The debut album by one of the successful double acts in British music was first released March 1986, five years after Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe first met in a Chelsea hi-fi shop and bonded over their shared admiration of the latest Korg synthesiser.

Incredibly energetic as you would expect from an 80s dance pop debut album, Chris and Neil nonetheless managed to cram in a huge variety of tracks, with reviewers labelling it an “amusingly complete compendium of recent dance music styles”. This is perhaps a testament to their varied contemporary influences, aspects of which, Depeche Mode, New Order, Erasure, Soft Cell and Kraftwerk especially, can be heard in the synth melody and vocals all through the album.

The biggest hit from the album, number one single “West End Girls” has perhaps the most interesting backstory. While interviewing The Police in New York in 1983, Tennant sought out legendary music producer Bobby “Bobby O” Orlando, who agreed to listen to some of the songs he and Chris had been working on in their spare time and ultimately to produce them. Over the next year they recorded 11 songs, including what would become the basis for the iconic track, with Orlando playing most of the instruments and in charge of the mix. He was apparently fascinated by the concept of a Will Smith-style rap track but sung in British accent, and his mix went on to become a huge dance hit on the US West coast.

The version in this album was re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague after the band signed with Parlophone. While keeping the slightly hip-hop feel of the track, Hague used polyphonic synthesisers and denser layering to add depth to Bobby O’s more spartan version (which can still be found on the internet if you fancy a listen to the raw material). Despite this there is still a noticeable simplicity to the instrumentals compared to their later work, even if their vocal complexity was already apparent, a theme continued through the rest of the album.

This is the 2018 remaster on 1LP of 180g vinyl.

Jamie