Pet Shop Boys : Winner

Winner is Pet Shop Boys at their most saccharine or most deeply ironic, it’s hard to say. The lyrics are sincere as shit, ready-pressed for the 2012 Olympics (“It’s been a long time coming, we’ve been in the running for so long, but now we’re on our way…you’re a winner, I’m a winner, this is all happening so fast”) but it’s hard to believe they mean it. Surely there is some arch undertone here? The music doesn’t help at all – as dreamy and soporific as it is, you could almost imagine that Pet Shop Boys have gone soft in their old age.