It's not the most obvious of pairings - a disco synth-pop duo and an 80-year-old silent Russian film about a revolutionary mutiny. Thankfully, the commissioning of the Pet Shop Boys to write a new soundtrack for Battleship Potemkin has worked out far better than you might have expected. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe haven't strayed too far from home, but their doom-laden electronica is accompanied by elegant string arrangements that give the proceedings a suitably solemn ambience. True, there are a few dull patches, as well as moments where you wish you could see what the music is supposed to illustrate - perhaps they should have been generous and thrown in a DVD. On the whole, though, this is a satisfyingly successful experiment - and suggests that when the Boys get too old for clubbing, some lucrative film work could be in the offing.
