Pet Shop Boys have released some new music, with both a new single and an EP out today.

First up is the track Cricket Wife. The song is just one second off being 10 minutes long, and features an orchestral piece of music created by Chris Lowe, which has been teamed up with a poem written by vocalist Neil Tennant.

The pair created the work last year during the United Kingdom’s first lockdown, working in their separate homes. The track is dramatic, regal and stunningly beautiful.

The second track on their digital single is the new ‘lockdown’ version of their breakout hit West End Girls. 

The duo’s second release out today is music they created for a stage adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Launderette. 

Based on his award winning 1985 film, Kureishi adapted his work for  a stage production that toured the United Kingdom in late 2019. Pet Shop Boys wrote two new songs and supplied four peices of instrumental music for the work.

The EP is filled with the Pet Shop Boys classic electronic sounds and witty lyrics, especially on the tune Angelic Thug. The EP successfully combines the sounds of tradition Indian music with the sounds of the dance floor.

The dual new releases follow the band’s recent live concert collection Discovery (Live in Rio). The recording of the band’s massive 1994 tour features them not long after the release of their Very album. The physical release comes with Neil Tennent’s tour diary where he documents the band’s show at the Perth Entertainment Centre and he notes going out to dinner with local legend Dixie Battersby.

My Beautiful Launderette is not the groups first theatrical foray. They previously wrote their own music Closer to Heaven, and in 2019 created Muzik a follow up cabaret show with actor Frances Barber.

Pet Shop Boys have also created a score for the classic silent film Battleship Potemkin, a ballet The Most Incredible Thing and the soundtrack to the film The Crying Game. Plus they’ve written tunes for Liza Minelli, Dusty Springfield, Tina Turner, Kylie Minogue, Shirley Bassey and Pete Burns, and collaborated with Robbie Williams, Elton John, Years & Years and David Bowie.

OIP Staff

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