Pet Shop Boys

When the splendid "West End Girls" broke through much of the '80s pop detritus, people expected it to be a one-off, but the Boys quickly proved their songwriting chops with this still-fresh debut, packed with catchy and clever synth pop melodies about love ("Tonight Is Forever"), greed ("Opportunities") and the dreary world in which much of their fan base resided ("Suburbia"). Astute and knowing, this was the start of a fascinating and shrewd musical calling that is still going strong.

The music's blandness is part of the quite well-executed concept: articulating the ambivalent romanticism, immodest hopes, and not-so-quiet desperation behind the suburban facade of the people who create Smash Hits pop, and maybe consume it, too. I hum most of the catchily namby-pamby tunes and ponder most of the yearningly cynical lyrics, but the moments I really love are provided by sound effects--sirens and breaking glass so skillfully integrated into the synthesized textures that at first I didn't notice they were there. (Grade - A-)