[Introspective] Dot Music review of Pop Art

[Grant]

I just saw this glowing review of Pop Art.  The reviewer, Jamie Gill, gives 
it 10 out of 10.

Grant

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It's been a long time coming, but England finally has good cause to crack 
open the champagne and celebrate. Not because the fraudulent Mr Bush has 
left our shores, nor even the rugby, but because of the release of this 
quite astounding record. It states its case clearly and convincingly: the 
Pet Shop Boys are probably the greatest pop act of all time.

Arriving fully formed with 'West End Girls' - still as sleek, smart and 
modern as it sounded in 1985 - the PSBs have enjoyed a career of startling 
consistency and vivid originality, releasing songs that have conquered 
dancefloors and hearts in every corner of the world. From thrillingly 
dramatic disco numbers ('It's A Sin', 'Always On My Mind') to subtle 
melancholia ('Suburbia', 'What Have I Done To Deserve This'), if you 
haven't fallen in love with at least one of these songs you are probably 
disturbed, deaf or dead.

The disc is split into two sides - 'Pop' and 'Art' - but this is a typical 
PSB red herring. Nothing on the 'Pop' side is as straightforwardly upbeat 
as the division suggests (try the mournful minimalism of 'It's Alright'), 
while every track on the 'Art' side bristles with hooks and nagging 
melodies (try the epic electronica of 'So Hard').

Where a greatest hits album often fails - particularly a double - is in the 
lesser known songs, but here 'Pop Art' triumphs. 'Love Comes Quickly' from 
1985 (a flop by their standards) remains their most gorgeous love song, an 
ecstatic deep-bassed swoon they never quite equalled, though 1994's 
haunting, low key 'Liberation' came close. 'Can You Forgive Her', on the 
other hand is a seething, bittersweet masterpiece of slashing strings and 
deadpan asides - "she's made you some kind of laughing stock/ Because you 
dance to disco and you don't like rock."

Only one criticism of the PSBs has ever stuck, and it's the old chestnut 
about their so-called irony. Whilst the slur applies to the kitschy cover 
of 'Go West' (one of just two so-so tracks, with the clattering 'Single 
Bilingual'), it's generally a grand injustice. It's impossible to doubt the 
sincerity behind 'Being Boring''s heartbroken love song to lost youth or 
the brooding unhappiness of 'Jealousy'. And if the sprightly 'I Get Along' 
imagines Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson's relationship as a doomed gay love 
affair, that's called wit, not irony.

It's sadly true that in recent years the Pet Shop Boys have faded 
commercially, although new track 'Miracles' has a sunny simplicity that may 
change that. Even if this is the last thing they record, however, the Pet 
Shop Boys have been one the few acts to push at the boundaries of pop, 
doing so with style, imagination, wit and love. 'Pop Art' is an essential, 
not a luxury.

http://www.dotmusic.com/reviews/Albums/November2003/reviews31627.asp