Perhaps it's the way [Neil Tennant]'s ironic, laconic vocals pair with the seductive shimmer of [Chris Lowe]'s keyboards. Or because Tennant paraphrases the likes of T.S. Eliot in Top Ten singles. Or because they've taken shopping, suburbia and sex-as-a-commodity as their subject matter. Whatever the reason, the Pet Shop Boys have attracted some unusually overintellectualized interpretations.

"When we first started writing songs in Neil's flat," Lowe says, "there was this one little keyboard, Neil's guitar and a portable cassette machine that he used for interviews, and his hi-fi cassette machine. So what we'd do is record this"-he knocks out a simple rhythm on the table-"and I'd record the synthesizer bass line on top of that, dit-da-da-dit-dit, and Neil would put his guitar chords on, and then he would go and sing. We had to keep bouncing from one tape machine to the other."

PHOTO,,Eric Watson CAPTION:Pet Shop Boys Chris Lowe, left, and Neil Tennant. CAPTION:Chris Lowe, left, and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys.