YES!

Pet Shop Boys released an album called Yes last month. I finally picked it up after prying my ears away from the new Depeche Mode (which, btw, is easily my album of the year so far, and if you haven't heard it yet you FAIL). Embedded below is the video for their lead single, "Love Etc."



I'm not going to say that "hard-hitting" was ever an adjective I consciously associated with PSB, even at their raviest. Their appeal lies in the intertwining of their super-warm synth lines with sometimes cynical, sometimes wistful, sometimes hopeful but always thoughtful lyrics. I will admit, though, that my first reaction to this song was to scratch my head a little bit. It isn't a bad song, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it does seem to be somewhat... complacent, particularly coming from the group responsible for "Rent" and "Yesterday, When I Was Mad"; it's almost as if they internalized the arch pose of "Being Boring" to the point where it is no longer satire, it's their life. Two things happened that made me reconsider:

• I saw the above video. There still an aura of understatement about it, something kind of astonishing considering the dayglo color palatte and the hypnotically-rhythmic videogame imagery running through it, but it still brings a sense of vibrancy to the song missing from a cold listen to it.
• I listened to the full album. Not only is this song perfectly indicative of the lush atmosphere permeating Yes, its own charms are greatly enhanced by leading into a song ("All Over The World")that bases its bridge riff off of "The Nutcracker Suite"; it's difficult to get worked up over shoehorning limp football sloganeering into a song when you're boggling at the blatantly fake horns blaring the March at you. In all honesty, I can't decide if I love it or hate it.

At any rate, once I was able to realign my thoughts and place Yes in its proper place (warm, gentle album from aging synth-heads who are more interested in doing comfort food than pushing boundaries), I started enjoying it a lot more. I don't like it as much as I liked Fundamental or Release, but it's not something I regret buying. (The newest Prince albums, OTOH... Yikes.)

http://www.petshopboys.co.uk (dead end world?)
https://www.lotusflow3r.com/th3b0mb.html (what the hell, why are you ruining my childhood memories with this shit)