The Pet Shop Boys Are Having a Renaissance.
This is a great moment to be the Pet Shop Boys. The ultimate Eighties synth-pop duo are having a renaissance right now, just in time for the 40th anniversary of their classic hit “West End Girls.” They have a brilliant new album, Nonetheless, their zippiest of this century and one of their best ever. New fans are discovering them in films like Saltburn and All of Us Strangers. They even scored the ultimate 2024 status symbol: a beef with Drake, after Aubrey Graham used “West End Girls” without permission for “All The Parties.”
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have been musical partners for over 40 years, without hating each other or breaking up or going stale. The London duo blew up in the 1980s, writing deeply weird hits about sex and money, from “Rent” to “Opportunities” to “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” Neil was the chatty singer, Chris the deadpan synth boy. The Petties brought divas like Liza Minnelli and Dusty Springfield back to pop radio. They made their electro-sleaze trilogy of Please, Actually, and Introspective. Yet they topped it with their 1993 coming-out album Very, a queer pop landmark. Cardi B has been a proud superfan her entire life.
Their Eighties classics are having a resurgence—who can forget the moment in Saltburn when Barry Keoghan sings “Rent” at karaoke? So the Pet Shop Boys picked the perfect time to come back strong with Nonetheless, the album they wrote long-distance during the pandemic, with bangers like “Loneliness” and “Dancing Star.”
Both of the Boys are absurdly great at conversation—constantly howling with laughter, bantering, theorizing, quipping about pop stars they like, cackling about ones they don’t. Neil and Chris have the dry wit of a classic English comedy duo. They spoke to Rolling Stone about their new album, artistic longevity, their Drake controversy, why “cheap music” is the best, making “West End Girls,” Oscar Wilde, Cardi B, hearing their songs in films, enjoying Harry Styles, not enjoying Taylor Swift, Eighties sleaze, John Mulaney, and why albums shouldn’t go on longer than 45 minutes.
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