Only just released in late January this year, Hotspot is the Pet Shop Boys’ sexy, sweet and quite splendid 14th album. Along with fellow gay icons Kylie Minogue and Madonna (who also both issued their 14th studio albums recently), Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are true pop survivors of the ’80s. So many of the big pop names of the era (Prince, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and George Michael, to name but four) are no longer with us.
Hotspot is the third album in what has been a trilogy produced by Stuart Price, still remembered fondly for his glossy work on Madonna’s Confessions On A Dance Floor. This final missive is undeniably a love letter to Berlin, where most of the ten tracks were recorded. The opener, Will O The Wisp is classic Pet Shop Boys electro-disco with a shimmering 2020 sheen and coyly risqué lyrics about cruising the German capital, possibly the gayest city in the world.