Pet Shop Boys release new single ‘Monkey Business’

Synth-pop icons, the Pet Shop Boys have unleashed their latest earworm “Monkey Business,” which will feature on their upcoming album, Hotspot, out January 24th.

“Monkey business” is the third cut from the synth-pop duo’s forthcoming studio album which blends styles from Los Angeles and Berlin, following ‘Dreamland’ ft. Years and Years which was released last September, and ‘Burning the heather’ in November.

“Monkey Business” finds tech-pop sensations, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe creating a retro-chic track that blends a sonic-seventies-chic with the band’s eighties-synth roots.

The lyrics stay true to the tune’s boastful landscape as lead singer Tennant and the harmonised backup group sing of boozy and cruisy times, with a song that departs from the album’s first two singles.

“Bring me margaritas/Champagne and red wine/We’re gonna have a party/Where we all cross the line/I’m looking for monkey business.”

In a statement, Tennant and Lowe summarised that: “We’ve actually written, almost for the first time in our career, a groove song.”

The Pet Shop Boys formed in 1981 when Tennant met Lowe in an electrical shop on London’s King’s Road in 1981 – a year before he started as news editor on the pop magazine Smash Hits. Since then, the duo has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and written songs for starlets such as Australia’s pop-princess, Kylie Minogue.

Tennant is openly gay and came out to Attitude magazine in 1994 after Bronski Beat singer, Jimmy Sommerville accused Tennant and Lowe of “exploiting gay culture for career purposes, and not putting anything back in.”

“I do think that we have contributed, through our music and also through our videos and the general way we’ve presented things, rather a lot to what you might call ‘gay culture,” Tennant told Attitude in 1994.

“I could spend several pages discussing the notion of ‘gay culture’, but for the sake of argument, I would just say that we have contributed a lot. And the simple reason for this is that I have written songs from my own point of view…”

“What I’m actually saying is, I am gay.”

Tennant lost many close friends during the Aids crisis of the eighties, with the singer song-writer later drawing inspiration from his losses for many Pet Shop Boys’ songs, including the 1986 hit ‘Being Boring.’

The full version of ‘Monkey Business’ is set for release on February 7th on physical, digital and vinyl formats, and is available to pre-order here.

The Pet Shops Boys have also announced performances across the UK and Europe with their greatest hits tour – Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live – beginning on Friday, May 1st at Berlin’s Mercedes Benz Arena.  The tour will see PSB perform at arenas across the continent and the UK until June.

So get gay, and get groovy!