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Pet Shop Boys "Yes" Still Moving in the Right Direction
The Pet Shop Boys were once called “the Smiths you can dance to” during their eighties heyday, now the duo are hitting hard in 2009 with their current release, Yes – a pedigree blend of hi-NRG electro pop and Tchaikovsky references.  Another thumbs-up for the album came from FT.com (the Financial Times’ website), which published an article that discussed the band’s musical themes of choice, the dynamic of light and dark that often features into their work, and the different interpretations that certain selections can take on.  The financial news medium also factored the topic of money/consumerism into the interview with the band – and the synthpop duo had an interesting take on the subject.

Neil Tennant, the Pet Shop Boy’s frontman and rather more talkative half, told FT.com: “Politics and society are the backdrop that we write against. There has always been an element of commentary. I’ve criticized direct political songs, because I don’t think they work. I think it kills the ‘pop’ element. But there’s always been a political content, right the way through.”

Such a philosophy is evenly displayed in the tracks “Rent,” and “Opportunities” – in both songs it is unclear as to whether commercial materialism is being criticized or just being lived. Neil Tennant is a former music journalist, and through his elevated interest for the subject of pop he has formed many theories on how the genre operates.

The Financial Times noted that the forces behind Yes were pushing toward “an exciting pop record that’s also a bit weird,” with a sound described thus: “Tennant’s vocals tend to vary between archness and longing, while Lowe, the musical maestro, likes to work string quartets, harps or male voice choirs into a synthetic electronic context, bringing an emotional or playful timbre to an often chilly form of music.”
It looks like the Smiths you can dance to are back-  and just as relevant as ever.
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