Yes

The best album in Pet Shop Boys’ discography in a decade

The inimitable dance synthesizer pop music kings Pet Shop Boys have already more than once surprised the audience with unexpectedly calm or frankly politically oriented or overly easy-going records. Both the British band’s critics and fans agree that one of its best albums was 1993’s Very and that since than Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have practically never managed to repeat its success. Yet only two years will pass and it will be thirty years since this unique collective was formed and it is high time to make a change. The event of exactly the necessary significance and size is Pet Shop Boys’ new album Yes. This time the band’s members themselves have produced the album in collaboration with Brian Higgins and the production team Xenomania who also wrote three tracks for the record. In every way Yes can be called a Very of our days. There is an anticipated dynamics in music in it, great love lyrics which only Pet Shop Boys can write, splendid electronic and orchestra arrangements and memorable hit tunes. No doubt that this album can be unmistakably called the best in Pet Shop Boys’ discography in the last decade at least.

Yes offers danceable music in the best traditions of the electronic genre

The album Yes is a marvelous collection of danceable music made in the best traditions of the electronic genre. Tennant’s vocals have not changed a bit in many years still remaining the Londoners’ calling card and the production hooks make each of the song a model to follow. The record opens with the song Love Etc. offering an objective and even somewhat cynical look at the modern society in which it is still easy to hear the bitterness concerning the changed attitude to love. All Over The World is a contagious danceable number and an example of how the electronic effects can serve a basis for a successful tune and simple hand claps can set the most vivid beat. Track Beautiful People is definitely one of the album’s highlights. It is clear from its very first sounds that this a new hit from Pet Shop Boys: most beautiful guitars and fiddles, lyrics on chorus easy to memorize at once, a very appropriately used harmonica – these components have always been present on the British band’s masterpieces. Another highlight is the song Did You See Me Coming? also pleasing with the light sounding and colorful electronic effects while the ballad Vulnerable is good for a quiet despair that can be heard both in the instruments and Tennant’s voice. A bit of introspection on the danceable track Building A Wall and sadly beautiful King Of Rome reminds us that Pet Shop Boys can be serious, too. Another standout number Pandemonium conquers with contagious backing vocals, again a simple melody on chorus which is sure to linger in your mind for weeks and a wonderful electronic beat. Nostalgia for a relationship on The Way It Used To Be is not devoid of hope it can all restart and the final track Legacy proves to be a complicated philosophic ballad with an unearthly sounding.

Ultramodern sounding with unprecedented faithfulness to themselves

Some of the editions of the album Yes offer the remixes of some of the 11 full length tracks that allow to look in a different way at these great compositions. Nevertheless this by no means implies that Pet Shop Boys has decided to experiment a little bit. On the contrary these musicians are faithful to themselves more than ever. Listening to Yes makes takes you back to the past as it was practically with every creation of the disco kings and at the same time lets you enjoy the ultramodern sounding made of the high quality arrangements and always up-to-date pop melodies. Each of the songs probably except for the final one is another chance to make sure that Pet Shop Boys is rightfully considered one of the brightest bands of the turn of the centuries and the dance electronic style lawmaker. As for the track Legacy, the musicians have expressed their attitude to the today’s world on it and this song is enough to understand that Pet Shop Boys will always say it out loud in public what worries it and still keep pace with the time successfully. Even though some of the topics did sound years ago, for instance, the studying of rich and successful people’s life, they haven’t lost their significance today and the British team really can not be reproached for anything in this respect.