The new Pet Shop Boys Disco 3 album is released tomorrow. It's the third album of this type they've released, following 'Disco' in 1986 (which was good) and 'Disco 2' in 1994 (which so wasn't). The album features ten dance-orientated tracks, all written, recorded or remixed at the same time as the last studio album 'Release'. The Boys have kindly set up a website where you can listen to the entire album before it's released, in the hope that you'll want to rush down to the shops tomorrow and buy a copy - which, having had the thing playing on auto-repeat all weekend, I most certainly do. This is a real return to form. As Neil Tennant says "It's the new Pet Shop Boys meets the old Pet Shop Boys" - and about time too. And hey, the cover is a shot of London by night, so I was bound to have fallen in love with it.
• Time on my hands: Chris Lowe's voice always adds a certain magic to a PSB song. A great opening track, and not just because it features counting.
• Positive role model: Sounds like Barry White's about to burst into song at the beginning, but no. Another typical PSB track with a vocoder one-note chorus.
• Try it (I'm in love with a married man): Written by producer and mentor Bobby 'O' in 1983. First heard (and enjoyed) on a John Peel session last year. Still wouldn't recommend 'trying it' though.
• London (thee radikal blaklite mix): You could never have danced to the original, but the remix is much better than its name.
• Somebody else's business: Decent dance music with intelligent lyrics? Beats most of the current floor fillers that just repeat the words 'reach', 'high', 'lift' and 'pap' in random rotation.
• Here (extended mix): Wry social observation, a sort of English version of Cher's 'Song for the Lonely'. Just much better.
• If looks could kill: Written in 1983, finally remixed and released here - the Boys could write a killer hook even 20 years ago.
• Sexy Northerner (superchumbo mix): I hate it when a remixer takes a brilliant song (in this case a recent ironic B side), removes all that was great about it and shoves a backing track underneath. Pity.
• Home and dry (blank and jones mix): ...whereas this one does still work (as proven on the dancefloor last summer). The lyrical theme of transatlantic distance resonates too.
• London (genuine piano mix): It's the slow dance number at the end of the evening. This is how to do a piano number - Elton John listen and learn.
