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Yes is a super-concentrated hit of everything there is to enjoy about the Pet Shop Boys: danceable yet everyday pop, with irony behind the warmth and warmth behind the irony. One of their best.
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The hooks on Yes are as smart as Tennant's mouth, and on tracks like 'Pandemonium,' the disco's so primal, you could smash your bone china to the beat.
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For the first time in years, Pet Shop Boys sound thrillingly modern. The songs, too, are the finest in years.
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In the grand, elegiac 'Legacy,' singer Neil Tennant delivers what's either a farewell kiss or simply a cheeky end to the most thoroughly heartfelt chapter in the pair's 25-year story.
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It sags mid-album, but the Brits won't demand a recount.
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MojoIt's the same PSB sound--huge electronic hooks wed to archly recited lyrics. The only difference is almost every track here is a potential hit. [Apr 2009, p.100]
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Ultimately though, the credit for the triumph of Yes is Tennant & Lowe's. While Xenomania bring a confidence and focus, the big choruses and nagging melodies are present throughout.
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Pet Shop Boys have been deeply entrenched in their sound for several albums now. They're practically a genre unto themselves; not many bands, much less American ones, are still making the sweeping, orchestral dance pop that PSB pioneered.
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They're in a slump with their songwriting, and subject-wise, every song here has a companion piece on some earlier album, but that doesn't mean the party is spoiled.
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Yes sounds fresh, dynamic, and vital, while paying plenty of respect to Pet Shop Boys’ storied career.
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Fans hoping for a late-career renaissance might be let down, but the duo isn't slouching either.
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On the surface, this big-sounding album belongs with them, but the songs don’t stand up to scrutiny in the same way.
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On their excellent 10th album, the music leans toward the ornate, with snatches of Tchaikovsky and spaghetti-Western atmospherics enveloping the synths and house beats.
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Don’t expect any major changes to their 50-million-records-sold formula. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe keep things grandiose with paddy retro synths, discotheque drum machines and downtrodden lyrics.
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'The Way It Used To Be' is the best thing here, defiantly struggling against easy nostalgia, but nevertheless suggesting that the PSB melancholy vision of perfect pop is now, commercially, a period piece.
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Yes neither benefits nor suffers from Xenomania's attentions--only the opening Love Etc takes a co-writing credit--and it pootles along just as one would expect a moderate-to-strong Pet Shop Boys album to do.
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Q MagazineFactor in some amiable but lightweight filler and Yes falls maddeningly short of its glittering promise--a glimpse of pop nirvana when it should be the whole thing. [Apr 2009, p.109]
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It’s just a shame to have squandered the momentum of the Brits by turning in a weaker album than the lower key "Fundamental;" a good two decades after the event, the Pet Shop Boys have well and truly entered middle age.
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Tennant slaps his heart on his sleeve and gets on with things. The result isn't awful, although none of it is as spooky and playful as the cover of the Passions 'I'm In Love With a German Film Star' that the Boys produced for Sam Taylor-Wood last year.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 40 out of 48
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Mixed: 6 out of 48
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Negative: 2 out of 48
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Feb 2, 2020The best PSB album, nocap. I am incredibly surprised that an album such as Electric indeed got a better score.
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May 11, 2016
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Apr 8, 2016