Pet Shop Boys

Could there be a more perfect marriage of pop sensibilities than the Pet Shop Boys
covering a Village People hit? You wouldn't think so. Yet the version of "Go West" that
closes Very is hardly the campy romp casual fans might have expected. In fact, there's
something ineffably sad about this remake. Because where Victor Willis' vocal on the
original infused its lyrics about a gay promised land with a sense of manifest desti... More >

Fey and ironic naturellement, but I wasn't ready for baroque--techno synths, massed brass, Village People chorus boys. And I also wasn't ready for sincere. For all his "I've been a teenager since before you were born," Neil Tennant finally seems, well, ready to love--finally seems to comprehend that needing another human being is more than an experiment you perform on your feelings, a way to insure that you'll not only be ravished but ravished exquisitely. Convinced cornballs may still find his emotions attenuated, but I say the production values suit the tumult in his heart and the melodies the sweetness in his soul. And I dare anybody who still thinks he's just talking to notate his high notes. (Grade: A)