This is the most essential album Pet Shop Boys have made in 20 years
Electric is the second really fantastic pop-dance blast of the year.
It’s absurdly furious dance music, sounding more like Squarepusher than any sane person could ever have expected.
The duo impressively join a raft of other legacy artists (David Bowie, Black Sabbath) in proving that getting older doesn’t mean you have to lose your passion for creativity or, in the case of Electric, your libido.
Most often, Electric generously references the type of sophisticated electropop that Pet Shop Boys pioneered on early albums Please and Actually.
With Electric, Pet Shop Boys have succeeded spectacularly.
It's the most simple, directly dance-oriented they've been since Disco, putting down a marker for the rest of the album.
It gets on the dance floor to create some bona fide hits of its own.
Electric is not only Pet Shop Boys’ heartfelt valentine to electronic dance music but also a reclamation of their part in its history.
Electric is a work of renewed purpose, whose short time-frame and scant tracklist belie the gems that lie within.
An excellent, unexpected, and infectious triumph.
More than three decades on from the day the pair first met in an electronics shop on the King's Road the Pet Shop Boys still manage to pack more ideas in an album than many others do in a thirty year career.
Their latest effort feels so fresh and vital that one can hardly believe that Tennant will be 60 next year; Pet Shop Boys are back in the prime of life, and their sound is electrifying.
Huge. Tasteful. Funny. Touching. Direct. Clever. As an exercise is sounding totally, defiantly alive, it is a complete success.
Tennant and Lowe's rueful melodies and vocals dilute the euphoria. Classic Pet Shop Boys, in other words.
Tennant and Chris Lowe hit far more often than they miss here; Electric is the most boisterous and lively Pet Shop Boys album since Very.
Age has not impaired Pet Shop Boys and the duo remains alive, proud, and for much of the time, electric.
Electric is their most immediate, jubilant record in at least a decade-- a return to a couple of elements of their work that had been lying fallow for too long.
A pulse-quickening, mind-tickling dance LP 27 years after their debut? This duo did much more than get lucky.
The title sums it up well: Euphoric, futuristic, electric. If you're still doubting if its worth your time, take a quick listen to Axis, one of the greatest and most euphoric opening tracks ever, with its futuristic dance production that keeps the listener hooked wondering where the song will go next. Its an almost instrumental-only song, with Neil saying the album title "electric" every now and then, for example, in between the break and the amazing beat drop in the very last ... read more
Axis ~ ★★★☆☆
Bolshy ~ ★★★☆☆
Love Is a Bourgeois Construct ~ ★★★★★
Fluorescent ~ ★★★☆☆
Inside a Dream ~ ★★★☆☆
The Last to Die ~ ★★★☆☆
Shouting in the Evening ~ ★★★☆☆
Thursday ~ ★★★★☆
Vocal ~ ★★★★☆
⏳ new & improved: time-weighted score ⏳
A return to form back to their synth pop roots. Electric has a lot to love but still feels somewhat dated and bland.
Best Track: Axis
Worst Track: Vocal
First Experience: Finally! After a series of albums with a shy energy, Electric brings back the power that had been lost in the last works. A group like Pet Shop Boys doesn't have vocals as a focus, so the instrumental side carries all the liveliness, so when we have less power in this aspect, the entire record is affected. We are back!
Added to my playlist: Love is a Bourgeois Construct, The Last to Die and Thursday.
The title sums it up well: Euphoric, futuristic, electric. If you're still doubting if its worth your time, take a quick listen to Axis, one of the greatest and most euphoric opening tracks ever, with its futuristic dance production that keeps the listener hooked wondering where the song will go next. Its an almost instrumental-only song, with Neil saying the album title "electric" every now and then, for example, in between the break and the amazing beat drop in the very last ... read more
1 | Axis 5:32 | 94 |
2 | Bolshy 5:44 | 84 |
3 | Love Is a Bourgeois Construct 6:41 | 93 |
4 | Fluorescent 6:16 | 91 |
5 | Inside a Dream 5:37 | 90 |
6 | The Last to Die 4:12 | 90 |
7 | Shouting in the Evening 3:36 | 78 |
8 | Thursday 5:02 feat. Example | 88 |
9 | Vocal 6:34 | 85 |
#5 | / | Idolator |
#10 | / | Slant |
#15 | / | musicOMH |
#17 | / | Obscure Sound |
#20 | / | MOJO |
#26 | / | The Guardian |
#26 | / | The Quietus |
#30 | / | Q Magazine |
#46 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#84 | / | Under the Radar |