1.
So, some general questions first. Where was the
album recorded? And tell us about Trevor Horn’s role as producer.
2.
It’s a very modern sounding record, but some of the
synth sounds seem to be harking back to the golden age of the ’80s. Is this a
retro record?
3.
There’s a lot more than the spare machine generated
dance rhythms that sometimes characterize PSB tracks. Fundamental has plenty of
big brass and strings. Who’s done the orchestrations?
4.
Why is the album called Fundamental? Anything to do
with religious fundamentalism?
5.
OK, track by track now, through the 12 tracks on
Fundamental. Track 1, Psychological, seems to me to start out with at least a
hint, a flavour, of the sound of Kraftwerk’s The Model. Deliberate?
6.
Track 2 is the Sodom and Gomorrah Show. Obviously
to do with the Biblical story about the twin cities destroyed by God, because
of their Behaviour. A Euro beat 134 BPM PSB classic, but with that sting in the
tail…
7.
It starts off with a Jerry Springer figure
introducing the show. Who’s that?
8.
This is such a Pet Shop Boys classic! Pretty song,
swirling synths; but underneath, the velvet glove contains a steel fist…
9.
Track 3 is I Made My Excuses and Left, the well
known journalistic cliché, used to get an investigative reporter out of a hole…
10.
Next up is Minimal. Art? Fashion? Music? All of
them?
11.
There’s only one track on the album that doesn’t
have the songwriting credit “Tennant/Lowe”; and that the 5th track, Numb. It’s
a gorgeous, very sad song by Diane Warren, and it plainly comes straight from
the heart… Did she come to you with the song; or did you go to her?
12.
God Willing, a short track (1.18), bridges between
Numb and Luna Park. It’s almost like the track that introduces side 2, in the
days when we had side 2…
13.
And now for side 2 then. Luna Park, the fairground
where we all love to be scared…
14.
The first single, track 8, is I’m with Stupid,
which has got plenty of publicity because on one level at least, it’s about
Blair and Bush.
15.
Track 9 is Casanova in Hell. The great lover… past
it.
16.
Twentieth Century is next up. Sometimes the
solution is worse than the problem.
17.
There are some nice brass figures on the beginning
of the next track, Indefinite Leave to Remain.
18.
The last track, Integral, is a real belter. Great
dance backing; but sinister as hell in the lyrics. “If you’ve got nothing to
hide / you have nothing to fear”. Now where have I heard that before?
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