Hotspot Pet Shop Boys Artist

{|Pet Shop Boys|} resume their exceptional late-period run with {|Hotspot|}, their third in a series of high quality collaborations with producer/engineer {|Stuart Price|}. Recorded at Berlin's legendary Hansa Studios, the acclaimed duo's 14th album ... Read more

{|Pet Shop Boys|} resume their exceptional late-period run with {|Hotspot|}, their third in a series of high quality collaborations with producer/engineer {|Stuart Price|}. Recorded at Berlin's legendary Hansa Studios, the acclaimed duo's 14th album finds them firmly in their element, delivering crisp electro-pop invocations, wry dance bangers, and melodic gems both sunny and stormy. Still more or less in the self-described electronic purist mode of 2013's {|Electric|} and 2016's {|Super|}, {|Neil Tennant|} and {|Chris Lowe|} make a few allowances here, particularly on the melancholic standout, Burning the Heather, which features some crafty psych-inspired guitar work from {|Suede|} guitarist {|Bernard Butler|}. Opening volley Will-O-the-Wisp is all hard synth bite and rippling tension, possessing a specific kind of dark energy that few acts can summon so well, let alone after nearly four decades together. Its intensity is offset by brighter dance cuts like the wry Monkey Business and the buoyant Happy People with its infectious chorus threaded with {|Tennant|}'s distinctive spoken-word rhymes. Lightly cloaked political stabs pop up here and there like on Dreamland, a collaboration with {|Years and Years|}' {|Olly Alexander|}, that imagines a borderless world free of Brexit fears and immigration policies. The clever melodic shifts that are one of {|Pet Shop Boys|}' hallmarks remain in evidence across {|Hotspot|}, giving songs like the tender Only the Dark a dreamy sense of uplift. Through it all, {|Tennant|} and {|Lowe|} feel as confident and progressive as ever, honoring their signature sound while continuing to push it into the future. ~ Timothy Monger Less