The Pet Shop Boys have always made erudite dance music. Few other groups, after all, would take a song title from an Anthony Trollope novel (1993's "Can You Forgive Her?"). In Nightlife, their first studio album since 1996's Bilingual, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe stick to their forte.

True to its title, Nightlife sees the boys step up a notch from their traditional synth-pop to out-and-out dance music, opening with the one-two punch of "For Your Own Good" and "Closer to Heaven," both of which adopt the sharp high hats and deep basslines of trance music. But no matter how much the music pumps, no matter how optimistic the lyrics, Tennant's vocals continue to inject their trademark hopelessness on such pieces as "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk." "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More," their David Morales-produced first single, brilliantly revisits one of their favorite themes, broken communication. It's a neatly ironic combination: life is bittersweet, perhaps you should dance. The slower tunes don't quite work. "The Only One" is overly melancholy, while the resurfacing of Kylie Minogue (on "In Denial") won't do her career any favors. Still, the album loves the nightlife, and "New York City Boy" (another Morales track) is a camp anthem to behold. As the boys once sang, "we were never being boring." A-