Nightlife
On October 11, 1999, the Pet Shop Boys release their new album, Nightlife, which includes twelve new songs. The songs are variously produced by Craig Armstrong, Rollo, David Morales and the Pet Shop Boys themselves. On one song, “In denial”, Neil duets with Kylie Minogue. “In terms of its theme, the album reminds me in some ways of one of those Frank Sinatra albums from the Fifties like In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning.” Neil says. “It’s sort of modern pop-dance version of one of those, really, where a lot of the songs are about relationships, or waiting for your lover to come and see you, or wondering why something went wrong and a lot of it seems to happen at night, when people’s perceptions of life are different. In the middle of the night things seem more exaggerated – something bad seems worse, something good seems better. The album begins with ‘For your own good’, and in that song, it’s not really Neil Tennant singing it but a woman whose lover is out getting wrecked every night. She’s at home, waiting for her loved one to come and see her. On the final song, ‘Footsteps’, the lover hasn’t returned. He obviously did go clubbing. Again. The woman is at home, waiting, and the guy is in the club. And the record is on both sides. It understands both points of view.”