Give me indefinite leave to remain

On their best album in 13 years, the Pet Shop Boys make the first deliberate Pet Shop Boys album of their career -- which is to say, the first one which recapitulates familiar PSB themes and subjects (two other recent autumnal recordings include Prince's 3121 and Sonic Youth's Rather Ripped). This is Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe reminding their fans that no one else is as arch, as perceptive, as willing to accept human frailty -- and it doesn't make them wusses. Here's my review in the Village Voice.