"You don't have to be beautiful... but it's nice!" (Yes - Pet Shop Boys)

Member Name: EasternStar

Product:	Yes - Pet Shop Boys
Date:	18/04/09 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: High quality Xenomania production with some outstanding tracks

Disadvantages: Lacks the barnstorming power or grandeur of Fundamental

I first heard "Yes" at a preview event hosted by Parlophone Records and Popjustice at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on 6th March 2009. An audience of about a hundred devoted "Petheads" had gathered to hear the new album played and the Pet Shop Boys interviewed.

None of us knew quite what to expect. How would the famed production values of Brian Higgins and the Xenomania team interact with the Boys' deadpan style? The Boys have always exhibited a very English kind of urbane (and urban) dry and self-deprecating wit. How would the alchemy of a Kent rectory studio transmute this style into the high octane formula best known for propelling Cheryl Cole to chart stardom?

Well the audience reaction was positive - even before Neil and Chris appeared on stage to answer questions in their trademark double act worthy of Gilbert and George. Neil, as ever, was the flamboyant, effervescent orator and Chris, hidden behind his shades and baseball cap, interjected the occasional bitter slice of dry, pithy Lancastrian wit.

So has this Xenomania collaboration worked? It's still an odd musical marriage. None of these tracks has the explosive hi-energy power of a Trevor Horn synth-romp, so I should start my review by stating that this album does not, and cannot, equal the superlative grand folie that is "Fundamental." That's a pity. On "Yes", the finest tracks in my view come straight from an older copybook of classic PSB themes. On balance, the collaboration can be described as a partial success.

Here's the run-down.

1. Love etc.

A hooky, spacey and innovative contribution that betrays the Xenomania effect in its football-terrace chorus and repetitively hypnotic musical structure. The effect is magnified in the video with its symmetrical and surreal computer graphics. Mind you, the video could have been "Go West" circa 1993... the PSBs have done all this before. I enjoyed the parodic sideswipes at L.A. consumer culture - the kind of sideswipe at materialism we have come to know and love ever since "Opportunities". The song's a hit and grower, but to me, not a classic.

2. All over the world

"This is a song for boys and girls", and it's a good one too. The chorus is addictive, structured and repetitive, with echoes (to me) of "Domino Dancing". Intelligent lyrics, explosions of sound and more hooks than a meat factory add up to a fine PSB track.

3. Beautiful people

Very much the counterpoint to track one, this song is a thoughtful, lyrically subtle and strangely restful song. The song exhorts "I want to live like beautiful people" but the yearning is mixed with hints of doubt and regret, lending the song more depth than its lyrics suggest.

4. Did you see me coming?

An accomplished and mature track with a catchy chorus, with typically emotionally reflective and self-aware content - "You don't have to be in Who's Who to know what's what?" Although in my view, the song is just a tad too pedestrian to rise to greatness.

5. Vulnerable

I suppose artists have to write about what they know, but the lament "Try being me when you walk down the street" is hardly going to ring any emotional bells with those millions of us who no-one knows from Adam (or Eve). Still this is an attractive mid-tempo introspective song, with a note of defiance "I am no-one's stepping stone" and a hooky chorus. I'm sure I heard a mandolin, but that could just be my imagination.

6. More than a dream

At last the album is picking up steam! "More than a dream" is a compelling, catchy and riff-ridden track which has a more substantial feel right from the opening chords: "Coming soon... something good". The overt optimism - "I believe that we can change; we can make it more than a dream!" is deployed with an elusive, magical frisson rather than a full-on happy rant. This is a cautiously hopeful, slightly mystical song, and it strikes all the right emotional chords. The counter-harmony on the bridge - "Driving through the night" is top-notch. Great work, N&C.

7. Building a Wall

The thematic successor to the privacy, police-state concerns of Fundamental, this track boasts an engaging and catchy chorus. The "wall" operates at so many emotional, lyrical and political levels, referencing a lost world of Cold War spies and Hadrian's wall. They appeal to their childhood playing in the bomb-sites in the vanished England of Betjeman. I'm not exaggerating - Neil directly quotes him with "Sand in the sandwiches, wasps in the tea" before Chris deflates those pretensions with a withering "Who do you think you are? Captain Britain?" It's wonderful to see how the Boys have matured into middle-aged, small-c conservative English pastoralists :-)

8. King of Rome

A thoughtful, subdued and introspective track - a bit like "Before" but without the energy.

9. Pandemonium

I'm not the first to see a mental image of the TARDIS cavorting through time and space on hearing these opening bars, because the opening chords (a cynic might argue) bear a passing resemblance to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop circa 1963. This is a truly excellent track - really the only full-on PSB party anthem on the album. You don't have to be a hi-NRG music fan to appreciate the power and melody of this track.

10. The way it used to be

This is song is so good it is on a complete different plane of reality to the rest of the album. The ice-cold, withering opening is a heart-stopping emotional connection to the finest hour of "Behaviour" (1991) The song is a classic PSB theme, being a sad, mournful reflection on the transience of love. The bridge is hauntingly beautiful: "I survive with only memories, if I could change the way I feel. But I want more than only memories; the human touch to make them real". This is one of the Boys' finest songs, period - and proof that 25 years on, they have still got the raw talent that first drove their success.

11. Legacy

It's interesting to see that the Carphone Warehouse has achieved immortality in the PSB lyrics amid high-speed trains and other arcane historical references. I found the song a little jarring, unbalanced and confusing, myself, but on reflection I think that's the whole point. Top marks too for including "The Pilgrimage of Grace" into the lyrics - Neil is after all a History graduate. Poetic in its own strange way.

Design

"You don't have to be beautiful - but it's nice". The multicoloured rainbow tick is an intelligent and professional musical motif, which underscores the positivity of the title and helps lend an upbeat feel to the album. After all, this is probably their most optimistic work since Bilingual if not Very). The colour blocks hark back to the multicoloured stripes of "Introspective", which itself presumably references various gay rights and peace flags (or maybe just the TV test card). Popjustice tried to recreate the Very swish out of Starburst fruits, which worked rather well. It's definitely a design improvement on the grim shadow and darkness of "Fundamental".

I would encourage all fans not to purchase the single CD product portrayed here, but instead track down the black Special edition which features an exclusive track ("This used to be the future"), six club mixes and also a commentary and short film.

Summary

Yes is a charming album with some outstanding moments. Xenomania have made it smooth, light and poppy - all of which are fine things. But it lacks the dark grandeur or epic pretensions of the Boys' best work, and in my view is the poorer for it. True, "you don't need a super car to get far" - but sometimes I miss the sheer power and acceleration of an "Integral" or an "S&G Show".

There is one towering obelisk of a track - "The way it used to be" and one barn-stomer, being "Pandemonium". The rest is accomplished, but unmemorable. "Yes" is a high quality album, and essential for any PSB loyalist - but in the final analysis it falls short of being a classic.

(c) Eastern Star 2009

Summary: An accomplished album with some pinnacle moments - but not a classic.