Just over 30 years ago, the Pet Shop Boys founded their own record label, Spaghetti Recordings, and their first and most memorable signing was 21 year-old electronic-pop prodigy David Cicero.

The resulting classic synth-pop album ‘Future Boy’, although completely written by Cicero, had significant input by the Pet Shop Boys on key tracks. They had a production, co-producer or mixing role on the songs ‘That Loving Feeling’, ‘Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me’, ‘My Middle Class Life’ and ‘Love Is Everywhere’.

They also produced the last track Cicero ever recorded for Spaghetti Recordings, the non-album single ‘Live For Today.’ This was a duet with seasoned session singer Sylvia Mason-James that featured in the ‘The Crying Game’.

Neil Tennant is further awarded a general album credit as one of the backing vocalists heard throughout the album, as is Chris Lowe for his keyboards and programming contributions.

Re-issued, in celebration of its 30th Anniversary, as a fully remastered 45-track, 3-disc deluxe expanded edition, it collects together all known Cicero tracks released during his Spaghetti Recordings years plus some recent vault discoveries and five newly commissioned 2023 remixes of the hit single ‘Love Is Everywhere’ by a range of leading underground synth-pop acts.

Presented in a 3-disc Digipak, it is complete with a richly illustrated 24-page booklet with an introduction written by Cicero himself as well as track by track comments by him too.

Hoping to extend their influence in different ways throughout the pop and dance music field, the Pet Shop Boys produced different artists, some well-known and some new discoveries.

Cicero qualifies as one of the latter. This album, released in December of 1999, produced three primary single releases - That Loving Feeling, Heaven Must Have Sent Me Back To You, and Love is Everywhere. Back in the days prior to the internet, the singles and album were hard to come by in the United States, as they never achieved wide-spread distribution or popularity.

Thus, Cicero remains one of the lesser-known Pet Shop Boys projects, which is a genuine shame as his album was a brilliant mix of synth-pop gems, in my humble opinion. Thus, and perhaps even now more so with this three disc expanded edition from Cherry Red, the album is well worth getting.

The music is all techno-electro-synth-pop oriented, as is the signature of the Pet Shop Boys, particularly in their early days. In fact, the album sounds very much like a late ’80s holdover, and a very good example of such, in truth.

Cicero’s vocals are also interesting. He is one of those rare British vocalists whose accent does get masked by the singing (so many seem to try to sing in a generic quasi-North-American accent). Cicero’s Scottish lilt fits very well with the style. One can even hear the bagpipes playing in the background of some songs, such as Love is Everywhere.

It is unfortunate that Cicero’s career did not continue after this album was originally released, as there was much potential here, as any listener of the album will honestly be able to attest to. I know that the Pet Shop Boys had their hands on things from the off, including the compositions/writing credits, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these compositions were aided along by Cicero himself; as that would add another layer to the artist re: he had an ear for the best music and lyrical content that best suited him.

As for those noted three singles released at the time, That Loving Feeling is a great dance opener with an extended intro, Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me is another PSB remix, slightly less aggressive than the one re-released as a single a couple of months earlier and closer to the spirit of the original track, and Love Is Everywhere (complete with those bagpipes and Scottish accent, of course).

As for the other tracks on this debut album, well, it is filled up with some very good, and nicely varied tracks. The experimental Butcher of Bucharest (which is a song about Nicolae Ceaușescu, and filled with speech and documentary samples of the Romanian revolution), the great dance instrumentals Cloud 9 and Sonic Malfunctions, and the beautiful ballad/dance track Then; which is probably my own personal favorite track from the album.

On top of producing the three singles, the Pet Shop Boys produced My Middle Class Life, which enables the song to avoid falling into oblivion, although As Time Goes By isn’t one of his best (but every album has filler). That said, the concluding Future Generations is a nice, bittersweet musical farewell.

CD 1: Original Album & Singles’ B- Sides
1 – That Loving Feeling* (5:44)
2 – Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me* (3:28)
3 – My Middle Class Life* (4:01)
4 – Pretend** (4:34)
5 – Cloud 9 (3:18)
6 – Love Is Everywhere* (3:29)
7 – Then (5:60
8 – As Time Goes By (4:59)
9 – Sonic Malfunction (3:35)
10 – The Butcher Of Bucharest (4:38)
11 – Future Generations (5:17)
12 – Pukka (Elevation Mix) (6:19)
13 – Mind Gap (Extended Mix) (6:36)
14 – Splatt (Extended Mix) (6:00)
15 – Jungilism (5:09)
16 – Street Life (4:46)

CD 2: The Original Remixed & Extended Singles
1 – Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me (Single Mix) (3:45)
2 – Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me (Melt Mix) (6:17)
3 – Love Is Everywhere (Extended Mix)* (7:55)
4 – That Loving Feeling (Single Mix)* (3:50)
5 – That Loving Feeling (Extended Mix)* (7:03)
6 – Live For Today (Single Version)* ^ (4:03)
7 – Live For Today (Gospel Mix)* ^ (2:46)
8 – Live For Today (Club Mix)* *** ^ (7:44)
9 – Live For Today (Underground Dub)* *** ^ (6:05)
10 – Live For Today (Orchestral Longer Version)* ** ^ (4:08)
11 – Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me (Remix)* (3:03)
12 – Heaven Must Have Sent You Back To Me (Extended Remix)* (5:54)
13 – Wish (Big Kahuna Mix)** ^^ (6:05)

CD 3: Ciceroddities!- New Remixes, Live & B-Side Edits
1 – Love Is Everywhere (Cicero Remix, 2023)** (4:38)
2 – Love Is Everywhere (RSF Remix, 2023)** (5:12)
3 – Love Is Everywhere (SoftWave Remix, 2023)** (5:16)
4 – Love Is Everywhere (TSF Remix, 2023)** (3:33)
5 – Love Is Everywhere (Shelter Extended Remix, 2023)** (4:45)
6 – Love Is Everywhere (Live At Heaven, 1991)** (4:21)
7 – My Middle Class Life (Live At Heaven, 1991)** (4:32)
8 – As Time Goes By (Live At Heaven, 1991)** (4:32)
9 – Then (Live At Heaven, 1991)** (3:23)
10 – Love Is Everywhere (Shelter Remix – Single Version)** (3:28)
11 – Wish (Early 7” Version)** ^^ (3:49)
12 – Pukka (7” Version) (3:59)
13 – Mind Gap (7” Version) (4:24)
14 – Splatt (7” Version) (4:09)
15 – Street Life (7” Edit) (3:40)
16 – Cicero In Da House** (0:57)

* Produced, Co-produced or Mixed by Pet Shop Boys
** Previously unreleased
*** Ft. Judge Jules
^ Ft. Sylvia Mason-James
^^ Ft. Bianca Kinane

Official 3CD Purchase Link