Elysium

Elysium is the eleventh studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Released on 5 September 2012, it is the duo's final album with Parlophone. The album was recorded in 2012 in Los Angeles and produced by Andrew Dawson and Pet Shop Boys. Background and release Pet Shop Boys began writing the songs for the album in Berlin over a period of five weeks in early 2011. Most of the album was written during the Progress Live concert tour with Take That from May to July 2011. In January 2012, Pet Shop Boys travelled to Los Angeles to work with American producer Andrew Dawson for three months. The duo were interested in working with Dawson after seeing his name in the credits for the Kanye West albums 808s & Heartbreak (2008) and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). Chris Lowe has described Elysium as having the same feel as Behaviour (1990), but "sonically I think it's very different." The duo considered Happy Sad as title of the album, but came up with the title Elysium during a walk in Elysian Park in Los Angeles. Lyrically, the album can be interpreted as "about being us at our stage in our life, doing what we do", according to Neil Tennant. Elysium was released in Japan on 5 September 2012, followed by Germany and most of Europe, Australia and New Zealand on 7 September; the United Kingdom, France, South America saw the release on 10 September, and the United States and Canada received it on 11 September. There are two CD formats: a single CD and a special double-CD edition which includes instrumentals of each song. A double-vinyl album was released in limited quantities which also includes the instrumental versions.