This month’s Gay City News music roundup reviews new albums by gay synth-pop icons Pet Shop Boys and trans “ambient emo” artist Claire Rousay.
Pet Shop Boys | “In any way” | Parlophone/Warner | April 26
At this point, we know what to expect from the Pet Shop Boys: wry but heartfelt lyrics, music that synthesizes disco and synth-pop, arena-ready production. “In any case”, his 15th album, provides while going in a new direction. It emits a mood of jaded melancholy, with late 60s Scott Walker, Roxy Music’s “Avalon” and 80s sophistipop as touchstones. Propelled by strings, “A New Bohemia” and “The Secret of Happiness” are orchestral pop. The album suggests a middle-aged man who goes clubbing and spends his time alone, watching other people having a good time. (“Why Dancing?” He revisits Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own,” no doubt asking “what am I supposed to celebrate, here alone?”) “New London Boy” returns to the memories of a man from the ’70s ( “Everybody’s dancing to Roxy and Bowie … hanging out with my glam-rock brothers”), when wondering “Are they all gay? / Just kidding?” The video for “Loneliness”, set in the English city of Sheffield in 1992, is an elaborate short film about a young man’s sexual experiences, including the cruise urinal. Even “Dancing Star,” which tells the story of ballet artist Rudolf Nueyev’s defection from the USSR to embrace his talent and bisexuality in the world, looks to the past.
Looking into the past, “Nunque” leans towards ballads. Even the apparently autobiographical texts are addressed to “you”. Coming from singer Neil Tennant, who turns 70 this summer, lines like “where will you run now from the loneliness?” and “the secret of happiness was always hidden from me” hit harder than they could from a young man. While the album is uneven, with “A Bullet for Narcissus” and “Love Is the Law” closing in on an anti-climax, the slower songs are standouts. The most danceable strive for energy. Even if the strings are real, they’re tinny and boxy, except for the lush “Secret of Happiness.” Working with a live orchestra could have improved the album. Including “Dancing Star” B-side “Sense of Time” would also liven up the album, while Solomun’s remixes of “Dancing Star” itself bolster the song’s groove.
Returning to their first successes in the 80s, the group put unpleasant feelings into danceable songs: “West End Girls” opens on the image of a man contemplating suicide. “Domino Dancing” and “Being Boring” mourn the death of friends from AIDS. “In the ’60s you could feel the freedom,” Tennant sings in “Dancing Star,” as he muses “I wish I lived my life free and easier” during “A New Bohemia.” Even with the need to carry a brick to fight potential gay-bashers, “New London Boy” presents the ’70s as a time of new possibilities. Without coming out and saying it directly, “Anyway” is permeated with the feeling that the present moment is just as violent, but lonelier and more somber. Half the time, it mines something powerful from that feeling.
Claire Rousay | “Feeling” | Thrill Jockey
Claire Rousay’s music combines sounds that are not supposed to gel, even those that are not normally considered musical. His 2021 song “discrete (the musical)” begins with a sample of a typewriter, before a synthesizer begins to drone, and the noise of everyday life recurs throughout. He placed such noises against emotive piano and violin passages. His music has an informal vibe, sketching his experiences in the moment. While he relies on acoustic guitar on his latest album “Sentiment,” he also sings through Autotune, turning his voice into an electronic croak.
Rousay’s music can be enigmatic, even as it includes the sound of her own voice singing and speaking. “Feeling” goes on a much more direct note. “4pm” begins with Theodore Cale Schafer speaking a text written by Rousay about depression: “I have never felt this alone and discarded in my life … I can already say that this text is or will sound like a note of suicide or a pathetic attempt to sound real”. The sound of a drill interrupts him, taking over almost the entire song. It would be difficult to get the album on a more subdued note, but the simple guitar of “head” changes the mood.
Although “Sentiment” is not Rousay’s first album for a label, Thrill Jockey is the biggest one he has ever worked with. In recent years, it has connected directly with its audience, offering a subscription service that provides exclusive music every month. Comparatively, “sentiment” offers the most accessible music she has done. The album softens the field recordings, although the birds chirp their way through “sycamore skylight” and the interlude “w. sunset blvd” only plays a conversation, and flirts with indie folk. Vocals, guitars and drums are placed in the center, while samples add aromas. The feeling of witnessing life in the middle of the experience was removed. However, his music stretches into soundscapes, with heavily processed vocals over acoustic instruments, rather than quick fixes. The slow rhythm and mood presents the emotions of the songs as if they had emerged completely formed from dreams.
