Short description
As a title, Bilingual is a double-edged sword. Disregard its sexual connotations and concentrate on its musical implications -- Bilingual is a rich, diverse album that delves deeply into Latin rhythms. It's not a crass, simplistic fusion, where the polyphonic rhythms are simply grafted over synthesizers and a disco pulse. Instead, Bilingual is an enormously subtle album, with shifting rhythms and graceful, understated melodies. The music isn't the only thing subtle about the album -- Neil Tennant's voice and lyrics are nuanced, suggesting more than they actually say. Furthermore, Bilingual consists of the most optimistic, happy set of songs the Pet Shop Boys have ever recorded. Whether it's the smooth disco of "Before" or the insistent rhythms of "Se a Vida E," Bilingual is filled with joyous, if subdued, sounds. If anything, it's further proof that even if the Pet Shop Boys aren't gracing the top of the charts as frequently as they did during the late '80s, they are crafting albums that are more adventurous and successful than they did when they were one of the top singles acts in pop music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Review
Melody Maker - "...`Why would intelligent English musicians want to concern themselves with impassioned Eurodisco?...' BILINGUAL has no place in any such dialogue. The duo's ability to soil a perfectly good disco stomper by dropping in The Chord Of Mourning is well-known to fans who bought the achingly autumnal BEHAVIOUR. They've honed it to a fine art here..."
Q - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Where once there were gleaming surfaces, there are whistles, infectious percussion and sensual jazz chords straight from a cantina in Sao Paulo....a bold step for the Pet Shop Boys and, happily, it works almost unreservedly..."
Entertainment Weekly - "The eighth album of slick-as-a-mirror-ball pop from this droll British duo relies as much on melody as rhythm or the Boys' trademark irony, making this a near-perfect album for converting discophobes to the pleasures of dance music..."
- Rating: B+
Spin - 8 - Very Good - "...Tennant may be too much the cynic to buy into pop platitudes, but he's also too much a realist to think ironic detachment can sustain life. So he remains fluent in both languages--and ends up with astonishingly eloquent songs."
NME - 8 (out of 10) - "...they take us to a new setting...invested in some of the rhythmic knowledge of the South Americans they met on their '94 tour....Tennant's singing like a man who's reached a certain age and feels good/bad/guilty about it....seldom has their music sounded so rich..."
Rolling Stone - 3-1/2 Stars - Good/Excellent - "...The quintessential '80s act...have stuck to their guns and refused to defer to passing '90s fads. While their peers would have gone trip-hop by now, Lowe and Tennant have stayed true to their disco-pop sensibility..."