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Sleep of ReasonScheduled for release in late April 2025, this two-disc album is a collaboration between lyricist Neil Tennant, pianist/composer Mark Springer, and the Sacconi String Quartet. Neil has described the origins of his participation in this project in the following manner:
I bought a book of Goya's print series Los Caprichos which had inspired Mark's music and saw that the artworks were a satirical, cruel, nightmarish portrayal of the politics, corruption and culture of his era, exploring his dreams—or nightmares—while exposing the double standards of the ruling establishment. The lyrics I wrote for Sleep of Reason, in response to Los Caprichos, are intended to be sardonic and dreamlike, looking back to Goya's nightmares but then reflecting on my experiences in 21st Century popular culture and media in which I have located the "monsters" Goya saw in his dreams. It often feels like we're living in an era dominated by monsters with their grotesque egos hollering through social media, unfiltered and untruthful, leaving a trail of wreckage behind them. Maybe it's always felt like that.
The single most famous image in this Goya series, reproduced on the album cover, is El sueño de la razon produce monstruos, translated The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from which the title of the suite (and album) is taken. An advance press release describes this composition as "a suite for piano, quartet, and quintet with vocals, accompanied by lyrics offering thoughtful introspection." The "quintet with vocals" consists of Neil singing as a soloist with the string quartet.
Mark Springer first gained attention in the early 1980s as keyboardist for the short-lived but critically heralded U.K. band Rip Rig + Panic, who were known for fusing jazz, rock, pop, funk, and reggae. They released three albums (none of which charted) before Springer left the group in 1984, which then reformed under the new name Float Up CP. Springer pursued an esoteric solo career and has released more than a dozen albums of his compositions, sometimes consisting of spontaneous inventions or improvisations. He has also composed a variety of film and television scores.
The Sacconi String Quartet (more commonly known as just the Sacconi Quartet) is a U.K. classical music string quartet founded in 2001 by graduates of the Royal College of Music. Named for the twentieth-century Italian violin maker Simone Sacconi, they've proven highly acclaimed in classical music, having won numerous prizes and recorded and released several albums of music by Beethoven, Haydn, Ravel, Smetana, and other classical composers on their own Sacconi Records label.
Intriguingly, the album was recorded back in 2023, with the piano, strings, and vocals recorded at different times in different studios: the string quartet in July of that year in Surry and Tetbury, the piano in August in Brussels, and Neil's vocals in October in the Pet Shop Boys' own studio in London, with Pete Gleadall handling the recording chores.
The tracks have been listed as follows:
A. Sleep of Reason / Quintet / Voice and Strings
- Phantoms and Monsters
- A Witch and a Devil
- Truth Is for Losers
- Schmutzig*
- My Friend the Monster
- The Madness of the Summer
*The German word schmutzig can have a variety of translations in English, including "dirty," "filthy," "muddy," "foul," "squalid," "sordid," "messy," "disgusting," "lewd," "smutty," and "unwholesome." Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how it translates lyrically.
B. Sleep of Reason / Quartet / String Quartet
- Morn
- Noon
- Night
C. Sleep of Reason / Piano Solo
- Break
D. Sleep of Reason / Piano Solo
I'll provide additional information as it becomes available. Apparently only Section A features Neil as vocalist, lyricist, and (from what I gather) composer of the vocal melodies—while Springer composed the string accompaniments to which Neil then overlaid his vocal lines. The other four sections appear to be purely instrumental without Neil's involvement. I therefore expect only the songs of Section A will be discussed here at any length.
Phantoms and Monsters
Writers - Springer/Tennant
First released - 2025
Original album - Sleep of Reason
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)
Accompanied by the string quartet, Neil sings of having repeatedly fallen into a "sleep of reason" in which things that are "broken made sense." These dreams (or, more appropriately, nightmares) are inhabited by "phantoms and monsters" inspired by "imagination abandoned by reason." So it would seem that the phrase "sleep of reason" is a double-entendre: not only a literal sleep but also a figurative one in which rationality itself has "fallen asleep," as it were. Neil describes these dreams as a "masquerade" in which we are "invite[d] to bed" by "superstition."
Neil begs the question of whether he's describing dreams or actual reality. That is, perhaps current reality itself has become a "sleep of reason" increasingly dominated by masks, superstition, and monsters. Toward the end, Neil refers to "the mother of progress," but then twice adds, "Mother, what happened to you?" before finally exclaiming simply "Mother!" Does the modern sleep of reason threaten to bring progress to an end? Has it already done so?
My Friend the Monster
Writers - Springer/Tennant
First released - 2025
Original album - Sleep of Reason
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)
Starting with the straightforward statement, "A monster was my friend" (note the past tense), Neil sets about describing this person, "a household name / An authentic example of modern fame." Whoever he is, he would seem to be a fellow artist since he "reads the reviews." But his attitude toward success is toxic and narcissistic: "It's not enough to win / Others must lose." Neil uses nearly the exact same words in the 2024 Pet Shop Boys b-side "Through You" (where they're rendered "It's not enough that you win / Others must lose"), which strongly suggests that the subject of that song and Neil's monster friend are one and the same.
The lyrics of "My Friend the Monster" go on to describe the many ways in which this former friend expresses his monstrosity—his need to be the center of attention, his obsession with popularity and acclaim, his willingness to "trample over" others, his utter carelessness regardaing other people.
One stanza toward the end is especially intriguing in that it's ambiguous enough to make it uncertain whether it refers to this monster or to Neil himself as one of his victims:
A broken bone
let's not pretend
will take a while to mend
A heart alone
can beat on its own
but how long till the end?
Neil then, however, clearly alludes to himself as he ponders, "Is there forgiveness in dreams?" He muses "Is the monster real?" and tries to look deeper to find the humanity behind the beast. What is his "Achilles heel," what "demons" have caused him to behave the way he does? If he could only discover these things, perhaps he will then be equipped to "try forgiving him."
By the way, as tempting as it is to speculate about the identity of Neil's monstrous erstwhile friend, such conjectures are probably as futile as they are dangerous. In fact, for all we know, this narrative may be completely fictional. Neil may not actually have such a former friend; he may not even be speaking in his own narrative voice in this song. That being said, I personally doubt it. I believe Neil is drawing upon his own experience and the monster is real. But I'm not about to attempt naming him. Some things are better left unsaid. After all, Neil doesn't identify him either.
Annotations
- "Everything today is thoroughly modern" – This line of the song, printed in quotation marks, is very curiously lifted from the title song (written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn) of the 1967 musical comedy Thoroughly Modern Millie, most famously starring Julie Andrews. I find its usage here virtually inexplicable, though of course that doesn't mean Neil couldn't explain it himself. He must've had a reason, and my failure to discern it is precisely that: my failure.
The Madness of the Summer
Writers - Springer/Tennant
First released - 2025
Original album - Sleep of Reason
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)
With one of the densest lyrics Neil has ever composed—or at least has shared with the public—"The Madness of the Summer" is, to be blunt, a challenge to decipher. It revisits key lines and concepts from the opening song, "Phantoms and Monsters," most notably "I fell into a deep sleep of reason." The imagery of "The Madness of the Summer" evokes fevered dreams that, Neil rightly suggests, express and symbolize real-life occurrences: "How do memories turn into dreams?" He describes feeling trapped claustrophobically "in a tiny train" inhabited by former Yugoslav dictator Marshall Tito, where his (Neil's) "testicles fell off" (now, that is a nightmare!) and where he "knew [he] was dead" and invisible to those around him.
When he awakens from this nightmare, he feels as though he's "still asleep." In other words, the real world seems just as nightmarish as his dream world. "Noboby knows themselves / Everyone performs a version of living." He still finds monsters around him, asking whether they "only come out at night" (the unspoken but implied answer being "No").
What then follows is an absolutely fascinating and thus far (to me) impenetrable stanza—impenetrable on account of its seeming contradictions and lack of obvious attributions:
In the exotic gardens of Èze
The Princess hardly faltered
Seeing in her reflection
All the years had altered
"The ravages of time!
The face that once was mine!"
These poignant words she muttered
The last she ever uttered
The "exotic gardens of Èze" are an actual place, located on the French Riviera quite near Monaco. That and the subsequent reference to "the Princess" hints—but only hints, with ample room for other interpretations—at Grace Kelly, the beautiful, glamorous former film star who gave up Hollywood in order to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. She died in 1982 following a serious automobile accident and a pair of cerebral hemorrhages. I haven't, however, been able to locate any information about her final words. Nor have I been able to find anyone else's last words that correspond with those apparently quoted in these lines. So could this brief tale, the quotation and all, also be part of a dream?
Another remarkable line occurs near the song's end, when Neil sings "To live a dream as a dream of life." I haven't been able to locate any source for this line, at least not for this exact phrasing. If it's indeed original with Neil, it stands as one of the loveliest, most evocative lines he has ever composed. It's an intensely poetic rephrasing of "Life is what you make it." If you want a dream life—presumably a good one—you first have to dream the life you wish to live.
The song concludes once again with the recurring "deep sleep of reason" concept, in which "everything [is] broken" in its dreams. For that reason Neil sings, "When I woke up from that deep sleep of reason, it all made sense." When the real world is broken, why should our dreams be any less so?
Annotations
- It's possible, even probable, that this song's opening line, "Recollections may vary," was inspired by Queen Elizabeth II's famous public statement in March 2021, as reported by various newspapers, in response to allegations by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Harry and Meghan) that certain members of the royal family had made racist comments regarding Meghan and the possible skin color of their then-unborn child (Archie).
Lists
- Real places mentioned by name in PSB songs
- Real people mentioned by name or title in PSB songs*
*Please note that I'm not at this time listing Grace Kelly (a possible candidate as "the Princess" in this song) in my list of real people because I don't yet know for certain that this song indeed refers to her. But there's no doubt about Marshall Tito.
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