Pet Shop Boys have debuted the music video for “Winner,” the official first single from Elysium, the veteran synthpop duo’s 11th studio album, out September 11 via Astralwerks.
Like the clip for preview track, “Invisible,” Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe do not appear in “Winner,” an absence I hope doesn’t portend a trend for Elysium. Instead, the action centers on the sisterly bond formed between two teammates on a women’s roller derby team, the London Rollergirls.
Directed by Surrender Monkeys and playing more as a mini-documentary than a music video, “Winner” does deliver a wonderful message about inclusion — one of the women is transgender — but couldn’t Tennant-Lowe at least been cast as spectators? Oh, right. The duo’s already done that.
The “Winner” single is out now, with new B-sides and remixes on the way August 6. The first digital bundle (also on CD) features “A Certain ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’,” written and recorded in 2007 and recently reworked by the duo; “The Way Through The Woods (Long Version),” based on a Rudyard Kipling poem and recorded during the original Elysium sessions; and “I Started A Joke,” a Bee Gees cover recorded as a tribute to the late Robin Gibb. The second digital bundle will include mixes of “Winner” by John Dahlbäck and Niki And The Dove.
Purchase Pet Shop Boys – “Winner” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.