The song the Pet Shop Boys offered to Brandon Flowers
A track from the Pet Shop Boys‘ new album was initially offered to The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers for one of his solo endeavours.
Nonetheless, the fifteenth full-length offering from the synth-pop icons, arrived last week. Now, the duo have revealed that ‘Feel’, the album’s second track, was once offered to Flowers for his debut solo album, Flamingo.
“We sent it to him when he was making his solo album with Stuart Price,” they recalled to Record Collector, “but we don’t know if it reached him.”
Over airy synth-pop soundscapes, vocalist Neil Tennant sings, “You make me feel like nobody else can, you make me feel like nobody else’s man.” It’s difficult to imagine Flowers taking on such layered and altered vocals, but it makes sense that the Pet Shop Boys offered him the track for Flamingo.
Released in 2010, Flowers’ debut solo record saw him dip his toes into the realm of synth-pop, working with previous Pet Shop Boys collaborator Price. The producer also worked with The Killers.
Whether the track ever reached Flowers or not, it eventually returned to Tennant and Chris Lowe during lockdown. “I read a book about the spy, George Blake, escaping from prison,” they recalled, “For some reason, it inspired me to return to this, so now it’s about visiting a loved one in prison.”
The duo also recalled a time they tried to link up with fellow 1980s icons Bananarama, who were keen for the Pet Shop Boys to write for them. “They asked us many times to write a song,” they recalled, “And Sarah said, ‘You’ve just picked something off the shelf, haven’t you, and given it to us?’ She just knew. She’s clever.”
Following the release of Nonetheless, the Pet Shop Boys are set to hit the road this summer. The duo will continue on their Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live tour, which began in 2019, returning to the United Kingdom and Europe. The tour will conclude with five sold-out shows at the Royal Opera House in London.
Meanwhile, the Killers released a compilation of their own greatest hits, titled Rebel Diamonds, towards the end of last year. The release featured several new tracks, but indie rockers haven’t put out a full-length album of new material since the release of Pressure Machine in 2021.
Listen to ‘Feel’, the song the Pet Shop Boys offered to Brandon Flowers, below.
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