Breaking news: Pet Shop Boys announce new album!!

I woke up this morning to the unexpected (but terribly exciting) news that Pet Shop Boys - one of my absolute favourite artists - have signed to a new label and are releasing a new album in June titled Electric. Rumors of a new release in 2013 have been doing the rounds in the Pet Shop Boys fanbase for some months now. Many fans, including myself though thought that the new release would take the form of a mini album like they've done previously with Relentless. I certainly didn't think it would be a new album. Like I said at the start they've also announced that they're leaving Parlophone after 28 years. I'm quite pleased really. I really liked Elysium as an album but I did feel that Parlophone were perhaps a bit negligent with them. Barely any promotion, not even a video for the third single, and the label made them change the lead single at the last moment, hence why Winner was the lead single. It seems the whole Elysium era has been put to bed rather quickly. But I digress, so what is the new album sounding like? They've released a teaser and it sounds like their most dancefloor oriented release in years. Listening to it some of the arrangement sounded very 80's to me, and some of Chris' vocal samples made me think of Time On My Hands from Disco 3. Having said that, it is also very current and fresh, definitely not them just merely retreading on their post glories at all. The teaser - like the whole album - was produced by Stuart Price who also did the sound for the Pandemonium shows. He also remixed Memory Of The Future for single release. He's also produced for The Killers and Madonna. I like him an awful lot as a producer - I had actually wished they would work with him for the new album. Even the visuals for the teaser seem retro and yet futuristic: they reminded me of updated Very era visuals. New label, new album and a new start for Pet Shop Boys I think. I cannot wait for Electric in June!

Click here for the Electric teaser!