Even the title sounds like one by the Pet Shop Boys. Artist and film-maker Sam Taylor-Wood has strengthened her collaboration history with the electronic duo, as she has just released I’m In Love With A German Film Star. Produced by the PSBs, and a cover of The Passions’ minor hit from 1981, it’s the third time she has teamed up with Neil and Chris, previously having sung on cover versions of Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus, and Love To Love You Baby.
Sounding unmistakably PSBs, and with more than a familiar nod to their Behaviour period, the song has few words, which is maybe why it works. The title isn’t just very PSB (Saint Etienne could have come up with it, too), but also very atmospheric; exactly like the music it is allied to in 2008. Chords pulsate and drift in and out, and the track drifts along, like the smoke coming from the end of Taylor-Wood’s cigarette on the cover.
Should the PSBs have thought to make it truly their own, vocal duties could easily have been taken on by Neil Tennant, as Taylor-Wood’s sung and spoken lines sound eerily similar to previous deliveries by the PSB front man. A massive four-format release (limited 7â€?, 12â€?, CD and download) reveal a seven-track package, with the best undoubtedly Mark Reeder Stuck In The 80s Mix. A homage to the original’s period, it’s all electronic drums, sitars, and New Order-esque hooks.
Some might say that this record is just a vanity project to garner interest in the boys’ new album, due for release next year. Produced with help from Girls Aloud and Kylie tunesmiths Xenomania (the Pet Shop Boys even co-produced a track, The Loving Kind on Girls Aloud’s new album, Out of Control), it promises to be a corker. But, with a BRIT award coming in 2009 for their 25-year outstanding contribution to music, surely they’re as relevant as they always have been. This record is proof.
Tags: Music, Pet Shop Boys, Sam Taylor-Wood