The Pet Shop Boys

The Pet Shops exploded on the British electronic music scene in 1985 with the force of a grenade. Neil Francis Tennant, the urbane and eloquent assistant editor of Smash Hits USA, suddenly resigned from his burgeoning media career to seek stardom in his own right. He teamed up with Chris Lowe, a musician he had encountered by chance in an audio shop off the King's Road in west London. Their double act soon became legendary, with the flamboyant stage persona of Tennant perfectly complemented by Lowe, a keyboardist perpetually cloistered behind dark sunglasses and a baseball cap.

Their debut single West End Girls was a hypnotic and edgy production, lyrically compelling and describing 1980s London as a virtual pressure cooker, with violence, lust and greed bubbling away beneath the surface. The inaugural album Please captured a perfect slice of Thatcherite Britain, mocking the crass materialism of the age with the cynical track Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) - a paean to capitalism that was taken literally by all too many.

The imperial phase of the Pet Shop Boys endured throughout the decade, as innovative electronic music, sly lyrics and pulsating hooks were showcased in albums such as Actually (1987) and Introspective (1988).The style was always urban and grimy, the music subtle and suggestive, the melodies impeccable. The synthesised romp of It's A Sin and the haunting, bleak cover of Always on My Mind (recorded to commemorate the King's death ten years earlier) are most emblematic of this period. Success in that most elusive yet lucrative of commercial markets, the United States, ensued.

The great musical overhaul of the early Nineties did not see the Boys fall from grace; rather, they demonstrated an impressive evolutionary ability. While Behaviour (1990) did not spawn a harvest of Number Ones in the style of earlier albums, it was widely hailed as a mature, reflective and accomplished work. Then, harnessing innovative computer technology in some eye-catching music videos, Very exploded onto the sonic landscape in 1993.

Very struck a different note to the brooding introspection of some of the Pet Shop Boys' previous work. It was optimistic, energised and proud; bravely taking the Village People anthem Go West and reworking it into a compelling fantasia of sound. The relentless anxiety of Can You Forgive Her? and the sheer exuberance of Liberation are other highlights on an album widely regarded as a master work.

The Pet Shop Boys continued to evolve their sound and scope in the Nineties, with the Brazilian beats of Bilingual (1996) and the Japanese cultural twists of Nightlife (1999). Some were not taken with the Beatles-style interpretations of Release, but all doubts were dismissed with the triumphant return to form of Fundamental (2006).

Fundamental is a grandstanding, barnstorming album that critics immediately hailed as a "return to form", though in the truth the form had never slackened. Still, Tennant and Lowe opted for the direct attack over the subtle metaphor, with tracks that excoriated the Blair-Bush political alliance and savaged British government plans for compulsory identity cards. The tracks also featured the lush Trevor Horn production that presaged the wider revival of Eighties synthesised music that was just around the corner.

Having decisively re-established their credentials as the kingpins of Eighties electronica, the Boys proved their ease with contemporary culture by working with star producers Xenomania on their subsequent release Yes (2009). It has been a long journey from that chance encounter in a record shop in west London, with so many milestones along the way.

One thing has remained constant. Chris Lowe, interviewed in 1986, made the following admission which was subsequently sampled in the dance track Paninaro: "I don't like country and western. I don't like rock music. I don't like rockabilly or rock n' roll particularly. I don't like much really, do I? But what I do like, I love passionately".

It is this passion that has made the Pet Shop Boys one of the most sublime, enduring and accomplished acts in English popular music.

Visit : Cuisinart Foods Processors, Cuisinart Coffee Maker find about the best egg cooker Cast Iron Skillet - If you are looking for quality Find Cheap Kitchenware here.