Taylor Swift launched The Tortured Poets Division, a shock double album, final week. On Monday night time, Pet Store Boys’ Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe sat down for a dialog with The Guardian critic Alexis Petridis forward of the discharge of their new album Nonetheless. Naturally, Swift got here up as a subject of dialog.
Early on within the chat, Petridis introduced up listening to Swift’s album and mused that the principle subject of pop in the meanwhile is the self. Tennant bounced off that: “That is my criticism. I believe once I introduced my lyrics e-book out six years in the past I did an interview with The Guardian and I believe I stated that then… That is ongoing. It’s the one topic. To have a profitable pop profession now you need to have a collection of relationships that are superb after which break up tragically.”
In a while, Tennant mentioned Swift extra instantly. “I used to be wanting on the chart earlier at present … and it’s all Taylor Swift.”
“I’ve listened to Taylor Swift’s album,” he continued. “Taylor Swift type of fascinates me as a phenomenon as a result of she’s so standard and I type of fairly like the entire thing. However then once I take heed to the data, and we each have the identical feeling truly, that for a phenomenon as huge [as she is] … the place are the well-known songs? What’s Taylor Swift’s ‘Billie Jean’?”
When somebody suggests “Shake It Off,” Tennant responded with: “Is it although? No, ’trigger I truly even know that that’s the reply, however I listened to that the opposite day, and it’s not ‘Billie Jean.’ It’s not… Melodically — she’s bought a terrific voice, by the best way, and the manufacturing’s lovely — however melodically … it’s all sung one or two notes going up and down… However, anyway, it’s an enchanting factor.”
When Petridis advised that Swift followers share a want for a collective expertise, Tennant responded: “I like that, I even type of admire that, and I like the truth that it brings all these folks collectively, even multigenerational, however I simply suppose that the one disappointing factor is the music. Not even the lyrics, the music.”