The Pet Shop Boys survived one-hit wonder status after the mega success of "West End Girls" by bringing elegant melancholy, ironic humor and cinematic orchestrations to electronic Euro-Dance. While Chris Lowe handles the BPMs and all the electronic gadgets, much of their success is due to Neil Tennant, who has a detached, John Lennon-esque vocal style and a love of such downbeat troubadours as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. While the excellent Behavior (1990) got them as far away from the dancefloor as they are ever likely to go, Nightlife sounds unimaginatively like the modern disco their critics believe them to hack out.
