Pet Shop Boys staying current with 'Electric'

Even by the outre standards of the 1980s - when music was full of smooth criminals and material girls - the Pet Shop Boys stood out. Two fashion-conscious English guys with the crisp enunciation of schoolteachers, the pioneering duo made electronic synth-pop that looked to the future just as it drew on the old-fashioned storytelling of Noel Coward and P.G. Wodehouse.

But nearly 30 years after they broke out with the worldwide smash , the group might be more singular now than they were back then: they are the exceedingly rare veteran act that have gone about their business - and held onto much of their fan base - without coming across as desperate or uninspired.

Neil Tennant, the band's singer, has an idea why. "What the Pet Shop Boys have never done - except maybe accidentally in the mid '80s - is sell sex. When you sell sex you get much bigger sales and controversy, and everybody knows what you're about, because ultimately the culture's about sex. And shopping. And violence." He chuckles. "We've done shopping and violence. But when you sell sex and you get older, that's when people will say the desperation sets in."

It's a persuasive idea, especially given the degree to which Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe have appeared determined in recent years to maintain their place in a fast-moving music scene.

For 2009's , the group allied with Xenomania, the British songwriting and production team behind a number of young British pop acts. Last year they hired Andrew Dawson to produce based solely on the fact that Dawson had collaborated with Kanye West. And to oversee this year's , the Pet Shop Boys recruited Stuart Price, known for his work under the name Jacques Lu Cont, and on records by Madonna and The Killers.

"Maybe the desperation is just lingering beneath the surface," Lowe says with a laugh.

In fact, the group's recent material reflects what Price called the Pet Shop Boys' "completely uncompromising" nature.