Last week’s piece made an observation that while the fanbase was happy with whatever direction PSB would head, the general public wasn’t too enamoured by the political slant on the songs issues with the 2019 edition of Pet Shop Boys Annually.
Here’s wiki:-
“Dreamland” is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys featuring English synth-pop band Years & Years (the solo project of singer Olly Alexander). It was released on 11 September 2019 as the lead single from Pet Shop Boys’ fourteenth studio album, Hotspot.
During the writing process, Neil Tennant explained that the title of the track came when Alexander told the duo that he had just visited the Dreamland Margate amusement park. According to an interview in The Guardian, the trio wrote the track in 2017, with Alexander explaining, “I felt like I didn’t want to write about politics simply because I felt like I should but then last week I wrote a song with the Pet Shop Boys. It’s inspired by a fairground in Margate called Dreamland, but while I was writing it, Neil Tennant said to me, ‘This makes sense right now with Trump closing the borders.’ The song became something that touched on what’s going on in the world. I’d write lyrics and he’d say, ‘No, it needs to be more direct.’ He’d take a simple line and interject a subversive political statement. That’s the challenge as a pop writer, to do both at once”.
mp3: Pet Shop Boys (ft. Years and Years) – Dreamland
This one doesn’t sound like any sort of protest song. It’s synth-pop at its purest and most danceable, with an incessant beat that sounds great coming out of the radio. While it’s not entirely in keeping with my own tastes, It should have been a smash hit, the sort that gets you invited to appear on stages at free music festivals organised by pop radio stations, but I guess the music industry frowns upon OAPs trying to be hip and down with the kids. As it was, PSB ended up debuting the song live at the Radio 2 live festival in Hyde Park, London on 15 September 2019, just a few days after the CD and digital versions had been made available.
Two new songs were on the CD:-
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – An Open Mind
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – No Boundaries
It was now 35 years since the debut single, and still PSB were capable of jaw-dropping moments when it came to the quality of b-sides.
The fourteenth studio album was still a few months away from being released, but if these hadn’t made the cut, then it was understandable that fans were excited by what was coming.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
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