Neil Tennant has never been one to shy away from the issues, but during his 35 years as a cerebral pop operator, he has usually held them at arm’s length, a Mona Lisa smile on his lips. This sangfroid cracked last year, when Pet Shop Boys released a political four-song EP about the breakdown of democracy. However satisfying it was to hear Tennant speaking more plainly, Hotspot – the band’s 14th album – returns to more sophisticated ways.
The title makes a typically oblique reference to the climate emergency; the bracken fires of Burning the Heather – released at the time of Australia’s peaking wildfires – add texture to the track’s wistful complexity. Dreamland is a sleek duet playing up the trans-generational simpatico between Tennant and Olly Alexander of Years & Years. At its heart is yearning – for the migrant’s safe haven, for a dancefloor utopia and for Berlin’s Hansa studios, where Hotspot was produced by Stuart Price.
Despite all the biting character sketches and evergreen dancefloor nous in evidence (both at once on Will O’ the Wisp), Hotspot has its cooler passages. Wedding in Berlin makes a bid for the dancing-down-the-aisle PRS rights to every future LGBTQ+ wedding, but strangely falls a little short of Pet Shop Boys’ usual peaks.
