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Another slightly curious bit of sequencing: this isn't the most outlandishly dramatic record the PSBs have ever made and would seem to risk interrupting some of the momentum built up by the first track. 'Rent' was of course part of what Neil Tennant would call the bands's imperial phase, their seventh of seventeen consecutive Top 20 singles - in fact this was a bit of a blip in "only" reaching Number 8, when the four singles either side of it were all Top 3 hits.
I don't really remember whether I heard this song at the time. I certainly wouldn't have understood what it was about at that age. But the Pet Shop Boys were undoubtedly one of the biggest acts around at the time and this wouldn't have struck me as a big stylistic change. Now I'm older I can tell what they're driving at: this is obviously the song of somebody desperate for the affections of a "lover" who exploits them but supports them materially ie, "I love you, you pay my rent" - as the Wikipedia article astutely notes, this phrasing especially hints at the stereotype of a rent-boy. It's difficult to wade through all the layers of irony and detachment in a Tennant/Lowe song and discern where if anywhere our sympathies should lie, but it doesn't come across as a lament as such; not that our protagonist necessarily considers this situation ideal, but he (or possibly she) seems on the face of it to be dealing with it as the reality that's there: "Words mean so little and money less, when you're lying next to me". But of course, this could be merely a brave face.
Musically, the track is towards the more restrained end of their repertoire, although it's a relatively animated vocal performance from Tennant. What I can't tell you, even after all that, is whether I like it or not: this is why they were such a difficult act to approach here.
Also appearing on: Now 7, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 26, 28 [as Absolutely Fabulous], 35, 72
Available on: Pop Art: Pet Shop Boys - The Hits
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