History

On September 10, a new Pet Shop Boys album, Elysium, is released. It was recorded in Los Angeles earlier in the year and its title came late in the recording after a photo session in the Los Angeles park Elysian Fields. “All the connotations seemed to work for the album. But also particularly we were obsessed with the fact that this is our most beautiful album. It’s a very beautiful title and also seems to be relevant to the themes of the album: love, death, paradise. Even L.A., of course.” The album is produced with Andrew Dawson whose work the Pet Shop Boys first noticed on Kanye West’s album 808s and Heartbreak. “I think some people thought when we were going to Los Angeles to work with Andrew Dawson that we were going to record a hip hop album,” says Neil, “but it’s still very much a Pet Shop Boys album. It’s got a lot of depth, that’s what I think about it. It’s got a lot of truth. It’s really about negotiating life at our age.” The deluxe and vinyl versions also include instrumental versions of all of the songs.

On October 12, a new Pet Shop Boys single, “Leaving”, is released. “It’s looking at the old cliché of ‘love doesn’t die’, so familiar in pop songs, and looking at the death aspect of it. It’s comparing the idea of love not dying with the fact that when a person dies there’s a sense that they don’t really die because although they’re not physically present their memory is still present and therefore in a way they have a presence in your life. And so it concludes ‘I can still find some hope to believe in love’. I always think it’s about a man and a woman, and that the woman is leaving and the man doesn’t want her to leave, and he’s explaining why he doesn’t really believe that the relationship is over.”

On December 5 the Pet Shop Boys play a one-off concert at the BBC Media City in Salford, performing an eclectic selection of current and old songs accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert, broadcast the following day on BBC Radio 2, features the premiere of one piece, “He dreamed of machines”, from their work-in-progress about the late British scientist, mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, A man from the future.

On December 31, a new Pet Shop Boys single, “Memory of the future”, is released in a version substantially remixed (the song has been both restructured and sped up) by Stuart Price and the Pet Shop Boys. “It’s a straightforward love song,” Neil explains. “You don’t get many from us,” Chris notes.

On January 1 – in the very first few minutes of the new year – the Pet Shop Boys appeared at the celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in front of an audience of over a million people, playing four songs: “Go West,” “Winner”, “Suburbia” and “Memory of the future”.

On March 13 the Pet Shop Boys announce that, after 28 years, they are leaving Parlophone records and that their next album will be released globally on their own label x2 (pronounced “times two”) through Kobalt Label Services.

On March 13 the Pet Shop Boys announce that, after 28 years, they are leaving Parlophone records and that their next album will be released globally through Kobalt Label Services.

On March 22 the Pet Shop Boys perform at the Cumbre Tajin festival in Mexico in what is effectively a prequel to their summer Electric tour. The set list includes two songs from their forthcoming album, “Axis” and a cover of the Bruce Springsteen song “The last to die”, both notably propulsive and electronic. “Our next album,” notes Chris, “is usually a reaction to the previous one.”

On March 22 the Pet Shop Boys perform at the Cumbre Tajin festival in Mexico in what is effectively a prequel to their summer Electric tour. The set list includes two songs from their forthcoming album: “Axis” and a cover of the Bruce Springsteen song “The last to die”, both notably propulsive and electronic. “Our next album,” notes Chris, “is usually a reaction to the previous one.”

 On June 2, “Vocal” is released as a digital single, though CD and vinyl versions subsequently follow. “Vocal” had originally been written for Elysium but set aside, then was transformed when they worked on it with Stuart Price. “Stuart made this probably the most euphoric piece of music we’ve ever produced,” says Chris. Even before its release, it becomes the regular final encore of their live show. A video, directed by the filmmaker and photographer Joost Vandebrug, uses Super 8 footage from raves in the late 1980s and early 1990s that, says Neil, “visualizes exactly what the song’s about,” says Neil. “It brought back a lot of memories,” adds Chris.