Pet Shop Boys continue to impress even after four decades of pop perfection
Attitude magazine, it was public confirmation of what many already suspected. You didn’t have to be gay to pick up on the queer-coded lyrics to some of the Pet Shop Boys songs, but it was right there from the get-go.
On the 1986 debut album, Please, “I Want a Lover” resonated with any gay man who went cruising on the bar scene. Sophomore album, Actually, offered up ‘It’s A Sin”.
It chimed with anyone who’d been raised to believe their attractions were inherently immoral. “Rent” was vague enough to apply to anyone in a relationship with a wealthy benefactor, but also tipped its hat to the British slang for gay escorts (“rent boys”).
Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.On “Being Boring”, when Tennant sang “all the people I’ve been kissing, some are here and some are missing, in the 1990s”, most gay listeners understood it to be a reference to AIDS.
