No strangers to the business of dance music, the Pet Shop Boys were doing remix LPs back when such things were still a vaguely exciting concept. Disco 3 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors by pulling together the best dancefloor mixes from a recent album and adding a few obscure gems. It's some surprise, then, to find the liveliest music the duo have made in years is culled from the relatively pipe-and-slippers affair that was Release. Polished to within an inch of their lives by sterling remixers such as the cap-doffing Felix Da Housecat and tribal-house pin-up Tom Stephan, the Pets' often dour tales of lost love and middle-aged reflection take on a new "happy-sad" quality here that works well against the tougher beats and electro stylings. Add to this a couple of old, newly finished songs from early 1980s sessions with proto-energy producer Bobby O, including the affectingly truthful "Try It (I'm in Love with a Married Man)", and the Pet Shop Boys have declared themselves back in business. --Paul Tierney
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