One of the things that distinguishes Please from many other albums released in 1986 is the adult nature of many of the songs. Note that this isn’t the version of “Adult” that gets plopped in front of “Bookstores” in shady areas near airports, but an actual indication of thematic maturity. Songs like “Why don’t we live together?” and “I want a lover” are a far cry from the Stock Aiken Waterman pablum that clogged tape decks and radio, with considerations and interests that show Tennant and Lowe’s relative maturity compared to the rest of the pop acts at the time, and that’s something that’s continued throughout the career.

It’s interesting that even their earliest image and material was in direct conflict with manager Tom Watkins’s vision for the band, and it’s probably one of the reasons he stopped representing them fairly early in their career. They’ve created a unique niche by making pop records about things that aren’t pop concerns: “I’m with Stupid” ponders a homosexual relationship between Tony Blair and George W. Bush; “Flamboyant” is about poseur culture and “I want a dog” is about, well, wanting a dog. This willingness to write creative, interesting material on atypical subjects is one of the things that makes them better than duo’s most obvious of peers, Erasure (whom I also quite enjoy, but in a very different, less cerebral way.) Erasure is very good at writing songs about what Erasure writes songs about: love, dancing, the love of dancing, and dancing with someone you love.

As I write this, “It’s a sin” is playing. Yes, it’s a bombastic, very singable song that’s definitively 80s thanks to the no-holds-barred production, but it’s also a condemnation of Tennant’s Catholic upbringing that was ironically praised by the Church for bringing the topic of sin up in the public arena. Not many bands can claim something similar, and that’s why I like Pet Shop Boys.