ALBUM REVIEWS

Pet Shop Boys
Release
Parlophone April 1st 2002
@www.vanguard-online.co.uk

 Britpop died the night Gareth Southgate missed that crucial penalty. Oasis and the rest continued to have big hits, but somehow their moment was over: the power and the ability to embrace all were gone. Similarly, despite continued popularity, the Pet Shop Boys: one of the more intelligent and sensitive synth-pop bands, somehow seemed to lose their relevance with the onset of the nineties. The attention-grabbing decision to use guitars and 'proper instruments' on their new album (its name perhaps an ironic recognition of the above) was thus probably wise. All the same, 'Release' is not a traditional guitar based indie album. It relies heavily on dance-style effects and electronica, and the virtues of earlier PSB work are preserved. There is skilful use of social commentary (the words 'he's been through all this before' are used on 'Birthday boy' to liken the fate of victims of homophobia to Jesus Christ) and irony (on 'The night I fell in love', the Boys mimic Eminem's trick of role taking by speaking in the character of a man seduced by a male rap star). As ever with the PSBs, the melodies feel light and almost frivolous, but play against a mood of sadness and poignancy, whilst the instruments somehow give a more personal feel to the album. Standout track 'Here' in particular feels almost painful: we are learning something about the Boys, and on second listening, this becomes apparent in other tracks. The PSBs have always produced enjoyable music: on Release as a whole it becomes slightly easier to relate to. Sadly, it is going to take more than use of guitar and percussion to resurrect the Pet Shop Boys as a dominant force in music. Nonetheless, this is a quality album which demonstrates that there is more to their repertoire than bittersweet anthemic melodies and clever lyrics.

Michael Ong