PSBs are the UKs biggest ever selling duo. They've sold over 110 million records. How the hell did thy happen! ACTUALLY, their second album contains some classic electro pop and is regarded as their finest record.
First up the singles. 'Heart' was the fourth one released from the album and is treated dismissively by Tennant and Lowe. It's fun but throwaway and was originally intended as a potential single for Madonna. 'What Have I Done To Deserve This?' is a poppy duet with Dusty Springfield though her vocals are so heavily treated it hardly makes best use of her awesome vocal talents.
'Rent' is a great track. Not about a rent boy as had often been assumed but about a kept woman. Neil Tennant says in the album notes: "I've always imagined it's about a kept woman, and I always imagined it set in America. I vaguely thought of one of the Kennedys, for some reason, and imagined that this politician keeps this woman in a smart flat in Manhattan, and he's still got this family, and the two of them have some sort of relationship and they do love each other but it's all kind of secret..." It's a brilliant track with smart knowing lyrics but if I'm honest I prefer the Carter USMs cover version.
'It's A Sin!' is electro perfection. What a tune. About Tennant's religious schooling, it's dramatic, theatrical and overblown and lyrics loaded with Catholic guilt. Heavy on the synths, choristers and a synth orchestra it has to be one if the few number 1 records that feature Latin. Towards the close of the song there's a passage that translates as, "I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, act, and omission, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault". Intense!
The last highlight is final song 'King's Cross'. A melancholic end to a largely upbeat album. It's worth seeking out Tracy Thorn's version of this, especially the excellent Hot Chip version.
Beyond these five tracks I'm mot totally convinvced that the album holds up other than as a nostalgic eighties curio. Much of it sounds very dated. I think the problem is that a lot of electro pop from that decade is quite thin, there's not much weight or heft, not enough bass. Also Tennant's semi-spoken vocals and lyrics always are so intrinsically linked as the soundtrack of decade (especially tracks like 'Opportunities' or 'West End Girls') that it's hard to feel the relevance twenty five years later. The PSB have never enjoyed the same sort of credibility as the likes of New Order and though fondly thought of as a pop act they've become too cliched and easy to mock. Its impossible to listen to tracks like the hokey
'Shopping' and not think of the note perfect Flight of The Concords pastiche 'Inner City Pressure' (link below).
KINGS CROSS
IT'S A SIN!
RENT
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