Website: Pet Shop Boys
The Inside Pulse:
Still releasing new material after over twenty years, the duo of Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant hold steady with Fundamental. Continuing to create the same music they have been releasing for years, there’s no mistaking this is Pet Shop Boys in every aspect.
Positives: If you’re a Pet Shop Boys fan, Fundamental is like coming home to a chair you have been sitting in for years that is perfectly molded to your form. Laid-back dance-pop from top to bottom, the energy has matured, but the atmosphere remains.
Negatives: Oh, my. It’s one thing to be cute and silly, but these guys aren’t spring chickens at this point, which makes a lot of the bubbleheadedness almost embarrassing. When songs play it straight, it’s perfectly acceptable. But the first single, “I’m With Stupid,” is quite indicative of the dated intellect put into this album. And let’s not get started on “The Sodom and Gomorrah Show.” It almost makes one long for “I Want a Dog.”
Cross-breed: Pet Shop Boys. There is no cross-breeding here.
Reason To Buy: Die-hards, you’ll be satisfied with it. DJs looking for things to mix, there’s a fair bit of goodness here. If you are just discovering PSB, start with the back catalog. Fundamental isn’t what a 2006 album should be, and definitely not by people whose intelligence is far higher than some of the idiocy within.
