''Electric'' is the twelfth studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was released on 14 July 2013 on the duo's own label, x2, through

Kobalt Label Services Kobalt Music Recordings is a division of Kobalt Music Group. KLS provides record label services to artists, receiving a share of revenues, while allowing artists to retain ownership of their master recordings. The company was founded in 2012 wh ...

. It is the duo's first album since their departure from

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

. In their native United Kingdom, ''Electric'' was BBC Radio 2's Album of the Week from 8 July 2013. It features a collaboration with English singer and rapper Example. ''Electric'' reached number three on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

and number 26 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, the duo's highest chart performances in both territories in 20 years. The album also performed well in other markets. It was supported by the

Electric Tour The Electric Tour is synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys' 2013–2015 world tour in support of their two albums Elysium and Electric. The first leg started on 22 March and ended in October in Mexico. The second leg of the tour was announced in Januar ...

which visited 46 countries through 112 concerts.

Background and release

Pet Shop Boys recorded the album in London, Berlin and Los Angeles from November 2012 to April 2013. On 30 April 2013, the duo announced on their website that they had recorded the album over the "last six months", with "Fluorescent" in particular written and recorded within the previous month.

Stuart Price Stuart David Price (born 9 September 1977) is an English electronic musician, DJ, songwriter, and record producer known for his work with artists including Madonna, Dua Lipa, The Killers, New Order, Kylie Minogue, DMA's, Example, Take ...

, who was enlisted to produce the album, finished mixing the album in late April 2013. When Pet Shop Boys began working with Price, they made it clear that they wanted to make a " dance record". Price stated that his goal was for every track to have a "euphoric, fresh feel to it". The more dance-influenced nature of ''Electric'' was a response to the "reflective mood" of their previous album, '' Elysium''. The album is the first Pet Shop Boys studio album that was not released through

. The 28-year relationship between the duo and the label ended when Pet Shop Boys announced that ''Electric'' would be released through

. Pet Shop Boys subsequently announced that the album would appear on their own label, x2 (pronounced "times two"), under the Kobalt banner.

Chris Lowe Christopher Sean Lowe (born 4 October 1959) is an English musician, singer and songwriter, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Neil Tennant in 1981. Biography Lowe attended Arnold School, an independen ...

was given credit for naming the label. Pet Shop Boys intend to release all of their future albums on x2. The album was simultaneously released worldwide on 15 July 2013 in four formats: CD, digital download, Playbutton and LP.

Promotion

On 14 March 2013, Pet Shop Boys debuted a short trailer for ''Electric'' on YouTube. In support of the album, the duo embarked on the

, which began on 22 March 2013 at the Cumbre Tajín festival in

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

, Mexico, where they debuted two songs from the album: "Axis" and a cover of Bruce Springsteen's 2007 song " The Last to Die". The tour's first official date took place at the

Movistar Arena Movistar Arena is a 17,000-seat multi-purpose indoor arena in Santiago, Chile. It is located inside O'Higgins Park, in downtown Santiago. Its main structure was built in 1956, but it remained unfinished and without roof, the roof was installed i ...

in Santiago, Chile, on 13 May 2013. On 30 April 2013, immediately following the official album announcement on Pet Shop Boys' website, the lead single "Axis" premiered online, and was released digitally the following day. The

Boys Noize Alexander Ridha (born 22 August 1982), better known by his stage name Boys Noize, is a Berlin-based German-Iraqi electronic music record producer, songwriter, and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he esta ...

remix of the song was released on 14 May. The second official single "Vocal" premiered on 1 June 2013 on DJ

Dave Pearce David Alistair Pearce (born 14 June 1963) is an English dance DJ, EDM producer and broadcaster, who has performed across the United Kingdom and the world. He previously presented ''Dance Anthems'' on BBC Radio 1 for ten years. He is renowned f ...

's BBC Radio 2 show ''Dance Years'', followed by a digital release on 3 June. A CD single, digital download and 12-inch vinyl single were all released on 29 July 2013, featuring new remixes of the song. A music video for the single was released on 18 June. The entire album was available for streaming in the United Kingdom via ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct" was released as the third single on 2 September 2013. The single contains remixes and two B-sides, "Entschuldigung!" and "Get It Online". "Thursday" was the fourth single from ''Electric'', digitally released on 4 November 2013. The single contains remixes and two B-sides, "No More Ballads", "Odd Man Out". The video footage for the video was shot in Shanghai. On 27 March 2014, Pet Shop Boys announced they would be releasing "Fluorescent" as a limited edition 12-inch vinyl to celebrate

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

2014 on 19 April.

Reception

Critical reception

''Electric'' received widespread acclaim from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 84, based on 28 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Dorian Lynskey of '' Q'' praised several songs on the album and noted, "With ''Electric'', Pet Shop Boys have succeeded spectacularly."

Simon Price Simon Price (born 25 September 1967) is a British music journalist and author. He is known for his weekly review section in ''The Independent on Sunday'' and his book ''Everything (A Book About Manic Street Preachers)''. Career Writer Pric ...

, music critic for the ''

Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', described the album as "sublime". The Telegraph commented "Electric is the second really fantastic pop-dance blast of the year".

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number three in the United Kingdom on the

, selling 15,715 copies in its first week, becoming their highest-charting studio album since '' Very'' topped the chart in 1993. In the United States, ''Electric'' debuted at number 26 on the ''Billboard'' 200 with first-week sales of 11,000 copies, becoming their highest-charting album since ''Very'' charted at number 20 in 1993. It also debuted at number two on ''Billboard''s

Dance/Electronic Albums Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Dance/Electronic Albums (formerly Top Electronic Albums) is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine which ranks the top-selling electronic music albums in the United States based on sales compiled by ...

chart.

Track listing

Notes * "Inside a Dream" includes a quotation from "The Land of Dreams" by

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

(1757–1827)

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Electric''.

Pet Shop Boys

Neil Tennant Neil Francis Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and music journalist, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Chris Lowe in 1981. He was a journalist for ''Smash Hits'', and ...

Additional musicians

Elliot Gleave Elliot John Gleave (born 20 June 1982), better known by his stage name Example, is an English musician, singer, songwriter, rapper and record producer. His name arose due to his initials being E.G., which is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ...

– vocals *

– additional programming ; additional vocals * Andy Crookston – additional vocals * Pete Gleadall – additional vocals ; additional programming * Luke Halls – additional vocals * Jessica Freedman – additional vocals * Katharine Anne Hoye – additional vocals * Adam Blake – handclaps

Technical

* Stuart Price – production, engineering, mixing * Pete Gleadall – additional engineering ; additional vocals recording *

Brian Gardner Brian Knapp Gardner, also known as Brian "Big Bass" Gardner, is an American mastering engineer. He has worked on a number of recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop punk and dance- ...

– mastering

Artwork

Farrow Farrow is a hypercorrected form of Ferror (''Farrar''), an occupational surname for a blacksmith or an ironworker, an old name of early Medieval English and French origin. The name derives from the Middle English and Old French terms "ferrer, ferr ...

– design, art direction * PSB – design, art direction * John Ross – photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums Albums produced by Stuart Price Pet Shop Boys albums