I’ve become something of a broken record on the matter, but good Pet Shop Boys covers are hard to come by. I don’t know what prevents more talented artists from tackling the Tennant-Lowe songbook, but the duo’s 30 years of solid pop songwriting certainly deserves its due.

Recent evidence indicates that such reticence is receding. Last year brought post-worthy interpretations by Field Music (“Heart” and “Rent”) and Claudia Brücken (“King’s Cross”). Now another UK duo, I Am A Camera, has put forth their own take on Pet Shop Boys’ “Rent.” (All  of the aforementioned songs originally appeared on 1987’s Actually.)

Francesca Ross and Ian Watt’s industrial-tinged cover paints a picture of rain-slicked streets on a grittier side of town, the kept narrator of “Rent” ensconced in a converted warehouse loft rather than an uptown high-rise apartment. Slowing the tempo to a contemplative crawl, I Am A Camera inhabits the song like no one else covering “Rent” has done before.

As if reading from a balance sheet, Ross robotically recounts the state of affairs, ticking off the various items her lover has bought and paid for, while the other half of her performance reveals the emotional cost of the arrangement. Listen for the moment that she modulates her voice at the end of “calculate.” Devastating.

Dare I say that I Am A Camera’s cover of “Rent” has eclipsed Pet Shop Boys’ original?

Signed to Capitol Records last year, I Am A Camera is readying their debut album. No release date has been set, but the band says that a new single, “The Legendary Children,” isn’t too far away.