With their second album,
Actually,
the Pet Shop Boys perfected their melodic, detached dance-pop. Where most of
Please was dominated by the beats, the rhythms on
Actually are part of a series of intricate arrangements that create a glamorous but disposable backdrop for
Neil Tennant's tales of isolation, boredom, money, and loneliness. Not only are the arrangements more accomplished, but the songs themselves are more striking, incorporating a strong sense of melody, as evidenced by "What Have I Done to Deserve This?," a duet with
Dusty Springfield.
Tennant's lyrics are clever and direct, chronicling the lives and times of urban, lonely, and bored yuppies of the late '80s. And the fact that dance-pop is considered a disposable medium by most mainstream critics and listeners only increases the reserved emotional undercurrent of
Actually, as well as its irony. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine