Consumer Guide Album

Pet Shop Boys: Bilingual [Atlantic, 1996]
Neil Tennant shores up his positivity with a shrug and a question mark. Does love seem arbitrary, ineffable? Well, "That's the Way Life Is"--"It Always Comes as a Surprise." Fortunately he hasn't given up disco, or satire either. Thus he leaves us wondering whether the hustling lip-syncher of "Electricity" has the same name as the computer-toting EEC hotshot of "Bilingual"--Neil. A-