Pet Shop Boys: Hotspot | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Trilogies are very “in”, especially the grandest of them all, the trilogy of trilogies (the Star Wars Saga), and with the release of their newest longform work, the Pet Shop Boys have completed their own trilogy. Hotspot completes a cycle of work with British producer Stuart Price – Super (2016) and Electric (2013) – with the bulk of the work being realised in Berlin’s famed Hansa Studios. Berlin has become, by default or design, the adopted home of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe over the last decade, and Berlin’s reputation for nurturing the strong development of the synthesizer combined with deep clubbing, has been in evidence in the duo’s career all along. So it is a natural progression for them to identify closely with that über-cool club scene, even if now in their sixties, they prefer to frequent the chic dayclubs to keep their hand in with current trends.

It is also a somewhat odd juxtaposition to find a band that is so quintessentially British –the detached, almost bored delivery by Tennant with the droll irony contained in their lyrics– now identifies with one of Europe’s most vibrant capitals. Perhaps the unedifying jingoistic spectacle of Brexit in their homeland has drawn them to a more inclusive and welcoming home. (The mid-album ballad Hoping For A Miracle lyrically combines well-known geographical locations in England with a desperate, almost maniacal central figure craving affirmation. It’s not too much of a stretch to add “Boris” at the beginning of the title, though Tennant claims that it is another of their compositions skewering former UK PM, Tony Blair). One thing PSB have done successfully is make withering commentary on the sordid nature of the contemporary world, particularly politics and fashionable society. In 2019 they released Agenda, a four-song compilation that was full-on mocking and slamming the current political and social elite. On Hotspot the direct lyrical content has been purged (or perhaps Agenda was the purging to ready the ground for this album) and the more poetic and allusional pattern is to the fore, as it usually has been on their better releases.

Given that this album is a “Berlin club album”, Hotspot is replete with a strike-force of “bangers”, opening with Will O’ The Wisp which has PSB hallmarks all over it: an immediate throbbing beat, vigorous synth lead melody and an observational lyric set on Berlin’s U1 metro. Happy People and Monkey Business follow the dance floor motto (that “rhythm is a dancer”, a song name checked in the slightly maudlin I Don’t Wanna), but placing a lyric that isn’t as bright and cheery as the tune it hangs off, as in Happy People (“…living in a sad world”) and the wry ironic character Tennant often plays, poking fun at himself and the persona the world seems to think is him (“People tell me I'm a legend 'round these parts/I start the party and I end up breaking hearts”)

A couple of tracks stand out through collaborations with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler playing acoustic guitar (yes, an acoustic guitar in a PSB album!) on the pensive Burning The Heather, and the album’s advance single, the very danceable and euphoric Dreamland with co-vocalist, the extremely agreeable Olly Alexander of Years & Years. It is disappointing that the last track Wedding In Berlin is rather extraneous, lyrically so-so and Richard Wagner’s interpolations distract rather than add. Toss in the reflective ballads You Are The One and Only The Dark and you have a very serviceable fourteenth album from Herren Tennant und Lowe.

- Blair Martin.
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