Night Life

時代の音を作る、ポップの錬金術師のすべての技がここに…PET SHOP BOYSがParlophoneレーベルに残した作品を再探訪するリイシュー・プロジェクト《CATALOGUE: 1985-2012》始動!彼らのカタログ作品が新リマスター音源を使用したアナログ盤でも登場!

Rolling Stone (11/11/99, pp.133-4) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...The faithful will find plenty of kicks on NIGHTLIFE. The ornate song structures are more Sondheim than Sylvester, but the future-cheese electrobeats hit home..." Rolling Stone (11/11/99, pp.133-4) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...The faithful will find plenty of kicks on NIGHTLIFE. The ornate song structures are more Sondheim than Sylvester, but the future-cheese electrobeats hit home..." Spin (12/99, pp.222-3) - 8 out of 10 - "...the rare career act able to turn DJ aesthetics into consistently fruitful pop....a bittersweet beauty with waves of melody and understated romance..." Spin (12/99, pp.222-3) - 8 out of 10 - "...the rare career act able to turn DJ aesthetics into consistently fruitful pop....a bittersweet beauty with waves of melody and understated romance..." Entertainment Weekly (11/5/99, pp.82-3) - "...serves sumptuous techno-pop ditties as if they were flutes full of decadent absinthe. And they do so with grace, poise and cabaret camp..." - Rating: B+ Entertainment Weekly (11/5/99, pp.82-3) - "...serves sumptuous techno-pop ditties as if they were flutes full of decadent absinthe. And they do so with grace, poise and cabaret camp..." - Rating: B+ Q (1/00, p.85) - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1999." Q (11/99, p.128) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...their best album....Nightlife comprises 12 sprightly, sensitive, elegiac songs, loosely based around the title....a perplexingly wondrous renaissance...." Q (11/99, p.128) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...their best album....Nightlife comprises 12 sprightly, sensitive, elegiac songs, loosely based around the title....a perplexingly wondrous renaissance...." Alternative Press (2/00, p.88) - 5 out of 5 - "...a coherent, cohesive and engrossing 12-track string of choral harmonies, new-wave synths and agitated club-hopping full of production numbers....an inward-looking melancholy examination of the dance-club lifestyle..." Mojo (Publisher) (11/99, p.117) - "...arguably their gayest work....a marked improvement on the the decidedly dubious BILINGUAL....Few surpises, perhaps, but at least they're back on track." Mojo (Publisher) (11/99, p.117) - "...arguably their gayest work....a marked improvement on the the decidedly dubious BILINGUAL....Few surpises, perhaps, but at least they're back on track."

Nightlife is a loose concept album -- more of a song cycle, really -- about nightlife (naturally), a collection of moods and themes, from love to loneliness. In that sense, it's not that different from most Pet Shop Boys albums, and, musically, the album is very much of a piece with Very and Bilingual, which is to say that it relies more on craft than on innovation. Depending on your point of view, this may not be such a bad thing, since Pet Shop Boys specialize in subtle craft and masterful understatement. Such skills serve them well when they're essentially following familiar musical territory, which they are on Nightlife. At its core, the record is very much like Very -- a clever, skillful updating of classic disco, highlighted by small contemporary dance flourishes, and infused with a true sense of wit, sophistication, and intelligence. Pet Shop Boys do this music better than anyone else ever has, and they're at the top of their form here, but it's hard to shake the initial impression that they've done this before. Each individual song works beautifully, from the wistfully dejected "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More" to the exhilarating Village People homage "New York City Boy," but as a whole, Nightlife seems less than the sum of its parts. Repeated listens reveal the songs' charms, yet Nightlife coasts on its craft a bit too much, which makes it feel like one of their second-tier albums. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine