Pet Shop Boys - Yes

The signs all boded well for a great new album. With 'Love Etc.' they'd come back with possibly the best single since 'West End Girls', the album has an iconic white cover just like the early stuff, It's got a nice compact eleven tracks and they'd been working with the production team behind some of Girls Alouds biggest tracks, Xenomania.

I've been a Pets fan since forever (In fact Please was one of the first albums I ever bought in a three for the price of one deal from the Britannia Music Club fact fans!) and let's be honest. They've never made a bad album. Some however are obviously better than others. While their last album Fundemental was widely regarded as a return to form it had a few too many slow tracks for my liking.

Yes kicks off brilliantly with 'Love Etc.'. It's a huge single with a cracking melody and chorus. It sounds utterly unlike anything they've done before but is conversely sounds instantly Pet Shop Boys.

After that it romps along with high energy pop numbers, particular highlights including, 'Vunerable' and 'More than a Dream'. The 'Boys barely put a foot wrong. The slow ballad 'King of Rome' is a nice change of tempo and remembers to include a tune you could whistle.

For me it's one track too long as the track 'Building a Wall' has a great start but then goes nowhere. Unlike similar Pets 'songs with a message' (See also: 'Integeral' or 'The Theatre') the message is strangely unclear. It also contains a cringe worthy 'Who do you think you are, Captain Britain?' spoken line from Chris Lowe. I'm guessing it's supposed to somehow hint at Neil Tennants previous life as a Comic (sorry I don't know whether it was Marvel or DC) editor but it sounds awful. Nothing like the iconic contribution he makes to the track 'Paninaro' ('I dont like country & western. I dont like rock music. Ehm, I dont like, I dont like rockabilly, rocknroll in particular, I dont like much, really, do i? [laugh] But what I do like, I love passionately).

Other than that though it's a thoroughly satifsying album. It's their best since Very which it fittingly reminds me of because it sounds so very Pet Shop Boys. There can be no higher praise than that.