Song of the Day: 'West End Girls' by Pet Shop Boys

Freshman year of college I remember my French tutor/new best friend forever Chantal picking me up for class in her silver Isuzu when this infectious new song was playing on the radio. "You've got a heart glass or a heart of stone. Just you wait 'til I get you home ..." Quickly we decided to ditch class and headed to Tower Records on Mill Avenue to buy this exciting new song by the "Pet House Boys" (OK, she was French and that's what she heard when the DJ introduced the song).

Twenty years later Michael and I are headed to see these Pet Shop Boys -- who are of course the grown men Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe -- at Radio City Music hall on Saturday night. Never big on performing live, I didn't see them on either of their earlier tours (one of which was so elaborate I believe it almost bankrupted them). Like many fans, after the career-defining "Behavior" in 1990 and dance-friendly "Very" in 1993, I kind of stopped paying much attention. It wasn't that they'd done anything bad, but the times changed and my interest just waned. Years after the fact I finally got around to picking up the CDs from the intervening period and I must say these guys never stopped making wonderful pop music. The video showcased above -- for the lush single "I Get Along" -- was from 2002's ridiculously good (and widely ignored) "Release" disc. (The video features a bevy of leggy gals and pretty boy models including dreamy Joseph Sayers, who Neil Tennant photographs with a Polaroid camera. It's a great clip that evokes Andy Warhol and the Factory.)

Knowing that the concert was a week away, I picked up their latest album "Fundamental" over the weekend and it too is wonderful from beginning to end. It's their first collaboration with Trevor Horn since 1988's "Left to My Own Devices" and has a modern sound with a retro vibe to it (the first song sounds like an homage to Kraftwerk).

Look for a concert review sometime next week.