village voice review

[boyjohn]

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0626, ... 44,22.html

Life Begins at 50
Disco-centric Boys avoid becoming boring men

by Alfred Soto
June 23rd, 2006 4:56 PM

Fundamental
Rhino/Wea

Pet Shop Boys were already old and rather too graceful when "West End Girls" became their only American No. 1 hit in 1986, so aging gracefully isn't a problem. The question in 2006: whether the Boys' slowing metabolisms mean renewed interest in Neil Tennant's folkie roots at the expense of Chris Lowe's undimmed fascination with the latest hot young remixer. Happily, the duo's ninth album, Fundamental, is, like 1993's Very, a disco inferno, and the latest evidence that for the Boys, age ain't nuthin' but a number. Trevor Horn's production has a pleasing fullness, opening the melodies without smothering them. Furthermore, the ballads are less soppy than usual: Tennant's increasing ease with showbiz diction (and pitch control) embellishes the creative-writing-school tropes of "Indefinite Leave to Remain" and soon-to-be-standard "Casanova in Hell." Elsewhere, the Boys return to the sleaze of their earliest B sides ("Psychological"), update their Italo-disco roots ("Minimal," their hookiest number since "It's a Sin"), stop for a Simon Cowell–esque rant as re-imagined by Andrew Lloyd Weber (the somewhat lazy "The Sodom & Gomorrah Show"), and program a newly commissioned Diane Warren schlocka-ballad ("Numb") so nicely that it forces us to consider the similarities between this collision of two different assembly-line sensibilities.
Good for Neil. When he's being forthright, he's the most boring gay man on the planet. He needs metaphor and allegory like Beyoncé needs melisma. Take "Integral," in which he plays a character much like the one in "Opportunities," only he's so good at acting the collaborationist pissant that few will get the joke: Tennant sings like a petulant bank teller because there's a sense in which he wants to be one. Brash, frisky, and hip, Fundamental disregards this irony; it would mean accepting a senescence the Pet Shop Boys have been at pains to dance beyond.

[Burj]

Good for Neil. When he's being forthright, he's the most boring gay man on the planet.

I'd never thought of it like that before.

[!]

What a crap review, I can't tell if they like it or not

[psb-freak]

Good for Neil. When he's being forthright, he's the most boring gay man on the planet.

I'd never thought of it like that before.

Evil reviewer. It´s about their gayness all the time in those reviews.

[gomorrah]

nasty review. straight men seem to have a real problem with gay men and gay issues.

[Burj]

Homosexuality is only referred to in one line. And how do we know the reviewer is straight?

[Jareth]

Must every Pet Shop Boys review mention their sexuality and irony? 10/10 on the cliche meter for this review. Surprised he didn't get the word camp in there somewhere.

[Burj]

Surprised he didn't get the word camp in there somewhere.

That's the British prerogative, and he's American. The Brits love camp!

[gomorrah]

Homosexuality is only referred to in one line. And how do we know the reviewer is straight?

womanly intuition and a long-honed ability to read between them lines. especially lines uttered by an american male

and there's more than one line. example: "Chris Lowe's undimmed fascination with the latest hot young remixer"

there's more...

[gomorrah]

in an aside, now this is an interesting line:

"age ain't nuthin' but a number"... NUMB-er.

wonder if even HE got that one.

he's a clever writer, though.

[VinnyM27]

nasty review. straight men seem to have a real problem with gay men and gay issues.

I always assumed that "Village Voice" was a gay magazine. Am I wrong?

[Young Offender]

nasty review. straight men seem to have a real problem with gay men and gay issues.

I always assumed that "Village Voice" was a gay magazine. Am I wrong?

I think your right, it is a gay magazine.

[gomorrah]

it's not *exclusively* gay. not like the Washington Blade, anyway.

[Naughty Zoot]

I don't know where some of you get the negativity from in this review. I think this is a very good review. It likens Fundamental to Very & calls it brash, frisky & hip.
I have a pretty good vocabulary but I had to look up senesence, which I discovered means aging. And, on second read, I see that the review really is more concerned with aging than the obvious & quite cliche gay angle. After all PSB are elder statesmen of Dance-Pop & the review says they aren't old fuddy duddies.

PS: I can't wait til Tuesday so I can get Fundamental/Fundamentalism.

[gomorrah]

the whole review is a backhanded compliment.