994, eschewed gender-specific language in his lyrics, the duo leaned into camp with gusto, producing and writing for Liza Minnelli’s 1989 pop return Results, giving the Village People’s “Go West” a muscular makeover and scoring a global hit with the feisty Dusty Springfield collaboration “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” Their discography, stretching over four decades, is one of pop’s finest, pairing keen observations with irresistible hooks even as the world around the club changes shape.

ORIGIN
London, England
FORMED
19 August 1981
GENRE
Pop

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