Pet Shop Boys: Release : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

It must be said: The Pet Shop Boys are among the finest British songwriters to emerge from the Eighties. Many rockers might find that notion ludicrous, because they can't get past the British duo's willfully synthetic textures and trend-conscious beats. Yet admirers of melodic craft and pointed poetry -- even those stricken with synth-pop allergies -- should consider Release. Some arrangements remain lush, while others keep computerized time, but the strongest voices on this singer-songwriter affair are the Pet Shop Boys' vocalist Neil Tennant and ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Experience has weathered Tennant with a resigned warmth that extends far beyond "West End Girls." Marr holds back the bombast that has hindered his solo career, and there is nothing here that is vaguely "ironic," a tag that has plagued the Pets. Even "The Night I Fell in Love" -- in which the narrator wakes up next to a surprisingly polite performer who seems to be modeled on Eminem -- is delivered with wide-eyed wistfulness. For this sweet love hangover, these grown-up romantics don't need a cure.

BARRY WALTERS
(April 23, 2002)