Fundamental/Fundamentalism CD Review 19/05/06

[Drico One]

The soundtrack to our lives. That throwaway phrase, which once meant something, has become a hackneyed old chestnut in recent years. Therefore, it’s always something of a surprise when a truism reveals its power. My brother, the most beautiful and gentle spirit that I have ever known, bade a final goodbye to me a few desolate weeks ago. In my new-found state of personal chaos, I find the themes and preoccupations of the new Pet Shop Boys record bewilderingly apposite and intensely cathartic.

Undertakers, death and destruction, cemeteries, resurrectionists, psychological insanity, and the promise of a new day in heaven stamp the latest PSB era like a coroner’s report. Remarkably enough, there’s no maudlin self-pity to be found here. The loss is overpowering, debilitating, and eviscerating, but our heroes bear the burden with all the dignity of grief-stricken but determined pall bearers. Fundamental may be their commercial coffin, but it’s not going to fall on their account.

If bereavement and the ephemeral nature of existence pervade the album as droplets in a gentle graveyard mist, political commentary is never far from the upturned soil below. The satire revealed is both subtle and stinging. I’m With Stupid, the somewhat generic trailing single, possesses one of the most perfect lyrics of Neil Tennant’s career. The ferocious Integral is stridently caustic in its Orwellian overtones. The ID card debate in the UK is merely the starting point for Tennant’s biting deconstruction of the entire New Labour project. The brilliantly inspired Frankie Goes To Hollywood chants deep into the song’s black heart recall 1984 in more than mere spirit, an inspired touch of allegorical genius. The soaring somersaulting synths prior to the final glorious crescendo threaten to implode in a frenzy of bombastic hysteria, but Horn holds Chris Lowe’s thrilling orchestrations back just enough to keep things tastefully grotesque. The Performance pigs of 1991’s lavish stage show are invoked to dance around the totalitarian trough as Napoleon Blair utters his final approval. “Perfect.”

Yet, for all its undoubted highs, Fundamental is an uneven record. Psychological, a nondescript opener, takes flight only in its last third to reveal a shimmering soundscape rich in aural delight. That momentum is quickly lost, however, for The Sodom and Gomorrah Show reduces the tenor of the record to tacky glam disco. It starts well enough raising the spectre of Derek Jarman before descending into a cheesy crypt of fetid gorgonzola. The forced alliteration and wallflower vocals at the heart of the track make this the wimpiest of wig-outs.

Thankfully we’re back on track immediately with the achingly beautiful, if imperfect, I Made My Excuses and Left. Asylums never sounded so poignant. Classic kitchen-sink drama as profound existential angst. An airy ethereal accompaniment pervades the private personal sadness of sudden public rejection. Tennant recounts one of life’s defeats but resurrects himself for the fight vowing to face an uncertain future. The slightly pretentious lyric adds to the sense of Tennant as intellectual nerd, an inevitable but unwitting victim in an arena primed for more physically robust and streetwise protagonists.

The gloriously celestial Minimal’s light gossamer glaze reflects a temporary light on the passing of a brief moment and represents a crystalline peak in an otherwise dark journey through morbidity.

The brooding, saturnine heart of the record descends now to envelop the listener in a thick fog of troubled discomfiture. Numb, potentially a death-knell of the most gruesome kind, is lowered into the ground with genuine grace. Tennant’s ennunciation strips Diane Warren’s composition of its usual hysterical vocal and renders bare the desolate torment of bereavement. The communion bells and priestly chants of the dolorous overture subsume the listener in a funereal atmosphere that Horn directs with tactful aplomb. The orchestral stab prior to the final verse assails the listener like a grievous and suddenly recalled memory. Warren’s lyric is simple but powerful and captures the mental anguish of profound loss. While Tennant’s rendition is the mournful equivalent of dignified suffering, a Mariah Carey interpretation would likely see the American songstress collapse at the pulpit, burn the altar to the ground, and shatter the stained glass windows of St. Peters as a frenzied prelude to toppling dramatically into the freshly-dug grave before the descending casket. Thankfully, we’re spared that public ignominy and can all repose back to the house to the angelic air of God Willing.

Luna Park completes the twisted trilogy, a gentle gambol through the delusional theme park of life. The entertainment on show merely masks a deep sense of ennui and tense foreboding, and Tennant’s precision lyric observes temporary happiness doomed to disaster. The illusion of contentment is certain to pass, and our narrator is already glimpsing the grim realities and predicting, with the assistance of fortune tellers, the bad news to come.

Now, however, the standard begins to waver. Casanova In Hell sits incongruously on Fundamental and recounts a rather pointless tale. Given Tennant’s fabled history of metaphorical allusion, the title suggested something rather more interesting than the fading erection of a middle-aged man. Yet, there is metaphorical reference to be found underneath the casiotones. As Pet Shop Boys can no longer get it up the charts on a regular basis these days, Tennant and Lowe returned to their aural library and wrote their own tale of vindication with 2003’s PopArt. If that’s the imputation, it’s indeed queer that this particular song would undermine any hagiography, let alone discography.

Twentieth Century picks up the pace and is Tennant’s public admission that the Iraqi war was a calamitous mistake. However, his Prince-like staccato vocal grates and the earnest conclusions are too saccharine for comfort. The trend continues with the penultimate track. Indefinite Leave To Remain forces well-meaning political sentiment into an ostensibly intimate love letter. It’s too clumsy to work though the backing is magnificently sweeping in its expanse. It takes the grimly apocalyptic Integral to slam the door shut on any further syrupy notions.

The companion disc, Fundamentalism, features the usual plethora of soon-to-be-forgotten mixes as well as the notably indecorous ferret-wigged presence of Elton John. It also contains the glorious existential hymn, Fugitive, a coruscating paean to brotherly love and the tragic transcience of time. Subversive it may be at heart, but a literal interpretation is overwhelmingly distressing to my now overly-sensitive ears. Fugitive is the guard of honour as stairway to heaven, a celestial ray of sunlight searing through the clouds to confirm Tennant and Lowe’s pop immortality.

Free and released from the world… I’m really going to miss you.

Drico.

[Your Funny Uncle]

I'm very to sorry about your loss, drico. I don't know how old your brother was, but he must have been far too young...

It's good, however, to read another of your reviews. Can't say I agree with it all, but then, when did we ever agree?

I especially disagree about Numb. To me, it sounds like Neil is struggling to force out the lyric in a style to which he is really not accustomed. He seems unsure of how to sing the song, and it sounds to me like some mid-atlantic mish-mash of vocal styles, which in find excruciating to listen to. Also, I find the said lyric to be catastrophically cheesy and unaffecting. The only saving grace for me is the production, especially towards the end of the track, but it still goes down as one of my least favourite PSB songs ever. At least they didn't write it...

The other songs you pointed out as weak, Psychological, Casanova in Hell and 20th Century, were certainly the ones I also found least accessible at first, but as usual with initially unexciting PSB songs, I'm finding more to enjoy in them all the time. I've really tried to do the same with Numb, but it tears the heart out of the record for me. I find myself frustrated that such a great collection of songs in interrupted by such a horrible change of lyrical and musical tone.

I've always laughed at people who say they have made a new edit of an album, taking out the "bad" songs and replacing them with others, but for the first time I actually feel like following suit...

[greenmile]

Sorry to hear about your brother Drico.

[!]

Sorry to hear about your brother, my condolences...

If bereavement and the ephemeral nature of existence pervade the album as droplets in a gentle graveyard mist, political commentary is never far from the upturned soil below.

I love this! It's such a great description of the album.

a Mariah Carey interpretation would likely see the American songstress collapse at the pulpit, burn the altar to the ground, and shatter the stained glass windows of St. Peters as a frenzied prelude to toppling dramatically into the freshly-dug grave before the descending casket.

That's just hilarious

[Drico One]

Random Observations:

Numb is this album's Love Is A Catastrophe. I think people will relate to it through personal experience or will loathe it with the passion befitting carefree cynicism. I think it is far more sophisticated than I would have originally given the composer credit for. Then again, I'm not a detached critic at the moment. To make matters worse for those in the Diane Warren Extermination Club, this is a likely single. Why else bring her on board if not to exploit her commercial nous?

Minimal's a logical single and one with more hit potential than the album trailer. The relative success of I'm With Stupid owes much to the video. In my view, that helped make the band fashionable enough for radio playlisters to include the track on their rosters. It's airplay chart performance of 40-27-12-27-12 makes it the most played PSB single in a decade. Consequently, number 8 was no surprise.

Fundamental lacks the kitchen-sink intimacy and first-person experience of previous PSB records. Neil seems to have run out of personal experiences to convey and now seems to write as an ever-more detached observer. This is a strength in his armoury, but makes for a colder listening experience.

The soundscapes on Fundamental are richer than anything they've ever recorded. Logically enough, the mp3s that have been circulating are the palest of imitations when compared to the CD. Psychological is one track that benefits tremendously from its intended format.

Drico.

[glennjridge]

yeah sorry to hear about your brother. but its always good to see people out there who also like numb.

[Drico One]

Oh, and by the way, there's no need to offer condolences. I appreciate the sentiment (especially from old forum campaigners I have bantered with for so long), but I haven't mentioned my personal circumstances to elicit forum attention in the manner of the tedious OT forum birthday, obituary, and sperm-tossing same-sex baby-making threads. So please, no more. Thanks anyway.

Drico.

[BlueSwan]

Your review would make for a great text to be given to pupils in an advanced english class!

[Ghost within this house]

The soundscapes on Fundamental are richer than anything they've ever recorded. Logically enough, the mp3s that have been circulating are the palest of imitations when compared to the CD. Psychological is one track that benefits tremendously from its intended format.

Drico.

That's the most exciting thing I've heard in a while... I deleted my MP3s a while ago, but striving for extra volume in my headphones resulted in spillage and I really felt there was lots going on in the tracks that I couldn't make out -

Luna Park, which I think is just a wonderful dreamscape, is the one I'm most looking forward to hearing in its full glory, but Pyschological, Sodom&G, God Willing and 20thC are sure to sound even better..

v.v.v. excited!!

Lovely review by the way, Drico. The picture emerging is that it is harder to fall in love with Fundamental than with earlier albums - is that partly a symptom of us all getting older, I wonder?

[Maverick]

I understand half of your review, Drico, but it's beautifully written.

[Effen Vida]

Great review Drico. Probably a tad overwritten, but then I think you already know that

[Undertaker]

I'm glad to hear about how good the quality is of the actual cd. The mp3's sound fine but with a lot of people stating how well produced it is, it made me wonder how good the cd will sound.

Dave

[Drico One]

Lovely review by the way, Drico. The picture emerging is that it is harder to fall in love with Fundamental than with earlier albums - is that partly a symptom of us all getting older, I wonder?

I think it's a symptom of Neil writing songs from an impersonal perspective. In my view, only Sodom, I Made My Excuses and Left, and Numb tell personal tales - and you could argue about two of those. Indefinite Leave To Remain is really an homage to freedom dressed up as an interpersonal relationship, Stupid is satirical political lampoonery, Psychological a collection of paranoid soundbites, Casanova recounts a voyeur's decline, and Luna Park is a sophisticated observation of impending doom. While many of these tracks work implicitly and allow us to mine for deeper meaning, they're social commentaries as opposed to intimate perspectives. I think the album is loveable, but you love it on its terms rather than on your own.

Your review would make for a great text to be given to pupils in an advanced english class!

Lesson Number 1: Preposterousness. A dissertation.

I understand half of your review, Drico, but it's beautifully written.

That's good because you can help me work out the bits I can't.

Great review Drico. Probably a tad overwritten, but then I think you already know that

Well, I've never been a forum poster to use one overblown phrase when two will do instead.

Drico.

[Drico One]

The other songs you pointed out as weak, Psychological, Casanova in Hell and 20th Century, were certainly the ones I also found least accessible at first, but as usual with initially unexciting PSB songs, I'm finding more to enjoy in them all the time.

I have to agree with you there (I'm not sure which of us should be most concerned by this unfortunate turn of events). Given the rather high (impossible?) standards we set for the PSBs these days (or rather, they set themselves with every successive record), I think certain tracks are always more likely to get a less favourable rap on early exploration. While the album is quite unneven at times, I think it's fair to say that there isn't a dud on it like, say, The Night I Fell In Love was on Release. All have that unerring ability to grow which makes the whole experience increasingly rich. The album flows particularly well if you buy into the whole Victorian bereavement angle which seems to be the the primary theme of the record.

Actually, it strikes me as if loss is the overriding concern. From the undertaker paraphenalia to the black cover art, the tenor of the record is sombre and morbid. Numb is about the loss of a loved one, I Made My Excuses and Left concerns the loss of love, The Sodom and Gomorrah Show recounts the loss of innocence, Psychological the loss of sanity. Luna Park seems to deal with the loss of reality or even hope. Integral heralds the loss of freedom.

Drico.

[Your Funny Uncle]

Actually, it strikes me as if loss is the overriding concern. From the undertaker paraphenalia to the black cover art, the tenor of the record is sombre and morbid. Numb is about the loss of a loved one, I Made My Excuses and Left concerns the loss of love, The Sodom and Gomorrah Show recounts the loss of innocence, Psychological the loss of sanity. Luna Park seems to deal with the loss of reality or even hope. Integral heralds the loss of freedom.

Yes. It was said to me recently that this was the closest to a Depeche Mode album that PSB have done, and in terms of the overall tone of the album, if not exactly musical style, that's spot on. That said, having Integral as a final track paradoxically leaves me on a high, due to the exhuberance of the production. I think Trever Horn is possibly the perfect producer to work on a full on PSB "stomper."

Thinking about it, the orchestral fade-out on Jealousy acheives a similar effect on PSB's other dark album, Behaviour... I wonder how much they think of these things when setting the running order...