Elysium was released in 2012 and revealed an evolution in the Pet Shop Boys' sound and musical development. The composition process began when the Pet Shop Boys were on tour with Take That, and some tracks were even written in 2008.

The album was produced jointly by the Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Dawson, who had worked extensively as a sound engineer on Kanye West's album "808s & Heartbreaks" - an album that Neil Tennant was "slightly obsessed" with at the time. The dark atmosphere in the lyrics of Elysium is reflected in the sound of the album.

Neil Tennant: "It's very 'deep' in sound on the one hand - it's got a lot of sub-bass - but it's also deep in terms of the subject matter and the way it's phrased. But I think it's the Pet Shop Boys' most beautiful album."