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It’s been four years since the Pet Shop Boys released 2020’s presciently-titled Hotspot (which later felt like a nod to the “hot zones” caused by being in the throes of a pandemic). Ever since 2016, this four-year gap between records has tended to be Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s pattern, perhaps slowing down to more thoroughly take in the world around them as they’re simultaneously inspired and disgusted by it. But that has always been the brilliance of the duo: being able to turn the horrors into a catchy, sardonic ditty. “Loneliness,” of course, proves to be no exception to the rule.
As the lead single from the oh-so-on-brand-as-a-Pet-Shop-Boys-album-title Nonetheless, it’s clear this electropop duo is making a statement about life’s worsening state in a post-social media, post-pandemic world. Perhaps PSB was inspired by loneliness at the start of 2020, when lockdowns, particularly throughout Europe and the UK (its own “continent,” it wants you to know), put a glaring spotlight on people’s personal lives. Because, at that time, a mirroring pandemic was forming. The one that showed the masses just how empty and meaningless their existence was without the distraction of work, where ersatz social situations could present themselves under the guise of “camaraderie.” Maybe the same type of camaraderie that could be felt in a gulag.
Thus, with this massive public health issue (one that is ongoing and will likely remain so), Pet Shop Boys surely must have found their musical muse. And they’re ready to address it, as with all things, head-on. Hence, the accompanying video, directed by Alasdair McLellan. A sumptuous visual featuring a narrative and tone that often reminds one more than slightly of Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy,” itself a specific kind of anthem for loneliness (more to the point, lonely gays who had no one to turn to at a time when being gay was hardly à la mode). And yes, this is PSB’s most overtly gay video. For never before have they been so on-blast with two men kissing, touching, blowing each other, etc. Perhaps it’s because once a person reaches a certain age, “subtlety” is hardly something to be bothered with.
And, speaking of “a certain age,” some might assume Tennant and Lowe’s seeming absence from the video is tantamount to what Elton John did when he started to feel “too old” to be filmed for music videos by having people like Justin Timberlake and Robert Downey Jr. stand in for him instead. But, just when you’re ready to assume they’ve decided to make this video all about one-off gay hookups (okay, so there’s some straight ones in there too), Tennant and Lowe materialize around the four-minute mark, after a Tilt-a-Whirl scene. These images at the “funfair” continue, with the video finally concluding at a party where all the people previously showcased throughout appear, including the “running boy,” still looking rather lonely among the throng. Which, of course, is the worst loneliness of all—feeling alone in a crowd.
It’s not that stark of a thematic contrast to the opening scenes of the video, which focus in on desolate, oppressive structures in Sheffield, with a title card that also mentions we’re supposed to be in the year 1992. A year that, compared to now, hardly seems as lonely. One of those oppressive structures is Sheffield Forgemasters, containing within its walls a number of men doing rugged, lad-oriented things that remind one a lot of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, de facto Madonna’s “Express Yourself” video. However, just as PSB has us duped into thinking this is a “homos only” video, they’re wont to show us a boy and a girl getting hot and heavy, if you will, as they try to stave off their own loneliness (in addition to their hormones). The main boy we keep seeing throughout the narrative, however, is able to swing both ways in order to accommodate his hunger to feel wanted, desired. Thus, capable of telling himself he’s not lonely—because how can someone who’s never alone possibly feel that way?
Alternating between scenes of color and black and white, a continuous thread throughout is the image of the boy running along a pathway in his wifebeater…usually as Tennant is singing, “Where you gonna run to now from loneliness?/Who you gonna turn to out of loneliness?” The implication being that “going both ways” doesn’t always mean one is doing it out of “sexual fluidity,” so much as a desperation to feel connected to someone, anyone—no matter how ephemerally. Which is why, inevitably, a glory hole is bound to appear sooner or later in this video. One that gets desexualized when somebody slips a note through it that reads, “Are you lonely?” Elvis, too, once essentially asked the same question with, “Are you lonesome tonight?” Indeed, the subject of loneliness has often been explored by some of music’s major icons. For example, in 1993, the year after “Loneliness” is meant to be taking place in, Madonna released her “Bad Girl” video, yet another homage to how sex can dilute feelings of loneliness (in addition to being an homage to Looking For Mr. Goodbar).
As “Louise Oriole” a.k.a. Madonna keeps going to bed with strangers, the thrill of doing so becomes increasingly dulled and the loneliness starts to become impossible to stave off, particularly after one encounter where a stranger leaves her an unsettling note. Not one that asks, “Are you lonely?,” but rather, states, “Thank you whoever you are.” Talk about making a girl feel cheap. And soon, she’ll have to pay the price of her life for this method of attempting to keep the loneliness at bay.
Which ties into PSB riffing on the old chestnut, “Wherever you go, there you are” when Tennant ominously reminds, “Wherever you go, you take yourself with you/There’s nowhere you can hide…” Tennant then adds, “From the loneliness that’s haunting your life/The sense of wounded pride/Everybody needs time to think/Nobody can live without love.” Well, that’s not entirely true. It’s just that those who do live without love tend to turn into people like Trump and Putin. And yes, Pet Shop Boys acknowledge the isolating nature of power on the single for “Loneliness,” which also features “Party in the Blitz” and “Through You (Extended Mix).” The cover itself provides a familiar pose and image, one that can be characterized as Twin Peaks meets Actually (the cover art itself, not the album).
The surrealism that’s synonymous with Twin Peaks also applies to the feeling of loneliness. And perhaps no country knows loneliness as well as Britain right now. Except that it’s a self-imposed kind after so many decades spent pushing the EU away, which speaks to the lyrics, “When you gonna not say ‘no’ and make the answer ‘yes’?/Who is here to help you out?/Oh, tell me/Can’t you guess?” The answer, we’d like to believe is: “ourselves.” That self-help mumbo-jumbo about how you are the only person who can change your situation. Pull yourself up out of the hole of loneliness, the pit of despair, etc. For Britain, however, that seems to be an impossible task.
As bona fide Brits themselves, the Pet Shop Boys make a highly specific reference to A Hard Day’s Night, when Tennant sings, “Like Ringo walking by the canal/Downcast and alone/You’re taking time to play that part/A man who skims a stone.” But while some are only “playing the part” of loneliness for dramatic cachet, others are one botched name pronunciation away from suicide.
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Genna Rivieccio
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