Negative Positive
Title: Singularly Hitting Their Mark
Review: As if emerging from a swanky beach house, The Boys hit a smooth and consistently rich stride on their sixth album. "Discoteca" and "Single" accompany a sophisticated pleasure traveler with Spanish rhythm, "Metamorphosis" recapitulates an introverted man's growing up, while the beautiful "It Always Comes As A Surprise" seems to capture the northerner's amazement at his first night in tropical paradise. The self-referential "Electricity" and proud stances of "Up Against It" and "To Step Aside" show an artistry and intellectual cleverness that never falls out of rhythm, while "Se A Vida E," "Before," and "Saturday Night" celebrate sweetness in life without running aground, as happy anthems so often do, on shallow bromides, cliches, or repetitiveness. The Pet Shop Boys have given us a library of fine albums, and often, even finer remixes, and this inventive and pleasurable album perhaps shows them at their best so far.
Is the review positive or negative? 