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Pet Shop Boys affirm history

“YES,” Pet Shop Boys (Astralwerks)

Given the changes in pop music in general and electronic music in specific, it’s remarkable that the Pet Shop Boys’ new “Yes” sounds so much like the U.K. duo sounded 25 years ago when it unleashed “West End Girls.”

That first hit, released when Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe were in their 20s, helped pioneer a moody wave of electronic-beat music. A quarter of a century later, and “Yes” harkens those same Pet Shop Boys — not retro, really, but certainly not progressive. Tennant and Lowe established a niche and stuck with it — an unapologetic pop/dance style keyed to Tennant’s nasal, high-pitched vocals and Lowe’s ponderous synthetic notes.

To be fair, PSB has experimented with tone and theme over the years, but the act is entrenched in a mostly dark, mostly rhythmic, accessible realm.

The process of making “Yes,” recorded by U.K. production house Xenomania, began when the duo was asked to write songs for Kylie Minogue (that she subsequently did not sing), which put the pair in a pop mindset. Tennant and Lowe dispatch the resulting hooky cuts in familiar fashion, though there’s a spring in the cadence of the opening track/first single “Love etc.” that reaches the innocent conclusion that, indeed, all we need is love.

The glossy songs play out in traditional PSB fashion with only Xenomania’s layers complicating matters — as with the wall-of-sound orchestrations of “Beautiful People,” a Spanish guitar dropped in the sweep of “Vulnerable,” and a carnival of constructions for epic closer, “Legacy.”

Still, there’s a comforting familiarity to the collection, be it in the bossy beat of “Pandemonium” or the wistful ballad “King of Rome.” As Tennant and Lowe glide through middle age, they maintain their knack for beguiling melancholia where romanticism and cynicism go hand-in-hand.

It’s an old shtick, but it’s a reliable one.

Rating (five possible): 3-1/2

Ron White keeps his problems in check

“BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS,” Ron White (Capitol)

All successful comedians fuss over their material, but few make the delivery sound more spontaneous than Ron White.

There’s a potential backlash to his easygoing style because audiences may not appreciate the humor that results from White’s storytelling as much as they would the laughs elicited by a comic who obviously tortures himself over every word of his performance. Yet on the flipside, White’s conversational style keeps the momentum steady and makes him virtually flop-proof.

On his new “Behavioral Problems,” for example, the crowd goes with the flow as he makes several flubs — including saying “peaches” instead of “pizzas,” “UFO” instead of “USO” and “specific ocean” instead of “Pacific Ocean” — and then delights when he makes off-the-cuff quips to go with his mistakes. He also so deftly handles the situation when a punchline fails that you wonder if he might have deliberately sabotaged the joke.

The Texas native explodes the Southern corn-pone stereotypes unfortunately reinforced by his “Blue Collar” co-horts (Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall), performing unconventionally urban material loaded with drug, alcohol and sex humor for an enthusiastic Seattle crowd (and it’s not easy to find an American city more removed, both physically and mentally, from the South than Seattle).

The scotch-and-cigar loving White talks about his arrest for marijuana possession, bad English food (“They took us to a place called the Fox and the Hound, and I’m pretty sure that’s what we were eating”) and sex with his wife (“She knows what I like, and I know what she won’t do”). The comedian is tough-talking with his Texas drawl, but not mean spirited. Even when his stories have conflict, as when he bites his tongue around his caustic sister-in-law and when an insolent valet wrongs him, White is ultimately a hero as well as a rascal.

“Behavioral Problems” is a generous 69 minutes — many comedy albums are only have as long — and even if it doesn’t rate repeated listens, it’s worth at least one good one.

Rating: 3-1/2

Meg and Dia challenge suppositions on ‘Here’

“Here, Here and Here,” Meg and Dia (Warner Bros./Doghouse)

There’s long been an association of resonant voices with the term “soulful,” as if the penetrating richness in tone somehow carries deep meaning. So it stands to reason that there’s a supposition that high and thin voices probably don’t bear emotional weight.

Put those high, thin voices in the body of young, attractive women, and that’s the uphill battle faced by sisters Meg and Dia Frampton.

Undeterred by the hand dealt them by nature — one that would predispose them as pop stars — the Utah natives doggedly force themselves into an alt-rock frame with the help of producer Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, the All-American Rejects) on their new “Here, Here and Here.” And to emphasize how serious they are, the title is borrowed from a quote by Mozart, who said composers should focus on their hearts, minds and ears.

Meg & Dia (Meg is vocalist, Dia is a vocalist/guitarist, and the act also includes drummer Nick Price, bass player Jonathan Snyder and guitarist Carlo Gimenez) follow through with rock and hard rock songs about superficiality, introspection and ideals. The relationship-oriented tracks are skewed or even vicious: On “Bored of Your Love,” guest duet vocalist Tom Higgenson is assaulted with such lines as, “I’m bored of your face.”

With its infectious hooks and instrumental oomph, “Here, Here and Here” is reminiscent of 1990s chick bands and riot grrls, though more earnest and heavier. Adding to the restless context is the odd juxtaposition of girlish vocals that sometimes border on annoying with music that sometimes borders on bluesy or metallic. However, taking into consideration the sisters’ gutsy attempts at nuanced delivery and their sincere lyrics, it’s clear that the Framptons may not be gifted with naturally appealing voices, but they’re doing the best they can with their hearts, minds and ears.

Rating: 3-1/2

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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