PET ShOP BOYS

Nightlife: Further Listening (1996-2000) 7/10 Kicking off a PSB reissue programme of treasure-filled multi-disc packages

this eclectic 1999 collaboration with Craig Armstrong and Rollo from Faithless came as the big hits were drying up and Neil tennant’s Noël Coward-ish fondness for “the potency of cheap music” was becoming supplanted by flirtations with high art (Kabukithemed stage shows designed by Zaha Hadid, orchestral hook-ups, Rachmaninov samples and so on). Highlights include the country-tinged “You Only tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk”, the Morrissey-esque “Boy strange”, the Kylie duet “In Denial” and the dark Philly disco of “New York City Boy”. Also part of the first wave of this mammoth reissue programme is the rockier Release (2002), where guest guitarist Johnny Marr helps to literalise tennant’s old suggestion that PsB were “the smiths you can dance to”; while 2006’s Fundamental is a return to Kraftwerkian electronica featuring some wonderfully theatrical touches on “the sodom And Gomorrah show” and the amusingly dark “Casanova In Hell”. Extras: 8/10 two extra discs provide a treasure trove of contemporary tracks and demos, including a heart-tugging version of Noël Coward’s “sail Away”, a hook up with Elton John, and several songs from their 2001 West End musical Closer To Heaven (including the hilarious sondheim parody “tall thin Men” and the defiantly anti-rockist “Friendly Fire”).