Pet Shop Boys - Hotspot

3.75

Rating

3.8/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Sounds like the Pet Shop Boys
Very nice productions, good to listen to

Flyctory.com Cons

Unfortunately not that much variety
Wedding in Berlin

Active since 1981, over 50 million records sold and a couple of massive hits that people still can sing on the streets – the Pet Shop Boys are legend of pop music history – the Guiness Book of Records even lists them als most successful British music duo. Hotspot, which Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe released on 24th January 2020, is the fourteenth album of that combo. Will there be a new It’s a Sin or Go West?

Pet Shop Boys – About The Artists

As you already see in the introduction – doing a biography of the Pet Shop Boys with the given space of a Flyctory.com posting feels like fraud. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who do music since they met in London in 1981 won three Brit Awards in their career and have been nominated for the Grammy six times. Some more stats? 22 Top Ten hits in the charts, four of them chart toppers: West End Girls, It’s a Sin, Always on My Mind and Heart are all legendary music tracks. Songs like Go West topped other markets like Germany. None of their thirteen studio albums so far missed the Top 10 in the UK. I will stop at that point – you know these guys anyway… As my Pet Shop Boys non-album track I chose Suburbia, one of my favorites, even though it did not reach the chart spot on the very top in any major market.

Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot – Track By Track

Hotspot lasts 42 minutes. The album consists of ten tracks.

1. Will-O-The-Wisp

The album starts with a straight electro-dance track.Will-O-The-Wisp already gives you a great Pet Shop Boys mood. Good song with a lot of atmosphere.

2. You Are The One

As I had quite a bunch of stuff to do in parallel on that 24th January 2020 release date, I just had the album running in the background – but the Electro-ballad You Are The One caught me from the very beginning. Amazing track with a lot of potential.

3. Happy People

So far, the album has some sort of time travel feeling to me. Happy People is a perfect example for that. The track makes me travel back to the early 1990s. Have the Pet Shop Boys even become older since then? Hard to believe, they could have delivered this one three decades ago as well – and it would have been a hit!

4. Dreamland

Dreamland has been published before the album already. The track, which features the London electro pop band Years & Years is another perfect example for this time travel feeling. Lovely atmosphere, typical Pet Shop Boys vocals.

5. Hoping For A Miracle

You’re hoping for a miracle
To run and win the race
Hoping for a miracle
To earn a famous face
Everyone loves you
Everyone needs you
You’ve got what it takes
You’re everywhere now

A slower track, which creates a lot of atmosphere with lounge-alike background sounds. Cool track!

6. I Don’t Wanna

Another really nice electric composition with a very good-to-listen-to chorus. You just hear in any song that you are in Pet Shop Boys country. Sometimes, they could surprise me any more.

7. Monkey Business

Monkey Business is another pre-released track. Very accentuated, hard voices at the beginning, strong rhythm. A good song – but definitely not my favorite.

8. Only The Dark

The track is a slower one – and it immediately think about Hoping for a miracle. The songs are very close on a melodic level.

9. Burning The Heather

This one makes me happy. Yeah, it is another slower track, but definitely has its oown style and character. Quite low level of electric sounds here. The Pet Shop Boys are also good when they break out a bit from their standards.

10. Wedding In Berlin

The track somehow feels to be a reference to Berlin, where Hotspot has been recorded – to me the final song of the album more feels like a bad electro-remix of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Wedding Match to me.

Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot – Spotify

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Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot – My View

I guess, there are just two ways how to review Hotspot: either you are an 1980s buff or Pet Shop Boys fan. Then you will celebrate this reincarnation of classic Pet Shop Boys sounds and love the album. If you do not belong to these groups, they may give you a tough time. The songs are catchy, but similar – and at least one of the “different songs” is a mess in my point of view. I like the Hotspot style – even though it is not one of the top albums to me.

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