On Pet Shop Boys’ new album, the British electro-pop duo goes back to the future.
Arriving at midnight, A man from the future (via Parlophone Records) is a concept album that explores eight important chapters in the life and death of Alan Turing, the English mathematician and logician who is widely regarded as the father of modern computing.
Produced by Pet Shop Boys and Sven Helbig, Future is a combination of electronic music and string arrangements by Sven Helbig performed by the Manchester Camerata Octet. Juliet Stevenson contributes spoken words from Andrew Hodges’ book Alan Turing: the Enigma.
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe originally wrote the work with Hodges back in 2012-13, just prior to the theatrical release of The Imitation Game, in which the great thinker was played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Later, in July 2014, Pet Shop Boys performed pieces from it at a BBC Prom at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
More than a decade later, the project has been updated, reworked and rearranged with new electronic elements, new text and fresh orchestrations by Sven Helbig.
The LP unfolds chronologically from Turing’s school days, capturing his interest in mathematics and science and the realization of his sexuality, through to his university days at Cambridge, his leading role working for the British Government unlocking the German Enigma machine’s encrypted messages during World War II, his place in the invention of the digital computer, his prediction of Artificial Intelligence, his trial and conviction for a homosexual relationship, and then his suicide in 1954.
“Our motive in creating this work was to make a musical memorial to Alan Turing who gave so much to his country and the world and was rewarded for it by being prosecuted for his sexuality,” reads a statement from Pet Shop Boys.
“Alan made a massive contribution to the defeat of Germany in World War II and was a pioneer of computing, imagining a world with intelligent computers. He also looked forward to a time when being gay would be accepted as normal. In both his professional and private lives, he was ahead of his time.”
A man from the future is the followup to 2024’s Nonetheless, which peaked at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. In their homeland, the duo has amassed 22 top 10 hit singles, including four No. 1s. Pet Shop Boys have landed ten top 10 albums in the United Kingdom, including a No. 1 with 1993’s Very. In the United States, the act has enjoyed 12 appearances on the Billboard Hot 100, including five top 10s and a No. 1 with 1986’s “West End Girls.”
Stream A man from the future in full below.
