Music icons the Pet Shop Boys aren’t slowing down. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe recently released their 15th album Nonetheless on April 26 and the duo is certainly not taking their legend status for granted.
Even though Nonetheless was conceived as a collection of songs, Tennant told NME in an interview last month that he believes it subconsciously conveys a gay point of view. “I think this is our queer album,” he declared. In response, Lowe mock-gasped, ‘Really?! I’m taking my copy back…”
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In 1994, Tennant publicly came out as gay in an interview with Attitude, fearing Pet Shop Boys would be branded a “gay band.” In response to whether he feels things have changed recently, Tennant wasn’t so sure. He cited a sketch on Saturday Night Live from 2023 in which Timothée Chalamet depicts a Troy Sivan sleep paralysis demon (with tiny red undies). “I mean, you basically want Timothée Chalamet to take over the Troye Sivan project because he does it so well. But they say, ‘he’s not famous, he’s gay-famous.’ So I’m not sure whether your thesis holds up ’cause I think people still think a little bit like that.”
“What I think now is that what you might call gay culture has become mainstream. Several years ago, I went to see Jake Shears in Kinky Boots on Broadway. It was an essentially straight audience, and when the drag queens came on, they all went ballistic. I thought: ‘Wow, this whole thing’s just gone totally mainstream’ – and I think it’s ’cause of RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Nonetheless was largely written during the COVID-19 lockdown, when Tennant learned how to program in GarageBand with Lowe’s support. In contrast to the electro sound of their previous three albums, NME called Nonetheless “more lusciously orchestral” and saw the pair work with producer James Ford. In addition, Tennant praised his work with Arctic Monkeys’ 2022 album The Car.
NME called the song “New London Boy” one of Nonetheless’ standout tracks. Tennant tells the story of how she moved to London in 1973, sharing a flat with a group of “glam-rock 18-year-olds with dyed hair and Oxford bag trousers” before tentatively making his way into Soho’s gay nightclub Chaguaramas. “It’s about learning your sexuality, and I wanted to become a pop star, so the line: ‘Will I go all the way?’ is a double-entendre,” Tennant said.
In the middle of the song, he raps: “Skinheads will mock you / Call you a f—g / Last laugh is yours / There’s a brick in your bag,” his reference to both the abuse he endured from thugs and a drag queen in his hometown of Newcastle who hid a brick in her handbag for self-defense. “The spoken-rap bit is reviving the “West End Girls” style – that, by the way, is my instinctive rap style…” “Instinctive or only?” Lowe said.
“No, no, I’ve done other rap styles,” Tennant answered. “But as you keep pointing out, modern rap takes up a lot more words, whereas the classic early ’80s Grandmaster Flash style, which is the school I belong to, doesn’t take up as many words. Also, I like the rhythm of it because you can understand the lyrics.” “We should have just autotuned you and turned you into Drake!” Lowe suggested.
Having met each other in a hi-fi shop on London’s King’s Road in 1981, Tennant and Lowe have remained dedicated to raising pop to a higher level of quality, with a portfolio including 44 Top 40 singles, West End musicals, ballets, avant-garde movies, as well as collaborations with David Bowie, Liza Minnelli, Derek Jarman, Brandon Flowers, Dusty Springfield, Johnny Marr, and others.
Even though Tennant is approaching 70 in July and Lowe is 64, they remain on the road with the Dreamworld Greatest Hits tour, and a musical of The Emperor’s New Clothes, a story that Tennant feels is ever-relevant in the age of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. “We have a lot of energy,” he said.
In 1985, when the group signed a seven-album deal with EMI, their then-manager Tom Watkins predicted that the group would last less than three years. “I thought: I’ll show you!” recalled Tennant. To answer in modern terms what “era” they are in now, Tennant replied, “The ‘Nonetheless’ era. “Pet Shop Boys are always in the era of now.”
