The Currency We've Spent

Blogmarch's more disco-enhanced readers may already be familiar with the work of West End Girls, the pair of Swedish teenagers who cover Pet Shop Boys with a suitable lack of gusto. They are great, partly cos the taller one is 'Chris', and the shorter one is 'Neil'. That is to say, they aren't doing an impression, but performing 'after' the PSB: they employ dogs, builders hats and dayglo miserablism, but leave it at that. This gives them room to be thrillingly different, while bringing a lovely dumbness to the songs. And the singer has that clogged up, Eurobeat voice so associated with crackers Scando-pop. It just pushes the Pet Shop Boys' careful balance of disco and songwriterliness hard over towards the spangly side. The effect is vapid and disposable in a way you imagine Neil and Chris really enjoying. Well, Chris at least. Make sure you hear the version of Suburbia recorded for The Sims (the Booglurbia mix) by the way. Yer Marshall Mcluhan would get into a frenzy about it all.

Compare and contrast with Devo 2.0. Coneheaded motorik freaks par excellence, the original outfit (below) spent two decades producing some of the weirdest sarky pop and rock ever made. Now Disney have assembled a team of fresh-faced apple pielets (above) to gonk along to a bowdlerised selection of the old tunes, with the original band's full participation. The band's wikipedia entry notes that 'Jerkin' back and forth' has now become 'a perky song about dancing'. Although all this might provoke an immediate revulsion, on reflection it does seem very, well, Devo.

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West End Girls, Devo 2.0, gonks, Mcluhan