"Memory of the Future" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys from their eleventh studio album, Elysium (2012). It was released on 31 December 2012 as the album's third and final single.[1] The track reached number 68 in Germany and number 111 in the United Kingdom. The single version was remixed by Stuart Price and differs notably from the album version.
"Memory of the Future" was composed during a song-writing session in Berlin in early 2011.[2] Lyricist Neil Tennant described it as a straightfoward love song about "something that hasn't happened seeming so inevitable that it already feels like a memory".[3] The line "I keep tasting that sweet madeleine" is a reference to the French novel Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, in which the taste of a madeleine (a small cake) prompts an involuntary memory of the narrator's childhood.[3]
The single was promoted with a lyric video.[4] The cover photo, depicting the Pet Shop Boys with short white hair and blue eyes, was taken by Pelle Crépin and manipulated by Ashish Karora.[2]
Stuart Price was asked to make the single version more electronic. In addition to the differences in the arrangement, the single is approximately a minute shorter than the album version and has a faster tempo.[2] After the release of "Memory of the Future", Pet Shop Boys went on to work with Price on a trilogy of albums starting with Electric.
