Yet another Fundamental/ism review

[patrick]

It’s a bit presumptuous to post an album review here, especially so close to the release date and with so many people already having heard the thing. I held out until I got an actual copy of Fundamental, because so many early reviews seemed to be missing the bigger picture. An album is about context; too many people have been looking at Fundamental as nothing more than a collection of songs, which misses the point.

But then, a lot of people seem to be missing the point. We see this in the fantasy track lists and in the moaning about tempo and the lack of upbeat disco tracks. We see it in the people complaining about Fundamentalism and the people critiquing the production without having heard it through a good pair of headphones. I’ve even seen people slamming the lyrics.

And to be honest I just don’t get it.

Some perspective might be in order. I discovered the Pet Shop Boys in spring 1993 by accidentally catching the South Bank Show on cable while channel surfing one night. I knew West End Girls of course, and although it made an impression I was very young at the time and hadn’t gotten around to “discovering” music. The SBS changed everything. More to the point, the Performance clips changed everything. I had never seen anything like them. I hadn’t really ever heard anything like them. Oh sure, there had been electronic music on my radio in the past, but this was different, somehow. A unique je ne sais quoi that spoke directly to me. I immediately went out and bought Discography.

And then I immediately went out and bought everything else they had ever done. The Actually and Introspective original CD singles were re-released around this time, and the Behaviour era was recent enough that I found those singles without much effort. The dark days before Alternative were resolved via a cassette compilation of the Please B sides, which remain some of the most evocative electronic music ever. I had found something that spoke to me like nothing else had … and I wasn’t even gay (which speaks volumes about the PSB and their politics and approach).

All of this came just as Can you forgive her? dropped. It was sheer bliss and remains my favorite single of all time. The PSB back catalog seemed intelligent and mysterious, and with each new single the Very era proved as fascinating. I played that album non-stop throughout 1993/94. The first three singles were never far from my CD player. Relentless immediately challenged Behaviour as my favorite album and to this day they slug it out in my personal best. They both contained everything I expect from the PSB: mood, mystery, wit. Of the electronic scene without being in the electronic scene. Always the outsider looking in.

I’m sure you can see where this is going. It all followed a predictable pattern; the joy of discovery creating a period of instant nostalgia. It would take Before to make me consider the PSB critically. Bilingual remains something of a mess. The classic touch is still there in places, but the Boys seemed to have lost their touch. More importantly, they seemed to have nothing to say. I like some of the songs from this period, but for the first time I found my interest waning. Nightlife did nothing to change this. Happiness is an option looked back to past greatness, but fandom seemed oblivious. Did they really prefer the bland sugary pap offered by disco beats? Once more the Boys seemed to have nothing to say, putting their energies into the Closer to Heaven project and pretending that it meant the same thing. (A thread for another day, but I feel that Gay themes with a capital G have never interested the PSB and that this probably explains the lackluster work produced during 1999. The play sounds great on paper but obviously nobody actually bothered to see what the PSB were about before getting things rolling. It should have been so obvious. More on this later.)

Release was a warning shot. The Boys themselves seemed aware that they needed a new focus. I don’t think the album deserves the slating it gets from fans (Nightlife is much worse). The fresh energy pays off in places; I get along is their best single in nine years and I didn’t get where I am today is the best single they never released. But one gets the feeling of a ship turning at sea. Disco 3 and the PopArt singles suggest a reorientation but it takes Battleship Potemkin to show why Closer to Heaven failed.

Politics is the heart of the Pet Shop Boys and always was.

Which brings us to Fundamental. This is without a doubt their best album since Behaviour and possibly its equal. More to the point, it’s an adult piece of contemporary art fitting of a group navigating middle age. It’s the first album in at least 13 years that works as an album (and I’m looking at Relentless rather than Very here). It features a Pet Shop Boys reinvigorated and firing at maximum steam on every cylinder. The lyrics are as biting and insightful as they’ve ever been; the songwriting more assured than at any point since 1996. This will pass over the heads of those who confuse songwriting with “pop hooks” and relevance with chart position. But we don’t need those people.

The Pet Shop Boys have remembered who they are – and even better, they’ve shown us who they might be down the line. In many ways they’re charting alien territory; it’s difficult to think of another group featuring middle-aged men consistently making Top 20 singles. Just as Morrissey successfully restyled his image, the Pet Shop Boys could do a lot worse than gracefully dominate their autumnal years by exploring subtly creepy Victoriana.

Fundamental is not a collection of songs. It is a coherent, thematic whole focused on fundamentalism of all kinds; political, emotional, sexual. It is a contemporary masterpiece and I’ve never been more proud to be a fan of the Pet Shop Boys.

Psychological
Many reviewers seem to miss the point of this track, wanting a catchy disco single. But this misses the point of the function of art and what music can accomplish. Psychological sets the stage by creating an environment of sickness and paranoia. Something is wrong with our world; it’s rotting from within. We have become prisoners of fear – and our own culture has become our master (an undertaker in a bowler hat). The grinding, repetitive music underlines the point. I’ve seen several fans posting their own track lists for this album; all of them that begin with a different song miss the point.

The Sodom and Gomorrah show
This is the strongest single we’ve had in years, and cruelly the idiot singles strategy in force ever since 1996 seems set to deprive us of it. The production is superb played loud on a nice pair of headphones; this song (and this album) is not meant to be played quietly in your office cubicle. The Sodom and Gomorrah show features a controversial yet typically PSB take on homosexuality; few have commented on this but Tennant is almost always awkward with stereotypical pink pride. Instead we find the political in the personal – individual sexual liberation whilst simultaneously criticizing the excesses (the fundamentalism, if you will) of the gay community. Listen to the lyrics; the title is not solely ironic.

I made my excuses and left
The most beautiful song on the album, all the more so at ear-splitting volume. As with the previous track, the extended introduction isn’t an introduction at all – it’s part of the story. The ghostly “I’m all alone” undercuts the absurdity of the actual situation; is the narrator truly alone if his relationship falls asunder? What kind of emotional fundamentalism is that? The “elephant/supplicant” couplet is sublime. Those who want an edit are looking at this all wrong – we really need a 12” version so we can get lost in the soundscape.

Minimal
This track is astonishing when we consider that Tennant is 50 years old. A cry for honest simplicity in a complicated world of doublespeak. “Black is black” indeed. I love this track and the ending is sublime. Notice what’s happening in this track list so far; our narrator begins to sense something is wrong with the status quo and first untangles his community and his relationship. Now he realizes that even language conspires against him. Naturally this leads us to:

Numb
Our narrator enters a fugue state after recognizing that everything he understands is a hollow shell. Not as terrible as everyone says, but certainly weaker than the rest of the album. I suspect this would sound much better sang by someone like Robbie Williams.

God willing
I’ve seen people put this at the front of their fantasy track listings – presumably because it’s short and has no words. Never heard of an intermission? This is a half-time cry for help, and a gorgeous piece of music. The title is an expression of optimism; now that we’ve oriented ourselves psychologically, we can focus on the problems:

Luna Park
The political half of the album comes into play now – this is the explanation of the paranoid ennui affecting our narrator, who has chosen to explore contemporary society rather than push blindly on like a mindless consumer. So naturally our first stop is America, described appropriately enough as a hollow set of attractions masking an existential void. The music doesn’t really work for me, although the lack of a traditional chorus is strangely appropriate to the subject matter. We sense a yearning here, a desire for something better.

I’m with Stupid
The first single is somewhat underwhelming for me. But as an examination of Western fundamentalism it works, disguising a modern political cancer under the sugar gloss of bouncy pop drums (and in this respect the ‘80s throwback sounds must be deliberate). Blair’s plea here recalls the paranoia of Psychological – the notion that the most powerful nation in history is led by a gibbering idiot is too terrifying to countenance so there must be something else going on. Of course this would come after Luna Park.

Casanova in hell
The sequencing here confuses me, although obviously Casanova is also a metaphor for the vapidity behind modern sexuality and a signpost of our narrator’s insecurities. Which on second thought seems obvious following two tracks about plastic America. Tennant pulls back the curtain to reveal that the emperor has no clothes – the cultural drive to transform sex into a value and product in itself is ultimately hollow. I adore the plaintive vocals and an arrangement that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Divine Comedy album. Inspired, and I hope it signposts the future more than something like Integral.

Twentieth century
A mid-temp track with a delightful chorus finds our narrator looking back over the past century to recognize that fear and fundamentalism lead to all manner of horrors. “Sometimes the solution is worse than the problem” sums up the post 9/11 response and finally positions the narrator in a position of power; understanding the problems afflicting our culture he can begin suggesting alternatives…

Indefinite leave to remain
…including this earnest plea against anti-immigration, itself the product of fundamentalist elements in any society. Open borders and international exchange offer the only salvation for our problems. We need to learn from each other; “indefinite leave to remain” is an offense because humans should have no restrictions on their movements. Gorgeous song. Perfectly sequenced.

Integral
But basic human decency is unlikely to win in the end, is it? “If you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve got nothing to fear” is the refrain echoing around Washington this week in the wake of revelations that US phone companies are collaborating with domestic spy programs. The future is 1984 and it’s sold to us as a commercial plastic dance anthem. You’ll find yourself dancing to your way to a police state. If ID cards and personal numbers don’t evoke German papers and Nazi concentration camp tattoos, then you’ve learned nothing. Integral is a throwback to 1993 and I suspect that – as with I'm with stupid – it’s deliberate. As long as we can hide in a repurposed past there’s no need to worry about the present. In a sense this is a meta-textual cousin to DJ culture, suggesting a bait-and-switch taking advantage of short attention spans to hoodwink us all. This song really can’t go anywhere else on the album and I’m always shocked by fantasy track lists that place this somewhere in the middle just because it’s been “too long without an uptempo number.”

And now to Fundamentalism. The Pet Shop Boys have never been particularly well served by remixes, somehow tending to inspire the worst in their collaborators. But having said that, I can appreciate a lot of their collection. Disco and Disco 2 pointed out the two extremes, neither of which I particularly enjoy. I personally prefer a solid 12” mix and a dance mix that offers something new while respecting the spirit. So yes to an RAF Zone but no to a Junior Vasquez. Fundamentalism is so much better than reviews make out.

Fugitive (Richard X extended mix)
This of course is an instant classic. I wonder how closely this hews to the original version (or indeed if this is the original version). Listen to not only the jets that open and close the track, but how the percussion seems to sample glass and metal wreckage. The vocals and lyrics are powerful; why this isn’t on Fundamental is beyond me (I would have put it between Indefinite leave to remain and Integral). Yes, it’s sung from the POV of a terrorist but it’s actually a plea against the perceived necessity of terrorism. And in the guise of a dance track as well. This is truly subversive stuff and one of the best things the Boys have done in well over a decade. Sonically it’s a throwback of sorts of the Please B sides and just as atmospheric.

Sodom (Trentmoller remix)
I love this. Sounds great while driving and builds to something fun. Nothing else to say, except that it honors the spirit and vocals in a way that a surprising number of tracks do on this bonus album. There have been lots of complaints, but it could have been so much worse.

Psychological (Alter Ego remix)
I don’t understand the complaints. Once you understand what the original sets out to achieve, this works.

Flamboyant (Michael Mayer remix)
A lot has been written about this one. I’m not sure I wanted Fundamentalism to revisit old tracks (it seems better to have stuck the Goetz B. mix of The Resurrectionist on here and put the old tracks on a single). But the slow burble is atmospheric and helps keep Fundamentalism a cohesive album in itself. The crossfades with archive PSB samples are pointless and intrusive but somehow the track wins out. Contextually the lyrics fit well with the rest of the album – celebrity is part of the bread and circuses used to keep us in check. When millions of people watch American Idol but just 26 complain that Verizon gave their phone records to the NSA in violation of the Fourth Amendment and the 1930s Telecom Act you know we’re on questionable ground. Slowing down the tempo helps drive the point home.

I’m with Stupid (Melnyk mix)
I quite enjoy this mix, although there’s not a lot to say about it. Fundamentalism is a mid-tempo electronica album rather than a dance album, and I wonder if that false billing is part of what’s provoking the negative responses.

In private (Stuart Crichton club mix)
This is absolutely abysmal in every way. I imagine the sort of people who want to chop two minutes off of I made my excuses and left are the same one who think this is wonderful. It's got nothing to do musically or thematically with anything else here. Dreadful, not least because the original is such an elegant classic.

Minimal (Lobe remix)
Just glorious, sorry. Everything I’ve ever wanted in a remix; an independent track that perfectly complements the spirit of the original. I hope these mixes don’t end up on the single (because if we’re only getting one or two CDs I want them packed with new B sides instead). But between this and Fugitive Fundamentalism justifies its existence.

Gomorrah (Dettinger remix)
Lost of complaints against this one, but I think some of you might be missing the point. It’s the end of the album and things are winding down. Consider this almost a chill out moment and it should snap into focus. Two mixes make me think the Boys were serious about making this a single. I hope they reconsider.

And of course we have two B sides. I might as well witter on about them while I’m boring you. And are they the nadir of Nightlife or the mixed bag of Release? Nope. They’re unerringly brilliant throwbacks to Alternative.

The resurrectionist
Everything about this is perfect, from the ghoulish subject matter to the inspired lyrics to the contemporary Killers hook. Thrilled to pieces we got a 12” version as well. It doesn’t fit on the album thematically, but its glorious all the same.

Girls don’t cry
The final word on the question of whether electronic music can be emotional; just listen to that tremulous, uncertain Blade Runner warble driving this track forward. Tennant sings with genuine heartbreak bubbling just under the surface and the lyrics are on fine form (the Lay Lady Lay reference works on several levels). I don’t see how anyone can hear this song and not immediately think of Teena Brandon. I suggested upthread that the Boys are uncomfortable with Gay culture; this song demonstrates yet again their interest in gay culture. Yes, that capitalization is important. One is brainless bread and circuses that misses the point; the other is basic humanity that understands it only too well.

[!]

This has been my favourite review so far, it's great!

Thank you!

[trussy74]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[Bang]

Thank you very much. An excellent review.

[Debussy]

Excellent review and exactly my views on the individual tracks.
It most certainly is a listen in context album though.
"I made my excuses and left" is possible my most played PSB song in 10 years. A sublime intelligent piece of pop music if ever there was. I've even rewound mis-song several times over the 'supplicant' couplet you mention.
My second most played song of recent years is "Love is a catastrophe" which now sounds like a pre-cursor to Excuses.

[discotex]

Fantastic review--best I've read so far, especially your track by track comments (maybe with the exception of the minor slag of Numb without support of the negativity--I know some don't like this song much because PSB didn't write it, but I think it's a gorgeous arrangement and has major crossover potential).

I'm not completely sure if asked Neil would agree that the arrangement of the tracks were based on a running storyline, but your points are well taken, and that does enhance the overall picture. Hopefully you have shed some light for those who think this is not the ideal track order.

[patrick]

I'm not completely sure if asked Neil would agree that the arrangement of the tracks were based on a running storyline

I'm sure he wouldn't, but I subscribe to the "death of the author" school of thought.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'd be interested to hear some in-depth views by others as well!

[BlueSwan]

Very interesting review. Thank you for that.

Still, I'd like to challenge a few of your views.

First up, I think you make the classic mistake of overinterpreting the songs. I don't know if you're a songwriter yourself, but in my experience songs are the product of instant inspiration. Unless you actually set out to do a concept album, there will rarely be an overall lyrical masterplan for an album. As with all sorts of writing, it is always possible to construct an interpretation where all the songs seemingly fit each other - but this is probably rarely the intention of the writers who were just trying to write some good songs. More the product of fans who want there to be a greater meaning behind everything.

Therefore I believe your thoughts on the tracklisting is flawed. PSB are known to change their tracklisting and infact this very album used to have a very very different tracklisting. Therefore there cannot have been a masterplan as such. They tried to sequence the songs in a way that gave the best album listening experience from a musical point of view - not a lyrical point of view. I believe the reason why the trasklisting was changed, was that someone had complained that the second part of the CD had too many slow songs. Instead they sequenced the album in a stop-start fashion, which I think is a shame.

Also, let's not forget that 99% of music buyers don't give a shit about lyrics. They want an album that sounds good (i.e. flows well musically) - THAT is the reasoning behind an albums tracklisting. Again, only with actual concept albums will this be different.

My problems with the tracklisting are manyfold:

1) I like albums that start in an epic manner. God Willing flowing into Sodom & Gomorrah could provide for such an opening.

2) I don't like stop-start sequencing.

3) Integral sounds intrusive after Indefinite Leave To Remain.

Anyway, I agree with you that Fundamental is their best album since Behaviour. I also agree that The Sodom And Gomorrah Show should have been a single and that Fugitive should have been on the album (and a single). I also agree that editing Excuses would be a mistake - of anything it should be longer.

[patrick]

First up, I think you make the classic mistake of overinterpreting the songs.

I agree! I said upthread I subscribe to the "death of the author" perspective on art, which often leads to "overinterpreting" but which also tends to prove more challenging and satisfying in my opinion.

PSB are known to change their tracklisting and infact this very album used to have a very very different tracklisting. Therefore there cannot have been a masterplan as such.

Now this I don't agree with. Abandoned tracklistings suggest that the current order is better than others and that some thought was given to it. I'm also not sure that resequencing changes the underlying meaning of the songs themselves.

Also, let's not forget that 99% of music buyers don't give a shit about lyrics.

And they should be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

Integral sounds intrusive after Indefinite Leave To Remain.

Surely it would have sounded even more intrusive anywhere else?

[Integralist]

Very interesting review, but I could do without being told we're all "missing the point" every few sentences. Just because some of us don't like a track or how the album is sequenced doesn't mean we're missing the point or that we're somehow wrong.

[patrick]

Just because some of us don't like a track or how the album is sequenced doesn't mean we're missing the point or that we're somehow wrong.

Not in itself, no. But I've seen a lot of stupid statements floating around.

[BlueSwan]

I agree! I said upthread I subscribe to the "death of the author" perspective on art, which often leads to "overinterpreting" but which also tends to prove more challenging and satisfying in my opinion.

Fair enough.

Now this I don't agree with. Abandoned tracklistings suggest that the current order is better than others and that some thought was given to it. I'm also not sure that resequencing changes the underlying meaning of the songs themselves.

As I wrote in my previous post, I do believe that A LOT of thought goes into making tracklists, but I also believe that lyrical cohesiveness ranks very low on the list of priorities when making tracklists - unless you're recording a concept album (which I have tried personally and will probably never do again, although it was fun). Bilingual, for instance, was changed at the very last minute by Chris Lowe on a whim. He f***** it up royally though.

And they should be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

Put me first in line, then.

Surely it would have sounded even more intrusive anywhere else?

Not if it had been sequenced after Sodom, Minimal, Stupid, Fugitive or Twentieth Centrury, IMO.

[patrick]

Not if it had been sequenced after Sodom, Minimal, Stupid, Fugitive or Twentieth Centrury, IMO.

I can't agree; I find Integral to be something of a curate's egg that doesn't really fit comfortably on the album at all. Placing it last is something of a compromise I suppose because then at least it's not intrusive.

[Your Funny Uncle]

Fabulous. It's great to see someone writing an intellegent and well thought through piece on this board. I certainly don't agree 100% with it, but I was very happy to read it none the less. Keep up the good work!

For the sake of a little debate, I'd like to talk about Indefinite Leave to Remain. To me it's not much more than a very beautiful PSB love song. Using the metaphor of a visa application does of course tie it thematically to Integral, but when you get down to it, it is only a metaphor. Neil is asking his lover if they can spend the rest of their lives together. I really can't see it as an earnest plea against anti-immigration...

[MarcoS]

Patrick, excellent Review:

just Copie/Paste it all and send it to Bill Redman You might become new PSB Partnership assisant

I really enjoyed it thank you.


Marco