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Sep 11, 2012The understated beats suit their elysian equanimity.
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MojoSep 19, 2012It's a return to their best. [Oct 2012, p.83]
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Sep 10, 2012If Elysium has a weakness, it is the absolute absence of thumping disco-pop monsters. Once you accept that, and surrender to the tranquil beauty of Chris Lowe's synth textures, you quickly realise that Neil Tennant is on top lyrical form.
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Sep 6, 2012The result is one of their most serene and sonically consistent efforts to date.
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Sep 6, 2012Elysium could be Pet Shop Boys' warmest, wisest album yet.
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Sep 6, 2012With a record as good as it is, it's difficult to believe that both they and pop music aren't alive and well.
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The WireDec 5, 2012Some moments on the Pet Shop Boys' 11th album are as unsettling as any music released this decade. [Nov 2012, p.64]
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Oct 2, 2012[A] precise and neatly packaged 12-song collection.
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UncutSep 14, 2012More of this arch British sourness next time. Please. [Oct 2012, p.86]
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MagnetOct 1, 2012The flouncing, bouncy "Winner" is just the most hateful of the bunch, with insipid lyrics, overly bright production and a vocal line so pale it's opaque. "Hold On" and "Give It A Go" come damn near close to that level of dread. Luckily, though, those are the album's sole missteps. [No.91 p.58]
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Sep 19, 2012[There] are only the few standouts on an album otherwise comprised of facile dance tunes with overwritten lyrics.
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Sep 14, 2012Elysium is an interesting, sour, and insider-aimed dispatch from backstage, interrupted by some big moments that sound entirely commissioned.
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Sep 10, 2012Just another solid Pet Shop Boys album.
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Sep 10, 2012Their introspective, mainly mid-tempo 11th album is a massive foamy middle-finger to retromania, running elegantly from jangly indie to kraut jabs.
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Q MagazineSep 6, 2012Quarter-hearted anthems such as Winner fail to recapture the desperate glamour and delicate optimism of their best work, making Elysium the definition of a mixed bag. [Oct 2012, p.104]
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Sep 6, 2012Their 11th album is a peculiar listen. Half of it harks back to 1990's reflective masterpiece, Behaviour, with songs about ageing (Invisible) and escape (Breathing Space) exerting poignant pulls... The other half, however, feels bitter and flippant.
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Sep 6, 2012The lasting impression remains one of an unruly middle child, difficult to love, but unmistakably bearing choice hallmarks of its older siblings.
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Sep 25, 2012Tennant's mature gift as a lyricist is for sentimentality tempered by slyness, and he pulls that off a few times... Too much of Elysium, though, misplaces its subtlety.
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Sep 20, 2012Elysium is woefully short on what Tennant and Lowe do best, which is disarmingly sharp pop songs that stick in your head but also leave you thinking afterward. There are some good ideas at play here, for sure, but neither the music nor the lyrics do them justice.
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Under The RadarSep 6, 2012New record Elysium finds them sounding once again like proverbial fish out of water, only with far less aplomb. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.113]
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Sep 7, 2012Elysium is bookended by two of the best songs the Pet Shop Boys have written in years, but flags badly in between.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 23 out of 30
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Mixed: 4 out of 30
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Negative: 3 out of 30
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Sep 22, 2012
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Sep 12, 2012
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Jun 7, 2018