Pet Shop Boys – ‘Fundamental’ (Parlophone) Released 22/05/06

The signs for this were good from the outset. The Pet Shop Boys are keen collaborators, working with everyone from Jonny Marr to Patsy Kensit and often producing their best work when finding creative harmony with partners. ‘Fundamental’ sees them unite for the first time since 1988 with Buggles pop boffin - producer Trevor Horn, a man who has sprinkled pop gold dust over the work of many an ailing band. The album more than makes good on this promise. It's a fine collection of songs, with nay a badun to be found, a band comfortable with just being themselves, rather than seeking to ape contemporary musical trends, as they could have been accused of doing in the past.

Opener ‘Psychological’ begins with an insistent stabbing beat which is immersed in old school 80s electro sounds. Tennant constructs his psycho drama with references to evocative images such as “an undertaker in a bowler hat.” It’s the first classic pop moment and reminder that Tennant’s voice is a great pop instrument not overawing the music but blending in to create the tune. ‘Minimal’ has an ingenious chorus in which the letters of the title are spelt out letter by letter by a vocoder voice, a trick the boys previously performed on 1987’s ‘Shopping,’ as well as a great New Order style coda complete with Peter Hook bass. ‘I’m With Stupid’s’ mix of wry lyrics and insistent disco would have sat comfortably on early nineties PSB classic ‘Very.’ Yes anti –Bush stuff might be starting to seem a bit old hat now, but exploring the relationship between the leaders as a love affair is interesting and novel.

The album is finely balanced between high energy pop and ballads, the highlight of the whole thing being ‘I Made My Excuses and Left’. Tennant being a confirmed fan it may owe a debt to The Killers’ ‘Mr Brightside’ in terms of lyrical subject matter, taking the perspective of someone unhappily interrupting his lover with an another man. It possessed a brilliant, atmospheric introduction built from a variety of samples, before becoming a teary string laden ballad, concluding with the touching lyrics “So long ago / I felt like such a fool for crying/ All that I know / Is when you feel inside your dying/ It all begins again, defying / your excuses.” More riposte to those who have tried to belittle the Pets as post-modern ironist lacking heart.

The other slower ballad moments work, even torch song ‘Numb’ despite it being co written by Diane Warren -studio bound penner of such turg-fests as Toni Braxton’s 'Unbreak My Heart’ and Aerosmith's I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing.’ Special mention must finally go to ‘The Sodom and Gomorrah Show.’ This has Tennant as a nervous adventurer into a world of “Sun, sex, sin, divine intervention, death and destruction” It’s a classic PSB moment poppy but intelligent, English restraint versus gay abandonment, camp and obviously theatrical but not naff. The boys are definitely back in town.