Monday, May 29, 2006
Sterile. Immaculate. Rational. Perfect.
I know that I'm always so up, happy and optimistic on this blog that to hear me raving about how great something is will just blend in with all the other positive things I have to say. But if you can try and pretend that I am dour, pessimistic, arch and bitter, with a soul of pure spite and bile. Have you done that? Good.
The new Pet Shop Boys album, Fundamental, is fantastic. Their last album, Release, was pretty awful but they seem to have rediscovered what makes them great and also roped in one of their best producers, Trevor Horn. The result is an album that they couldn't have produced any time but now, but which is influenced by where they've been, the orchestral feel of tracks like Left to my Own Devices and their Introspective period, and the more emotional Behaviour era material. The Sodom and Gomorrah Show is one of their most openly joyful gay songs, compared to To Speak is a Sin, You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk or even Being Boring. On it I'm With Stupid, sings from inside Blair's head about his relationship with Shrubya:
Is stupid really stupid
or a different kind of smart?
Do we really have a relationship
so special in your heart?
While Integral takes on New Labour about ID Cards:
If you've done nothing wrong
you've got nothing to fear
If you've something to hide
you shouldn't even be here
But do me a favour. Listen to Luna Park and tell me whether I'm just imagining the theme to Button Moon is hidden in there.
(And for those keeping score, yet another album I'm buying after BitTorrenting it first...)
The new Pet Shop Boys album, Fundamental, is fantastic. Their last album, Release, was pretty awful but they seem to have rediscovered what makes them great and also roped in one of their best producers, Trevor Horn. The result is an album that they couldn't have produced any time but now, but which is influenced by where they've been, the orchestral feel of tracks like Left to my Own Devices and their Introspective period, and the more emotional Behaviour era material. The Sodom and Gomorrah Show is one of their most openly joyful gay songs, compared to To Speak is a Sin, You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk or even Being Boring. On it I'm With Stupid, sings from inside Blair's head about his relationship with Shrubya:
Is stupid really stupid
or a different kind of smart?
Do we really have a relationship
so special in your heart?
While Integral takes on New Labour about ID Cards:
If you've done nothing wrong
you've got nothing to fear
If you've something to hide
you shouldn't even be here
But do me a favour. Listen to Luna Park and tell me whether I'm just imagining the theme to Button Moon is hidden in there.
(And for those keeping score, yet another album I'm buying after BitTorrenting it first...)
