After The Noise

Everything Is Equal

Wednesday 15 April 2026

Pet Shop Boys – Relentless (1993)

I’m very excited about seeing Pet Shop Boys in July. With their recent run of shows at the Electric Ballroom in London, digging out obscure tracks, I’ve found myself falling in love with them all over again.

Last time we had tickets was a disaster. We got to the outdoor gig in Preston, the rain was biblical, and we bottled it.

They’re back in the area for Lytham Festival, and this time we are not letting the elements win.

A love affair 40 years in the making. Although, over the years, I’ve dipped in and out. The singles are naturally cracking, but it’s always rewarding to go deeper into their work.

I’ve been listening to Relentless again.

Not really an album. Not quite an EP. A “mini-album,” which feels like one of those terms that only made sense in the 80s and 90s and somehow still sticks. Pet Shop Boys are no strangers to this sort of thing. See Disco and Introspective.

I discovered this via streaming a few years ago when it finally got a standalone release, having originally been bundled with Very.

Which says a lot. Almost hidden. Like it wasn’t meant to stand fully on its own, but clearly it can.

It’s a strange one.

Minimal vocals for the most part, which already feels like a bold move for Pet Shop Boys. Strip away Neil Tennant’s voice and you’re left with something else entirely. Not worse. Just different.

More club. More mood. Less song, more atmosphere.

You can hear them stretching out a bit. Letting things run longer. Not worrying about hooks or radio or any of that. Just building grooves and seeing where they go.

This absolutely deserved a standalone release. Although, given the commercial success of Very and the associated singles (Can You Forgive Her?, Go West), it might have been seen as commercial suicide.

Mind you, the same could be said of Introspective, and they got away with that.

This works on every level. It’s become a favourite on walks with my trusty hound. Once I discovered this gem, it quickly became one of my go-to Pet Shop Boys records.

There’s something quite hypnotic about it.

You put it on and it doesn’t demand anything. It just sits there, gradually pulling you in. Bit by bit. No big moments, no obvious singles. Just a steady flow.

It feels very much of its time as well. Early 90s, post-acid house, that whole shift where electronic music stopped trying to be pop and started becoming something else.

Pet Shop Boys were always clever with that. Knowing when to step slightly to one side of what people expected.

This feels like one of those moments.

A side project that isn’t really a side project.
An experiment that doesn’t feel forced.

Just them, doing something because they could.

And maybe that’s why it still works.

No pressure. No expectations.
Just a mood, stretched across a few tracks.

END OF LISTENING LOG

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