Pet Shop Boys will release a brand-new single, ‘Cricket wife’ on May 7th.

The dramatic new song – almost 10 minutes long – will be part of a special two-track CD single accompanying the publication of the latest edition of their yearly hardback book, Annually 2021. The second track on the CD is a lockdown version of Pet Shop Boys classic ‘West End girls’ which debuted online in June 2020. Both tracks were recorded during lockdown, with Chris and Neil recording their parts in their respective homes.

‘Cricket wife’ uses orchestral sounds and was written by Chris as a classical-style instrumental piece; Neil then sang lyrics taken from a poem he had written. Pete Gleadall mixed the final track.

The two-track CD is available with this year’s issue of Annually. The 64-page, hard-backed book will include a bumper feature called ‘A year’ – a definitive chronicle of 1986, the year Pet Shop Boys achieved global success, based on Neil’s diary with comments from PSB and archive images. The book will also feature news from the past year and details on how PSB spent their time during lockdown, as well as exclusive photographs, fan letters and more.

The book and CD package, priced £20, are available to pre-order now exclusively via the Pet Shop Boys online store.