Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental (Parlophone)
2/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Know what the Pet Shop Boys' real problem is? Well, aside from the (slightly unnerving) fact that they're a pair of balding middle aged men who we are still required to refer to as 'boys'? It's that they're of a time. Any artist who finds themselves chronicling an era, reflecting a certain time or attitude on record runs the risk of finding themselves trapped in that particular age. The best stuff the Pet Shop Boys have done - with its spotlight placed on thoughtless consumerism, avarice and egocentricity - is steeped in a distinctively eighties' sensibility.
And thus in 2006, Messrs Lowe and Tennant are struggling to remain relevant as a pop act. Case in point: 'The Sodom and Gomorrah Show.' Set to one of the spunkier tunes on an otherwise largely humdrum LP it may be, but as a comment on our prurient, permissive times, then well... it all just seems so dated. They might be talking about a time ahead of their 80s heyday sure, but really, with its bold spoken world promise of a land of 'Sun, Sex, Sin, Divine Intervention' the prevailing feel is too 'Loaded' magazine, too Club 18-30, too 'Girls and Boys' ('cept awful). You half expect Keith Allen to turn up and offer a guest vocal half way through.
Lyrically there are some major clangers. 'Minimal' starts promisingly with a throbbing, New Order-ish bassline, but is soon regrettably compromised by some particularly inane babble pitched somewhere between one of David Brent's nonsensical life philosophies and Ali G alter ego Borat's spoof fashion show interviews ('Draw a line/More is less is minimal/Form, earth, life/Decide something less decisional' - que?) However, 'Casanova in Hell' manages to out-cringe even that gubbins with its final line: 'Above all, his erection will live in history.' Erm, thanks for that, chaps.
Recalling the OTT bombast of 'It's A Sin', meanwhile, 'I'm With Stupid' posits the less-than-revelatory notion that the relationship between George W Bush and Tony Blair doesn't really do the UK many favours. Yeah, its hearts in the right place, but tellingly, the Pet Shop Boys could have been saying exactly the same things about Thatcher and Reagan twenty years ago. For a band who once specialized in portraying a particular kind of haughty ennui, 'Fundamental' is in actual fact a bit of a yawn.
Artists in this article: Pet Shop Boys
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