Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is the beat proclaimed in earnest, and there is pulse that is heard underneath the layers of skin, the one that raises the hair on the back of the neck and finds the senses tingling and dancing with delight. Both have their purpose, both have their own signals of intent, but it is to the maturity of expression that comes with the pulse that the duo that make up the Pet Shop Boys that sees their own beat once more become a primal and scintillating Hotspot.

There is always that small nag at the back of the mind when it comes to groups or artists that have been around for the time it takes more than one generation to have grown up with them in the spotlight, is that unless there is a real change in direction, unless their original ethos and drive suddenly mutates and becomes unrecognisable, then there is a chance, a likelihood that all will become stale, dull and bordering on the unintentional cliched. Not so with the Pet Shop Boys and certainly not in their latest release, Hotspot. 

Across the years, Neil Tennant And Chris Lowe have undergone the type of change that would be almost unnoticeable if you were to rush through the discography as if you were looking to pinhole the exact nature of their musical minds, but whilst they maybe predominantly pop, there is an undercurrent, the same sense of stature to which time causes continents to drift towards and away from each other, that gives them, and duos such as Erasure, a meaningful place in the world of music; not just pop but seizing the passion that comes from being able to step outside of the popular hit.

Across songs such as You Are The One, Dreamland, Hoping For A Miracle, Monkey Business and Burning The Heather, what the Pet Shop Boys have achieved on this album is to take another step forward, to take their own brand of music and enthuse it with a kind of poetic quality that aims for the hotspot for which others would miss, no matter how many arrows they had to shoot at the target.

Very Pet Shop Boys, very becoming, so beguiling; the Hotspot has been sweetly struck.

Pet Shop Boys’ Hotspot is out now.

Ian D. Hall