When I heard the news about the next Pet Shop Boys album a few days ago, I got very excited. Suddenly they had released a new song, Inner Sanctum, which I had not anticipated at all. I put it on, and immediately enjoyed the very electronic vibe of the song. Releasing such a song as the first single, is a pretty bold move. It’s not your typical radio single, but more like a club banger with just a few vocal moments. This is experimental Pet Shop Boys, and a very successful experiment indeed. It sounds like they had fun creating it, and weren’t stuck in any predictable PSB format, if there ever was one.
Having heard “Inner Sanctum” I immediately preordered their new album, Super, and booked tickets to a very special PSB show at the Royal Opera House in London on July 20th 2016. I’ve seen some very cool experimental Pet Shop Boys shows before, including Battleship Potemkin in Newcastle in 2006, which was epic and something completely different. This new production at the Royal Opera House sounds like it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the venue itself would be worth the trip to London. When I bought the tickets, there were only a couple of seats remaining, so I expect the tickets to sell out very soon. This will be my third time to fly to the UK to see the Pet Shop Boys. I’ve also seen them in Tallinn, Helsinki (twice) and Pori.
Pet Shop Boys is my biggest musical inspiration, though I do listen to a wide variety of other bands and styles. Listening to “Inner Sanctum” led to a trip of various PSB interviews on YouTube, like their 2014 interview with the “Electric” producer Stuart Price, who has also produced “Super”. Electric was a step to a new direction, as all previous PSB albums have been. Super promises to be a “purely electronic” album, further exploring the energetic dance ethos of Electric.
I got more interested in Stuart Price’s work after reading the news of him producing another Pet Shop Boys album. I was rather surprised that I hadn’t paid much attention to him earlier. Turns out that he’s been working with many other artists that I like very much, including New Order, The Killers, Brandon Flowers, Keane and Hurts. Zoot Woman, one of his projects, has also been recommended to me many times. Now there is a big list of Stuart Price productions on my “check this out” playlist. Seems like I could learn a thing or two from Stuart.