Music & Concerts
New Pet Shop Boys album brings Berlin trilogy to satisfying close
Price-produced ’Hotspot’ is both wistful and in the moment


“Hotspot,” Pet Shop Boys’ much-anticipated 14th studio album, was released last week on x2 Records/Kobalt. On this outing, which rounds out the intended trilogy of albums with producer Stuart Price (after 2013’s “Electric” and 2016’s “Super”), Neil Tennant (who’s openly gay) and Chris Lowe present us with a buffet of songs that are both fresh and familiar, hypnotic and pensive. “Hotspot” juggles living-in-the-moment anthems with narratives of wistful reflection.
Giving us a little more mood than its two predecessors, but mercifully not straying too far into “Elysium” (2012) territory (that had many wondering whether Neil and Chris were calling it a day), “Hotspot” gives both casual PSB listeners and the endearingly dubbed “Petheads” plenty to celebrate.
Peppered with nods to Berlin, opener “Will-o-the-Wisp” is a pulsing lament on a former paramour trading reckless for respectable, much to the dismay of Tennant (“You were always such a free spirit/Aren’t you getting bored?”), whose candor and persistent yearning are underscored by the squealing sounds of the U-Bahn.
Released last September, “Dreamland” is the first single, featuring a collaboration with synth-pop band Years & Years. As the name suggests, “Dreamland” is a utopia-like, otherworldy place, a better, more welcoming place full of hope and promise. Delivered with a punchy groove, the weighty messaging and not-so-subtle lyrics around a “free land and they welcome everyone to stay,” “leaving all our worries behind” and not needing a visa to move freely alludes to the continuing global tensions around borders, access and acceptance.
Featuring Bernard Butler (Suede, The Tears, McAlmont & Butler) on acoustic guitar, “Burning the Heather,” as the melancholy second single, sees a misunderstood Tennant contemplating his life’s journey and where he might find himself next, which is anyone’s guess: “I am a stranger in this town but that’s as far as it goes and where I am bound no one knows.” The delicately haunting “Heather” is reserved in the tracklisting as the closing ballad (if you’re playing straight through and are not a “shuffle play” listener), artfully anchoring the end of the album in third-act introspection.
New single “Monkey Business” is all attitude, hyper-confidence and bloated self-importance (“people tell me I’m a legend round these parts”) but this track is pure disco-dosed fun, punctuated with hand claps and full of the-night-is-young optimism and antics with assuredly questionable consequences (“we’re gonna have a party where we all cross the line”). This wonderfully infectious song is what you’re playing on repeat as you’re mixing your Saturday night pregame cocktails.
Weaving these singles together is an assortment of “all-the-feels” ballads such as “You Are the One,” so earnest in its declaration of love, and “Only the Dark,” so atmospherically 1980s it could have been plucked directly from some beloved coming-of-age film; it’s an expression of tenderness and contentment, with Tennant sweetly reassuring “You’re all that I want/it’s all that I need/to be here with you,” and funky up-tempo dance gems found in the ’90s-throwback bliss of “Happy People” and “I Don’t Wanna,” the stylistic counterpart to “Monkey Business,” even if the music belies the subject matter. Tennant’s subject is insecure, introverted and simply doesn’t wanna go dancing, but this song is absolutely meant to be danced to, perhaps he might come around?
“Wedding in Berlin,” the final track, wraps up “Hotspot” with a positive message and a surprise appearance by Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” but comes across as an uninspired effort without much lyrical or emotional depth.
Without question, “Hotspot” is an overall win, an absolute treat to spend time with and a satisfying conclusion to their Price collaboration. No matter what direction they head next, Pet Shop Boys are still here, still relevant, still masters at balancing powerful pop with insightful message, here with a little more gravitas. Don’t sleep on this beautifully executed album.
Music & Concerts
Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule
Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of music consumer who purchased music on impulse. When I stumbled across “Things Here Are Different,” Jill Sobule’s 1990 MCA Records debut album on vinyl in a favorite Chicago record store, I bought it without knowing anything about her. This was at a time when we didn’t have our phones in our pockets to search for information about the artist on the internet. The LP stayed in my collection until, as vinyl was falling out of fashion, I replaced it with a CD a few years later.
Early in my career as an entertainment journalist, I received a promo copy of Jill’s eponymous 1995 Atlantic Records album. That year, Atlantic Records was one of the labels at the forefront of signing and heavily promoting queer artists, including Melissa Ferrick and Extra Fancy, and its roster included the self-titled album by Jill. It was a smart move, as the single “I Kissed A Girl” became a hit on radio and its accompanying video (featuring Fabio!) was in heavy rotation on MTV (when they still played videos).
Unfortunately for Jill, she was a victim of record label missteps. When 1997’s wonderful “Happy Town” failed to repeat the success, Atlantic dumped her. That was Atlantic’s loss, because her next album, the superb “Pink Pearl” contained “Heroes” and “Mexican Wrestler,” two of her most beloved songs. Sadly, Beyond Music, the label that released that album ceased to exist after just a few years. To her credit, the savvy Jill had also started independently releasing music (2004’s “The Folk Years”). That was a smart move because her next major-label release, the brilliant “Underdog Victorious” on Artemis Records, met a similar fate when that label folded.
With her 2009 album “California Years,” Jill launched her own indie label, Pinko Records, on which she would release two more outstanding full-length discs, 2014’s “Dottie’s Charms” (on which she collaborated with some of her favorite writers, including David Hadju, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, and Jonathan Lethem), and 2018’s stunning “Nostalgia Kills.” Jill’s cover of the late Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” on “Nostalgia Kills” was particularly poignant as she had toured with him as an opening act.
Jill was a road warrior, constantly on tour, and her live shows were something to behold. My first interview with Jill took place at the Double Door in Chicago in early August of 1995, when she was the opening act for legendary punk band X. She had thrown her back out the previous day and was diagnosed with a herniated disc. To be comfortable, she was lying down on a fabulous-‘50s sofa. “I feel like I’m at my shrink’s,” she said to me, “Do you want me to talk about my mother?”
That sense of humor, which permeated and enriched her music, was one of many reasons to love Jill. I was privileged to interview her for seven of her albums. Everything you would want to know about her was right there in her honest lyrics, in which she balanced her distinctive brand of humor with serious subject matter. Drawing on her life experiences in songs such as “Bitter,” “Underachiever,” “One of These Days,” “Freshman,” “Jetpack,” “Nothing To Prove,” “Forbidden Thoughts of Youth,” “Island of Lost Things,” “Where Do I Begin,” “Almost Great,” and “Big Shoes,” made her songs as personal as they were universal, elicited genuine affection and concern from her devoted fans.
While she was a consummate songwriter, Jill also felt equally comfortable covering songs made famous by others, including “Just A Little Lovin’” (on the 2000 Dusty Springfield tribute album “Forever Dusty”) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (from the 1997 Laura Nyro tribute album “Time and Love”). Jill also didn’t shy away from political subject matter in her music with “Resistance Song,” “Soldiers of Christ,” “Attic,” “Heroes,” “Under the Disco Ball,” and the incredible “America Back” as prime examples.
Here’s something else worth mentioning about Jill. She was known for collaboration skills. As a songwriter, she maintained a multi-year creative partnership with Robin Eaton (“I Kissed A Girl” and many others), as well as Richard Barone, the gay frontman of the renowned band The Bongos. Jill’s history with Barone includes performing together at a queer Octoberfest event in Chicago in 1996. Writer and comedian Julie Sweeney, of “SNL” and “Work in Progress” fame was another Chicago collaborator with Sobule (Sweeney lives in a Chicago suburb), where they frequently performed their delightful “The Jill and Julia Show.” John Doe, of the aforementioned band X, also collaborated with Jill in the studio (“Tomorrow Is Breaking” from “Nostalgia Kills”), as well as in live performances.
On a very personal note, in 2019, when I was in the process of arranging a reading at the fabulous NYC gay bookstore Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, I reached out to Jill and asked her if she would like to be on the bill with me. We alternated performing; I would read a couple of poems, and Jill would sing a couple of songs. She even set one of my poems to music, on the spot.
Jill had an abundance of talent, and when she turned her attention to musical theater, it paid off in a big way. Her stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” a theatrical piece that seemed like the next logical step in her career, had its premiere at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The unique staging (an outdoor drive-in stage at which audience members watched from their cars) was truly inspired. “F*ck 7th Grade” went on to become a New York Times Critic’s pick, as well as earning a Drama Desk nomination.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jill’s eponymous 1995 album, reissue label Rhino Records is re-releasing it on red vinyl. Jill and I had been emailing each other to arrange a time for an interview. We even had a date on the books for the third week of May.
When she died in a house fire in Minnesota on May 1 at age 66, Jill received mentions on network and cable news shows. She was showered with attention from major news outlets, including obits in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (but not Pitchfork, who couldn’t be bothered to review her music when she was alive). Is it wrong to think that if she’d gotten this much attention when she was alive she could have been as big as Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.
Music & Concerts
Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’
Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

Singer Tom Goss will bring his “Bear Friends Furever Tour” to D.C. on Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co.
Among the songs he will perform will be “Bear Soup,” the fourth installment in his beloved bear song anthology series. Following fan favorites like “Bears,” “Round in All the Right Places,” and “Nerdy Bear,” this high-energy, bass-thumping banger celebrates body positivity, joyful indulgence, and the vibrant spirit of the bear subculture.
For more details, visit Tom Goss’s website.

Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue brings her acclaimed “Tension” world tour to D.C. next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capital One Arena. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.
The show features songs spanning her long career, from 1987 debut single, “The Loco-Motion,” to “Padam, Padam” from her album, “Tension.”