Fundamental (2006)

Released in the U.K. and many other countries in late May 2006 (but, curiously, scheduled for late June in the U.S.), most of Fundamental was recorded during the spring, summer, and early autumn of 2005. Some tracks, such as "Numb," however, were recorded as early as 2003. Because producer Trevor Horn—who had previously worked with the Boys on their classics "Left to My Own Devices" and "It's Alright," among others—was at the helm, expectations were even higher than normal (if such a thing is possible) among aficionados. Even more promising was the fact that the fabulous PopJustice website declared in its review of the advance promo that Fundamental is "the first great pop album of 2006" and "the best Pet Shop Boys album since Very!" while NME (New Musical Express) said that it was "their best album for over a decade."

Statements from Neil and Chris suggested that the overall "sound" of this album would be somewhat between those of the guitar-oriented arrangements of Release and their more traditional (for them) synth-heavy, techno-oriented approach, with a strong orchestral presence as well. They also noted the fact that they used a real, live drummer on at least some of the tracks—a true rarity for PSB studio recordings.

Neil confirmed general online fan speculation regarding the title of the album when he told interviewer Garry Mulholland for Q magazine, "It originally comes from the endless discussions of fundamentalism that we live through at the moment. As ever with an issue like that we then related it to what we do and we wanted to make an album that was very kind of electro, that was fundamentally Pet Shop Boys. It seemed to work on both levels and we like something serious that works as a joke." He also noted, "The idea behind the lyrics was to take contemporary events and put them into songs that are apparently about interpersonal relationships."

Indeed, a number of the songs have been strongly influenced by the post-9/11 world and the ensuing "war on terror," providing what is for the Pet Shop Boys an unusually large measure of sociopolitical commentary. It's not at all inaccurate to describe Fundamental as their most political album. It's also an album haunted by the twin spectres of fear and death, visually signified by the dark design motif of its graphics. Even Neil and Chris themselves are dressed all in black, with Neil particularly drawing attention for adopting a look that various commentators have found suggestive of a nineteenth-century undertaker. (album: UK #5, US #150)

Psychological

Fundamental's first song seems a surprising choice: a vaguely Kraftwerkish piece, a stylistic throwback in some ways, that's frankly more the kind of track that one would think might make its debut as a single b-side than as an album opener. But it does tend to grow on you. And it sets the lyrical tone for the album as a whole. Dominated by a series of suspicious, paranoiac, and at times rather abstract statements and questions, "Psychological" raises the possibility that one's fears may be all or at least largely in one's own head. In light of the fact that, in the May 2006 issue of Culture, Neil cited "the addictive properties of fear" as one of the album's major themes, it becomes apparent why this song was placed in such a prominent position.

Neil has referred to "Psychological" as a "war on terror song." As he puts it (in the November 2005 issue of Literally), "It's basically about how you imagine things, of how being afraid of a directionless terrorism in a way is like being afraid of the dark." He also told the New York Daily News that the title was inspired by a book he read about Oscar Wilde: "In the 19th century, they called gay people 'psychological.'"

The Sodom and Gomorrah Show

Life is the ultimate reality show.

Sodom and Gomorrah are, of course, the names of two biblical "cities on the plain" destroyed by the wrath of God for their wickedness—the precise nature of that wickedness being the subject of much social and theological debate in recent years. The more historical interpretation, though ascribed to today only by right-wing types, is that it was the cities' sexual license—especially homosexual license—that incurred God's anger. More recent interpretations, adopted by modern liberal Christians, hold that the "sins of Sodom" were actually more akin to inhospitality and cruelty.

The track opens with a spoken introduction that would do any TV show proud: "Sun! Sex! Sin! Divine intervention! Death and destruction! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sodom and Gomorrah Show!" It then launches into a highly elaborate production wrapped around a narrative in which a somewhat innocent, naive narrator—"a stranger to champagne"—is lured into what at first appears to him to be utter depravity. But it proves a liberating experience that also teaches him "the meaning of the show," suggesting also the meaning of life itself:

You've got to love to learn to live
Where angels fear to tread

In other words, you have to be brave and take chances if you're to get the most out of life. A cloistered life of innocence is hardly life at all. It's in the fullness of life that one finds the meaning of life—which is, in the words of the song, a "once-in-a-lifetime production."

Neil has suggested that this song was at least partly inspired by television news, which tends to turn even the most horrific events ("death and destruction") into entertainment. Another source of inspiration is the French author Marcel Proust (1871-1922), the fourth volume of whose great novel À la recherche du temps perdu is titled Sodome et Gomorrhe (often translated as Cities of the Plain). A major theme of Proust's work is the way in which distractions, often of a technological nature, all too often serve to alienate people from themselves and each other. So is "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show" a distraction from reality or reality itself? Perhaps both. That is, television news indeed presents reality—or at least one version of it—but in such a way as often to make it somewhat unreal to us.

Neil has also acknowledged that this song could very easily be interpreted as a metaphor for "coming out," but he points out that it has much broader implications. People of any sexual orientation can try to shield themselves from the world or expose themselves to its "sun, sex, sin, divine intervention, death, and destruction." As Neil told interviewer Jacqui Swift of the online Sun, he was "thinking about 24-hour news channels" when he wrote the song because of the way they present the world—in particular, its horrors—as entertainment. So it would be extremely unfortunate if listeners were to zero in on the "Sodom" reference and think that this is purely a "gay" song.

Incidentally, Chris and Neil wanted to release this as the first single from the album—an idea that their record company vetoed immediately and absolutely. It was felt that radio and television would refuse to air a song with "Sodom" in the title. The Boys scoff at this, noting that much more "offensive" words and concepts are broadcast all the time. And, besides, if the song were banned, might not that have boosted sales? After all, the history of pop music (particularly in the U.K.) is replete with examples of songs that became huge hits despite such bans—and in some cases largely because of them.

One other thing: considering the Boys' well-documented fondness for word-play in their songs, the lines about how the narrator had "heard about their way of life" in Sodom and Gomorrah but "took it with a pinch of salt" may be a playful allusion to the denouement of the biblical tale, in which the wife of the story's "hero," Lot, is turned into a pillar of salt for glancing back at the unfolding destruction of the cities. If nothing else, it's certainly an effective way to get extra mileage out of an all too familiar cliché.

I Made My Excuses and Left

The lengthy opening passage of this track may seem mystifying until you understand its origin. According to the April 2005 issue of Literally, this song, written in early 2005, "was built around a melody and vocal line Chris sung into his Nokia mobile phone as he was walking home over Waterloo Bridge in the rain." Chris is quite pleased that he and Neil stayed with what he had originally sung: "So I have got perfect pitch, everyone, despite what the critics might say." Chris can still be heard there in the opening, the comparatively low quality of the original recording of his voice lending it a haunting air that contributes greatly to the almost palpable mood of sorrow that pervades the song. As for the words he's singing, they're not absolutely clear, although a good guess is "I'm all alone again—I'm all alone."

The song's lyrical theme seems relatively simple and straightforward compared to the two that precede it. Partly inspired by the true story of Cynthia Lennon happening upon John and Yoko sitting together and realizing immediately that her marriage was over, it's an achingly sad tale in which the narrator suddenly discovers that the person he (or she) loves is actually in love with someone else. Neil provides a succinct, brilliant description of the ensuing discomfort: "A silence filled the room, awkward as an elephant." Too proud to become a "supplicant" (that is, a beggar) for love, the narrator simply performs the act described in the title, making polite, face-saving excuses and leaving the other two to themselves.

The final verse ("So long ago…") indicates that this narrative is a reminiscence of a painful event that happened quite some time previously—and that the pain, though lessened with time, can nevertheless recur upon contemplation of the event. The perplexing line "It all begins again, defying your excuses" might suggest that much of that pain stems from profound retrospective regret over not having done something very different in that situation. That and the fact that such excuses fool no one—least of all the person who makes them.

Minimal

In this rapid "electro" track with a chant-like chorus spelling out and stating the title using a vocoder and perhaps other electronic effects, the Boys resisted the temptation (which would have been somewhat predictable) to reflect the title stylistically in the arrangement of the track itself. In fact, it sounds as though they actually had a lot of fun with this one! Its origin is rather fun as well. It was inspired by some Italian friends, enamored of "minimal house music," visiting with them while they were on holiday at Ibiza; the Italians apparently kept chanting "minimal, minimal" as the music played.

The lyrics articulate in a highly abstract, appropriately minimalistic way a "less is more, more is less" philosophy. (Neil has said that he and Chris "have always had a minimalist sense of design," adding that the lyrics are more or less "about" minimalist art.) The line "Decide something less decisional" is especially interesting in light of the fact that, as existentialist philosophers have long articulated, to not decide is itself a decision. Could this be another expression of post-9/11 angst, suggesting that an attempt to broker an escape from the complexities of life through minimalism is ultimately futile? The Boys don't offer an answer any more than they clearly state such a question. They leave such matters up to us.

On their 2006-07 Fundamental tour, the Boys performed this song in a medley with the much earlier "Shopping." In addition to lyrics that spell out the title, the two tracks also share the distinction of containing "guitar solos" (actually samples played on a keyboard) that, as Neil concedes, were inspired by the style of New Order's Peter Hook.

Although "Minimal" was originally slated as the first single from Fundamental, that distinction instead went to "I'm with Stupid." It may be that Neil and Chris, or perhaps their record company, decided that the more accessible lyrics of "Stupid" would enhance the commercial appeal of what would be, in effect, the "official album teaser." Regardless of the reason, "Minimal" received the "consolation prize," so to speak, of being designated the album's second single, released as such in July 2006. (single: UK #19; US Dance #3)

Numb (Diane Warren)

In mid-2003 Neil and Chris approached the tremendously successful American songwriter Diane Warren for a new song. In response she provided three, and "Numb" was the one the Boys chose. (She had previously offered it to Aerosmith, who turned it down.) The Pet Shop Boys recorded it in late 2003 with Trevor Horn serving as producer, and though they had originally considered it for inclusion of PopArt, they opted to save it for their next studio album. Horn has described the track as going "from electronic to acoustic and back again, twice, with a 50-piece orchestra."

Although Warren has been derided—unfairly, in my opinion—as a "factory composer" who cranks out material as if it were a 9-to-5 job, Chris has publicly referred to her as "a great songwriter." To be sure, she has a track record to back it up, counting Ace of Base's "Don't Turn Around," DeBarge's "Rhythm of the Night," LeAnn Rimes's "How Do I Live," Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Toni Braxton's "Un-break My Heart," Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time," Gloria Estefan's "Live for Loving You," and several Celine Dion standards (including "Because You Loved Me" and "If You Asked Me To") in her songwriting catalog. In fact, she has more than 70 chart hits to her credit. If commercial success is a measure of greatness, then Diane Warren is indisputably great.

"Numb" was inspired in part by the death of Warren's mother—although, in the context of Fundamental, the Pet Shop Boys' rendition could be viewed as a statement of psychological withdrawal in the face of terrorism. (I can't claim this as an original insight. Rather, I borrowed it from Brittle-Lemon's marvelous blog Tremble Clef, where you can find some other extremely intelligent observations about the album's other songs, most notably "Minimal.") On a BBC radio broadcast shortly after recording it in the studio, Neil described the song as melodically difficult to sing; atypically, he had to use sheet music. The lyrics, by contrast, are remarkably simple; in fact, they seem almost a one-note recitation of all the different ways in which the narrator doesn't want to feel anything anymore, such as:

I just wanna be numb
I don't wanna feel this pain no more
Want to lose touch
I just wanna go and lock the door

While this might seem a flaw, it actually lends great strength to the core emotion of the song. That is, someone who's numb wouldn't be able to write an elaborate, highly poetic lyric. Actual numbness would probably result in a simple, somewhat repetitive lyric that articulates the same numb feelings over and over again, which is pretty much was this song does. Then again, the narrator isn't truly numb at all; rather, she wants to be numb. And that's the essence of human tragedy. If a person were to achieve numbness, she would escape the pain but would sacrifice her humanity in the process. To be human is to hurt, and sometimes very badly.

An interesting sidenote is that Neil had wanted to use a sample of the Art of Noise track "Moments in Love" in their recording of "Numb." But producer Horn—who happens to be a co-writer of "Moments in Love"—said that he would only allow someone to sample it in exchange for 100% of the royalties. (Apparently Trevor Horn isn't fond of others sampling his work.) Needless to say, that effectively quashed Neil's idea.

At any rate, regardless of whether Neil and Chris approached Warren out of commercial considerations, admiration for her songcraft, or a combination of the two, it remains to be seen whether this potentially powerful collaboration (PSB, Warren, and Horn) will result in a major success, perhaps even in certain markets where the Boys haven't enjoyed such success in recent years. Not surprisingly, it was tapped as Fundamental's third single, scheduled for mid-October release. The remarkable (and rather spooky) photo gracing the single sleeve was, as revealed by the official PSB website, taken by Sam Taylor-Wood in November 2003. It depicts Chris and Neil looking out through the window of a pub (The Jerusalem Tavern in London) wearing medieval "plague doctor" masks that they had recently bought while visiting Venice. (single: UK #23)

God Willing

Early reports stated that Fundamental would consist of eleven songs plus an instrumental introduction. "God Willing" was originally intended as that first track. The revised final track listing, however, moved it more toward the middle of the album, where it serves as a prelude to the next song, "Luna Park."

Originally titled "The Day Before Tomorrow," this piece began with Chris and Neil experimenting with "non-Western" music scales. They were aiming for a somewhat "Arabic-sounding" track, though they concede that they may not have been successful in that respect. But the title was inspired by the Arabic word "Inshallah" (which indeed translates as "God willing"), commonly used by Arab Muslims when they speak of future plans.

Although this is an instrumental in the sense that it has no lyrics, Neil does sing a wordless multi-tracked choral line, his voice processed through an autotune program. The Boys made several attempts to add spoken-word vocals—some by just Neil, others by both Neil and Chris—but they were never pleased with the results, generally judging them pretentious. Eventually they gave up and left it without words.

More than a year after Fundamental was released, the Pet Shop Boys made an earlier, much longer "rough mix" of "God Willing" available for listening as an "exclusive track" on their official website. Intriguingly, this alternate version—which would perhaps have been better suited than the Fundamental track for its original purpose as album intro—includes at its beginning and end the sounds of birds chirping and squawking. It apparently also embeds in the mix some backwards-masked audio of Chris, Neil, and producer Trevor Horn reading excerpts from emails they had recently received. Curious, to say the least.

Luna Park

The April 2005 issue of Literally mentioned this as a song written by Chris and Neil in 2003 but set aside for likely inclusion on their next album. In May 2005 it was reported that Trevor Horn was working with Neil and Chris in the studio on this track, and orchestral parts were recorded the following month. What emerged is a lovely but extremely somber ballad that manages the neat trick of proving both sumptuous and stark at the same time.

There are and have been many Luna Parks. The original, however, was an amusement park that opened in 1903 on New York City's Coney Island. In their desire to provide visitors with an experience "not of this earth," its founders attempted to create a place that simulated what they imagined the moon might be like, at least if the moon had towers and lakes. It was open to visitors only at night and was illuminated with neon lights—facts relevant not only to the song's lyrics but perhaps also to the "neon motif" of Fundamental itself. What's even more salient is the eventual fate of this original Luna Park: in 1912, less than ten years after it opened, it was completely destroyed by fire. Despite this cataclysm, however, other Luna Parks were subsequently constructed in various cities around the world. They proved so successful, in fact, that in some languages (such as Russian and Hebrew) "luna park" became a generic term for any amusement park. (I'm indebted to Gil Aaronsohn for providing this historical background information about Luna Park.)

In the November 2005 Literally Neil states that the Boys' "Luna Park" serves as a metaphor for America. Like several songs on Fundamental, it appears to have been inspired by the "war on terror." So if "Luna Park" is indeed the United States, then what does the line "It's always dark in Luna Park" suggest—aside, of course, from the historical fact that the original Luna Park was open only at night? In what ways is America an amusement park where it's always dark? That, in effect, is the subject of the song. To much of the rest of the world, rightly or wrongly, the United States must indeed seem like a vast national amusement park, an "unreal" place where people are devoted to entertainment and enjoyment, to keeping themselves amused, and to keeping themselves in the dark—though whether that darkness is merely a means to an end or an end unto itself is a matter of debate.

Look at the phrases Neil uses to describe this "amusement park," complete with its "plastic prizes": "When we're getting high, we're happy/Somebody's eating fire, we're happy," "Every night we go to the latest horror show." Aren't these accurate descriptions of precisely the sort of jaded, desensitized entertainment junkies that Americans are often accused of being? And why? Is it because Americans are and have always been trying desperately, often with the help of technology, to spare themselves the true horrors of the world—horrors that are now moving ever closer to home in an age of growing terrorism?

And when we're feeling scared, we're happy
With circuses and bread we're happy
The whirling fan machines are all we need

Another recurring line is worth paying special attention to: "In Luna Park it can't be dark too soon." Does this suggest that the American public actually likes being "in the dark," with all the multiple layers of meaning that implies?

Consider also the further implications of choosing "Luna Park" as a metaphor for the United States. Since ancient times, the moon has been associated with madness; hence the word "lunacy." Are the Pet Shop Boys suggesting that Americans live in a state of perpetual collective—if not individual—insanity?

Whatever the case, Neil doesn't believe that the prospects for this "Luna Park" are any better than they were for the original: "The future's dark in Luna Park.… A storm will come one day to blow us all away." It's just a matter of when and how the cataclysm will occur. Sobering thoughts, to be sure.

The "soundscape" of this track is particularly interesting, complete with wind effects and the use of a "thundersheet," a large, thin sheet of metal that when shaken produces a thunder-like sound. As stated by Neil in that same issue of Literally, "It’s the first time we've had a thundersheet on the record," to which Chris replied, "How come it's taken us so long?" The synth solos are also noteworthy, hearkening back to the early Moog synthesizers of the early 1970s. At times they even mimic the sound of a siren, adding to the atmosphere of menace that permeates this song.

I'm with Stupid

We've probably all seen t-shirts bearing this inscription, a comic insult to anyone accompanying the wearer. With its busy uptempo arrangement—complete with producer Trevor Horn's trademark synth-orchestra blasts and percussion flourishes —"I'm with Stupid" is on one level simply an amusing song about a love relationship with a rich, famous person who's not exactly gifted in the brains department. But, like the Release track "I Get Along," it was actually inspired by events surrounding the administration of U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In this case, it concerns the close international political relationship between Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush—the titular "Stupid"—particularly with regard to the Iraq War. Consider these lines coming from the lips of the prime minister:

See you on the TV
Call you every day
Fly across the ocean
Just to let you get your way

No one understands me…
Why would I be with someone
Who's obviously so dumb?

Yet Tennant and Lowe leave open the possibility that what passes for stupidity may in fact be a ruse: "Is stupid really stupid, or a different kind of smart?" They wouldn't be the first to suggest that Bush may be cleverer than he lets on—that his "dumb" persona is simply a device that he often uses to his political advantage in the notoriously anti-intellectual U.S. cultural climate. They also leave open the possibility that the allegedly "stupid" one may not be the stupider of the two. As Neil told an interviewer, "In the end is Blair the stupid person?—because there is a feeling that he has been hoodwinked…."

Regardless of whether you interpret him as Tony Blair or as anyone else, the narrator certainly seems to be getting the raw end of the deal in this relationship ("I never thought that I would be a sacrifice in love"), yet he endures. Of course, no names are actually mentioned—the Boys are themselves too smart to automatically "date" the song like that—and the lyrics are vague enough to readily accommodate the nonpolitical interpretation. (It again resembles "I Get Along" in that respect.) Yet, conversely, this very quality only serves to heighten the comedy of the political reading by lending it a distinctly homoerotic air. Once more Neil and Chris show themselves to be masters at writing songs that not only invite multiple interpretations but which also derive much of their strength and meaning from the interplay of those different readings.

"I'm with Stupid" is the first single from Fundamental—although that honor was originally planned for "Minimal"—and will be released as such on May 8. As widely rumored in advance, the video features Matt Lucas and David Walliams (the latter himself a diehard PSB fan) of the wildly popular U.K. television comedy Little Britain. Interestingly, as the Boys have done before (the most famous instance being "Go West"), they use the video not to illustrate what might be termed the "primary interpretation" of the song but instead to provide an entirely distinct meaning—or even layers of meaning. With Neil and Chris depicted as a captive audience of an earnest but low-budget and not very complimentary parody of themselves and two of their most famous vids (the aforementioned "Go West" and "Can You Forgive Her?"), some fans have suggested that the video shows how the Boys may feel somewhat trapped by public misconceptions of them—misconceptions that they themselves have unintentionally fueled. In this case, could "I'm with Stupid" be a commentary on how the public mistakenly reads the relationship of Neil and Chris? Or perhaps on the relationship between the Pet Shop Boys and the public? In either case, who are the "stupid" ones?

By the way, one of my site visitors astutely noted a pun (which the Boys are known to love) in the line "Are you not Mr. Right?" George W. Bush is, after all, widely considered to be a right-winger, though some might view him more as a "corporatist" who's equally willing to adopt "conservative" or "liberal" stances depending on whether they advance the cause of multinational business interests. A debatable editorial point, to be sure. (single: UK #8; US Dance #7)

Casanova in Hell

With its deceptively simple yet lovely and affecting melody, coupled with incredibly wry lyrics and a superb vocal by Neil, "Cassanova in Hell" may emerge as the album's "sleeper"—a quiet, unexpected standout.

Casanova was an actual historical figure, an 18th-century Italian whose memoirs guaranteed his legendary status. Though most famous as a voracious lover and seducer of women, he had a number of other accomplishments to his name, including having served by turns as a soldier, a spy, an alchemist, a priest, a gambler, and even a lottery director. Inspired by the short novel Casanova's Homecoming by the Viennese writer Arthur Schnitzler, Neil's lyrics deal with the elderly Casanova confronting the harsh realities of his old age. It may also be worth speculating whether the Boys' 2005 sojourn in Italy while writing songs for Fundamental may also have influenced their choice of protagonist.

Though in the third person, the lyrics are written from Casanova's perspective. No longer able to seduce, no longer even able to achieve an erection (a reference accompanied by a seriocomic descending swoop of strings), he bitterly relies on voyeurism, spying from his "secret chamber" upon a young couple making love, to achieve some small measure of satisfaction. And then it hits him—how he can escape the "hell" in which his old age has confined him:

Back in the library
His revenge is his story
What he will write will recall the bite
Of his wit and legendary appetite

Casanova will have "the last laugh" by composing and publishing his memoirs, in essence voyeuristically looking back on his own life—perhaps embellished by his imagination—so that "his erection will live in history." In effect, he regains his sexual potency by immortalizing it.

Some more sensitive fans have expressed displeasure at the use of the word "erection" in this song. But the July 2006 issue of Literally reveals that the lyrics originally included a second word that might have caused even more dismay. The line "His ageing fate to contemplate" was originally "His ageing fate to masturbate"—but then the Boys decided that that was just too much, and reworded it.

It's interesting to note that by sheer coincidence a major motion picture about Casanova was released just a few months before the album. Though it flopped at the box office, it may unfortunately lead less informed observers to believe the Pet Shop Boys belatedly and misguidedly hopped aboard a "Casanova bandwagon" with this song. Also, several of my site visitors have written to me about a 2005 BBC television about Casanova, which may (or may not) have influenced the Boys as well. Another remarkable coincidence is the fact that this particular BBC production starred David Tennant—as a major PSB fan who "borrowed" his professional surname from Neil because there was already another U.K. actor working under his birth name, David McDonald. It also featured Matt Lucas, one-half of the "Little Britain" comedy duo (along with another huge PSB fan, David Walliams), who appeared in the "I'm with Stupid" video. Small world, isn't it?

In a truly ingenious lyrical conceit, Neil—ever the student of history—looks back on the twentieth century as an era in which failed idealism resulted in terrible evils. "The lesson that I learned," he writes, "was this: Sometimes the solution is worse than the problem." This includes both the rise and fall of communism—first put into effective practice with the dawn of the century but which largely collapsed with its dusk:

Well, I bought a ticket for the revolution
And I cheered when the statues fell
Everyone came to destroy what was wicked
But they killed all that was good as well

For all of their noble goals and intentions, communism, capitalism, and other social, political, and/or economic systems have all too often resulted in horrors perpetrated in their names. Even the more obvious evils of fascism—another major twentieth-century political movement—were born out of perverse idealism. Indeed, you could say much the same about the toppling of such dictators as Saddam Hussein.

In short, revolution of any sort appears invariably "to kill all that was good" even as it "destroys what was wicked." This, Neil seems to say, is one of the great lessons of the twentieth century.

But the song's most interesting twist is what Neil chooses to do with this observation. As he does so often on Fundamental—indeed, what might be considered a thematic motif—he takes the wider social and political situation and applies it at a much more personal level. "Sometimes the solution is worse than the problem—let's stay together." When lovers have trouble getting along together, breaking up may seem the logical solution. But that solution may prove worse than the problem. They may be even more miserable apart than they were together. In short, the "solution" may not be a solution at all.

Indefinite Leave to Remain

One of the more curious titles in the PSB canon, "indefinite leave to remain" is actually a British governmental term related to immigration. A holder of ILR (as it's commonly abbreviated) has the legal right to reside permanently in the United Kingdom. After having lived there for five years, he or she may apply for citizenship. In the July 2006 issue of Literally, Neil says that he'd had this phrase in mind for a song after having seen it stamped on the passport of a Sri Lankan friend.

"Indefinite Leave to Remain" is a deeply touching song that opens with a stately, muted brass quartet. In that same issue of Literally, Chris noted the strong cultural association of brass bands with northern England towns like Bradford and Oldham, which in 2001 had been sites of riots between "natives" and immigrants—almost certainly why they opted for that particular instrumentation. Meanwhile, the lyrics demonstrate once again how the Pet Shop Boys can skillfully take an all-too-current sociopolitical concern—in this case, issues and tensions surrounding immigration—and apply it metaphorically to interpersonal relationships. In this case, the title phrase provides the narrator with a clever way of saying that he wants to spend the rest of his life with the person to whom he's speaking:

You're my nation
This is my application
Give me hope, keep me sane
Give me indefinite leave to remain

It's absolutely remarkable how Neil manages in this way to turn such a coldly bureaucratic term into an expression of love so profoundly touching. It is, in fact, the juxtaposition of these two opposite worlds of meaning—cold bureaucracy and interpersonal warmth—that lends these lyrics their power.

And while we're on the subject of cold bureaucracy, consider the next song as well….

Integral

The Pet Shop Boys close the album with a brilliant, rousing track in the over-the-top stylistic mode of "Go West," "Shameless," and "Delusions of Grandeur," yet one with far more ominous overtones than even the last of that hallowed trio. Neil describes it as "threateningly triumphalist"—appropriately enough for a song that Chris says is about "an overpowering state." On the commentary track of the Cubism DVD, while watching their performance of this song, Chris asks, "Is the whole world moving towards authoritarianism?" to which Neil replies, "I sometimes think [it] is."

Inspired by pending legislation in Britain for issuing official ID cards, the satirical lyrics are uttered from the viewpoint of government bureaucrats who boast a "long live us" attitude. (As Neil told interviewer Andrew Harrison, "I hate the whole idea of, 'Your papers please.' We do not and should not have that in this country.") They include such lines as "Your lives exist as information" and the following perversely logical, frequently expressed, yet extremely chilling quatrain:

If you've done nothing wrong
You've got nothing to fear
If you've something to hide
You shouldn't even be here

It amounts to a conformist, intensely fascistic worldview expressed in the song with the chant of "One world, one life, one chance, one reason, all under one sky, unchanging, one season." With a cold logic that a Star Trek fan might characterize as "Vulcan" in nature—or a Dr. Who fan might describe as "Dalekian"—our bureaucratic protagonists/antagonists speak directly to the listener, having determined that, as a nonconformist, "You're not integral to the project." The implications are all too clear as Neil coldly states the said project's ultimate goals:

Sterile
Immaculate
Rational
Perfect

In short, there's no place for you in this new order.

It's worth noting that Neil and Chris include the line "You're not integral to the project." This may (or may not) be an allusion to "The Project" whereby Britain's Labour Party transformed itself into "New Labour" in a successful effort to increase its electoral popularity. Regardless of whether it's a direct allusion—that is, perhaps "the project" in this song is not the same "project" as the New Labour "Project"—the Boys nonetheless were undoubtedly aware that their use of the word would carry particular weight.

Recorded with full orchestral accompaniment, this track began with Chris composing the music, although he didn't much care for it at first. He's undoubtedly changed his mind. It's unimaginable that he and Neil wouldn't be proud of their achievement in this song. In fact, they wanted it released as a single, although they ultimately had to compromise on this point. "Integral" would only be released in radically remixed form—managing in the process to eliminate quite a bit of its original melody and lyrics—as a promo single to DJs and dance clubs in support of their subsequent Disco 4 album, on which the remix also appears. The promo packaging depicts a QR Code™, a two-dimensional bar-code technology devised by a Japanese corporation in the mid-1990s, which is an appropriate enough image given the subject matter of the song. (QR Code™ is a trademark of Denso Wave, Inc. Believe it or not, I'm legally obliged to state that and to include the ™ symbol—which also seems rather appropriate, doesn't it?)

Fundamentalism – The bonus disc accompanying "Special Edition"

A special limited edition of Fundamental will include a second bonus dance-music disc titled Fundamentalism, with the following tracklist:

• "Fugitive" (Richard X Extended Mix)
• "Sodom" (Trentemøller Remix) - a remix of "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show"
• "Psychological" (Alter Ego Remix)
• "Flamboyant" (Michael Mayer Kompakt Remix)
• "I'm with Stupid" (Melnyk Heavy Petting Mix)
• "In Private" (Stuart Crichton Club Mix)
• "Minimal" (Lobe Remix)
• "Gomorrah" (Dettinger Remix) - another remix of "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show"

This song was written in early 2005, having grown out of an older, unfinished composition titled "Unbelievable Scenes" and completed with the help of producer/remixer Richard Philips, who works under the alias Richard X. Included in an extended mix on the Fundamentalism bonus disc accompanying the limited-edition version of Fundamental, a shorter version is likely to appear at some point soon as a single bonus track.

Neil and Chris have been guarded about what this song is about. In the July 2006 of their fan club publication Literally, Neil states, "It's about the personal cost of political convictions," to which Chris adds, "It's a modern day love story." And they leave it at that.

Though it opens with slow, vaguely mournful synth-strings, this track quickly becomes a fast, powerful workout. Its simple chord structure suggests a perhaps higher-than-average degree of Chris's influence on the music, if not outright dominance. It's the lyrics, however, that are sure to raise eyebrows, though there's of course always room for multiple interpretations. There's also the distinct possibility of an "untrustworthy narrator"—a common literary device whereby the audience cannot necessarily take what the narrator says as "gospel truth," so to speak. Regarding those multiple interpretations, let me present two very different ones, one at a time.

Interpetation #1:

It immediately struck me—and many other listeners—when we first heard this song that the lyrics virtually beg to be interpreted as being uttered by a terrorist on the eve of a planned attack. The recurring sound of a jet airplane makes it all the more ominous. As with the album Fundamental itself, the spectre of 9/11 hangs overhead.

Heaven is very much on the mind of the narrator, who utters such lines as "There's always a new way to heaven," "It's always forever in heaven," and "We'll all be together in heaven." He and the person to whom he's singing stand apart from society as a whole, each of them a "fugitive" of the title. His words indicate both questioning uncertainty and some measure of confidence gained from careful preparation for what lies ahead. (It's an established fact that Mohamed Atta and other 9/11 terrorists engaged in ritual cleansing and body-shaving before departing on their fateful mission.)

Where do we stand in this land?
We're invisible now
Clean and prepared to be led
Indivisible

The narrator is saying goodbye to his "brother" ("I'm really gonna miss you") while expressing anticipation for the impending event:

I know that it won't be that long until the hour
Free and released from the world
It feels like power

It's difficult to read these words in any way aside from coming from a terrorist. But even assuming this reading, we mustn't assume that the Pet Shop Boys are in sympathy with these terrorists except perhaps on the most raw, basic human level. In other words, the beliefs and motivations of these characters may be misguided and their anticipated actions reprehensible, but they're real. And they're a legitimate subject for exploration and depiction in art, including popular music. To put it another way, it's no worse for songwriters and singers to depict terrorists in a song than it is for actors to portray them in films or TV shows.

Terrorists may be figurative monsters, but they're not literal monsters. Literally, they're human beings who feel powerless but have been led to believe that they can achieve some measure of power by committing despicable acts that will, conversely, guarantee them a place in heaven. Even if you oppose them, understanding them and their viewpoints can only help. Remember the adage "Know thine enemy." This may be, on at least one level, what this remarkable track is about.

It's worth noting that the word "fugitive" is derived from the Latin verb fugio, meaning "to flee"—or, as it is often translated, "to fly" or "to take flight"—so a fugitive is literally "one who flees," "one who flies," or "one who takes flight." In common parlance, of course, this means that a fugitive is one who is fleeing or "in flight" from someone or something he or she wishes to escape, such as justice. But in light of this song's possible (or likely) scenario involving terrorists and airplanes, suddenly the implications of "one who takes flight" become rather disturbing.

As a sidenote, I want to share something written by my favorite syndicated film critic, Mick LaSalle, who never fails to impress me with his broader cultural insight, which often extends well beyond the realm of film. Although in this case I don't agree 100% with what he says, I nevertheless think it bears relevance to the Pet Shop Boys' "Fugitive." Discussing the film United 93, LaSalle wrote (May 14, 2006):

I think the director was simply doing the time-honored thing of coming to grips with evil by presenting the terrorists as people like any of us, as versions of ourselves, in a sense. That approach is supposed to make us horrified at the depth of our own possible iniquity, but actually it's a comfort, a false definition of the limits of their iniquity. The reflexive mistake of conservatives is to define virtue in terms of themselves. But the reflexive mistake of liberals is to believe that evil doesn't exist —that people who do evil things are just people like themselves who aren't thinking clearly.

Are Chris and Neil simply making what LaSalle refers to as "the reflexive mistake of liberals" with regard to terrorists? For that matter, am I making this same mistake in my interpretation of the song? On the other hand, I don't know how "liberal" I am, at least as LaSalle might define it, since I do indeed believe that evil exists. I suppose that, ultimately, it's all a matter of perspective.

Very Different Interpretation #2:

On the same day, two of my site visitors—one an American, the other not—wrote to me separately with an extremely intriguing and perhaps far less controversial interpretation. As revealed in the Fundamental CD booklet, the Pet Shop Boys dedicated the album to Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, two Ahwazi Arab Iranian teenagers who were executed by their government in July 2005 allegedly for committing homosexual rape against a minor, although many outside observers believe the rape charge was just a "smokescreen" to justify hanging them simply for the crime of "sodomy" and to cast Ahwazi Arabs (an oppressed minority in Iran) in a negative light. From this perspective, one can readily interpret the narrator of "Fugitive" as one of these two young men speaking to the other on the eve of their execution.

Think about it. Aren't gay people "fugitives" of sorts within many (if not most) predominantly Muslim cultures, particularly those with a strongly conservative, theocratic bent? Aren't they generally forced to be "invisible"? And wouldn't death and heaven be very much on their minds as they "prepare to be led" to the gallows?

To be honest, I personally subscribe more to the first interpretation. And excerpts from Neil's diary, as quoted in the July 2006 issue of the PSB Fan Club magazine Literally, indicate that the lyrics were written several months before the Asgari/Marhoni executions. Nevertheless, songs can "become" about something else well after their original composition. Ultimately it's all up to the individual listener.

In Private

In addition to producing and mostly writing half of her 1991 album Reputation, the Boys gave Dusty Springfield a significant British hit with this remarkably snide musical monologue about hypocrisy in sexual relationships. Like "Nothing Has Been Proved," it was written for the film Scandal, but unlike that song, it was rejected for use in the movie. No "PSB version" of "In Private" came to light, not even a demo, until more than 15 years later, when the Boys recorded it as a duet with Elton John and released it on the Fundamentalism bonus disc and, in an alternate mix, as a bonus track on the "Minimal" single. More about that shortly.

In the original Dusty Springfield version, the narrator berates her lover for vociferously affirming their relationship in private but refusing to acknowledge it in public. She states her willingness to wait a while longer for her lover to "go public," so to speak, about their love. But only a while. In the last verse, in fact, she as much as threatens to go public herself. As with the later "Confidential," this scenario could very easily be applied to relationships both heterosexual and homosexual—and, as the later PSB/Elton version demonstrated, it's not totally dependent on the gender of the singer, either. The chief difference between the two songs lies in the attitude of the narrator: resigned in "Confidential," but blatantly confrontational in "In Private."

This difference is also reflected in the music: "Confidential" is slow and in a minor key, while "In Private" is uptempo and in a major key. In short, the narrator of "In Private" is far more the aggressive and assertive of the two. She won't take her lover's exploitive, hypocritical crap much longer.

The April 2005 issue of the Pet Shop Boys' fan club magazine Literally mentioned in passing something that came as a total surprise to most if not all fans: that in late December 2003, while they were working on the single version of "Flamboyant," they had also re-recorded "In Private" with Elton John! Needless to say—but I'll say it anyway—the male/male duet of this new rendition adds an unavoidably bisexual dimension ("When you run back to your wife…") where one didn't exist in Dusty's original. (Dusty single: UK #14)

Concrete (2006)

The Pet Shop Boys recorded their first live album at a special one-off concert at the Mermaid Theatre in London on May 8, 2006 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of their first big hit, "West End Girls." They were supported by the BBC Concert Orchestra and a slew of renowned guest stars—including Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley, Lol Creme, Steve Lipson, Rufus Wainwright, Frances Barber, and Robbie Williams—on both instruments and vocals. (If you don't count their Battleship Potemkin dates, this was their first full-length live show with orchestral accompaniment.) Trevor Horn also served as musical director for the evening. The recording was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 later that same month. Its very positive reception and superb quality helped ensure its subsequent release on CD.

The title of the album was originally announced as the extremely straightforward Concert, but only five or six weeks before release came the announcement that its title had been changed to Concrete—as puzzling a choice as the first title was unimaginative. Neil and Chris had reportedly preferred Concrete from the start, anyway. No other explanation has been offered at this time, although the fact that "concrete" is a near-anagram of "concert" almost certainly has something to do with it. An in-joke of some sort, perhaps? Other fans have speculated about the concert venue: the Mermaid Theatre, which one of my site visitors has described as an "ugly 1959 brick-and-concrete structure … architecturally unappealing." (The album artwork includes several photos of concrete portions of the building.) Still other fans have noted the dual meaning of the word "concrete," referring to a specific instance, particularly something perceptible by the senses—such as a concert. And we shouldn't overlook a possible reference to musique concrète—French for "concrete music"—a term used (according to Wikipedia) to describe the "practice of simply making music out of 'real world' sounds, or sounds other than those made by musical instruments.… Musique concrète strives to begin with the 'concrete' sounds, experiment with them, and abstract them into musical compositions." While Chris and Neil rarely if ever engage in this type of composing, they've certainly used "concrete sounds" in their recordings from time to time, such as the opening street ambiance of "West End Girls" that, for all intents and purposes, introduced the Pet Shop Boys to the rest of the world. (album: UK #61)

Left to My Own Devices

Based on the Introspective album version, arranged for orchestra by Richard Niles.

Rent

Employs the orchestral arrangement by film composer Angelo Badalamenti used in the Liza Minnelli rendition on Results.

You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk

The Sodom and Gomorrah Show

Orchestral arrangement by Anne Dudley and opening narration by Frances Barber.

Casanova in Hell

Lead vocal by Rufus Wainwright, with an orchestral arrangement by the evening's orchestral conductor Nick Ingman.

After All

Friendly Fire

Lead vocal by Frances Barber, who performed it every night in the role of Billie Trix in the Boys' stage musical Closer to Heaven; arrangement by Craig Armstrong.

Integral

Numb

It's Alright

Based on the Trevor Horn single mix.

Luna Park

Another arrangement by the show's orchestral conductor Nick Ingman.

Nothing Has Been Proved

Based on the Dusty Springfield rendition arranged by Angelo Badalamenti.

Jealousy

Lead vocal by Robbie Williams, based on the Extended Mix, complete with its opening quotation by Neil from Shakespeare's Othello.

Dreaming of the Queen

Aside from some of the guest vocalists, this was perhaps the biggest and most welcome surprise of the evening—a classic that up to this point the Pet Shop Boys had never performed live. Subsequently it became part of their standard setlist for the Fundamental tour.

It's a Sin

Indefinite Leave to Remain

The first of two encore songs.

West End Girls

Flowing right out of the preceding number, the Boys' first and biggest hit appears here in a slightly new arrangement by Anne Dudley—somewhat jazzy with a bit of "house" influence, with rhythmic piano punctuations. A nice way to breathe new life into an old, familiar friend without much risk of alienating those who liked it just the way it was.

Disco 4 (2007)

Note: The audio widget provides samples of only some of the tracks on this album.

Widely rumored and even offered for advance sale on some websites more than a month before its official acknowledgment, Disco 4 is, as its title indicates, the fourth in the Pet Shop Boys' series of remix albums. Released in October 2007, it came as a tremendous surprise to most of their fans, who didn't expect another Disco album so soon after the last one (Disco 3 in 2003).

Each preceding album in the series had followed a somewhat different "concept," and this one is no exception. This time, rather than rely on the work of other mixers, the Boys decided to focus on their own remixes—mostly of other artists' tracks, but also including two from Fundamental: "I'm with Stupid" and "Integral," the latter being a drastic, previously unreleased mix that was also released separately as a DJ promo single and digital download.

As a result of the predominance of other artists' songs, some might balk at calling Disco 4 a full-fledged "Pet Shop Boys album." Indeed, news of this pending release—particularly with regard to its track lineup—proved controversial among their fans. Although Chris and Neil themselves cleary consider it a PSB album, the official U.K. chartmakers disagreed. Because of its multi-artist format, it was deemed ineligible for the stardard album chart and was instead relegated only to the U.K. charts for "compilation albums" and "dance albums." (album: UK Compilation Album #15, UK Dance Album #3)

Read My Mind (Flowers/Keuning/Stoermer)   by The Killers

Chris and Neil remixed this, the third single (released in February 2007) from the Killers' sophomore album Sam's Town. The Boys attended the Killers' concert at London's Brixton Academy in late November 2006 and met with them at that time, during which they discussed a remix.

The two bands' mutual respect and fondness for each other's music is well documented. In fact, the Killers' lead singer and principal songwriter, Brandon Flowers, appears frequently in the documentary Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop, offering his observations about the Boys' music and career. And perhaps it's only natural that his band should ask PSB to remix this song in particular. Even before Sam's Town was released in October 2006, Flowers told interviewer Craig McLean of The Observer, "He'll be proud of 'Read My Mind,' Neil will." He has also reportedly referred to it as, in his opinion, the best song that he and his bandmates have written to date.

Two PSB remixes have been released: a "Radio Edit" and a "Pet Shop Boys Stars Are Blazing Mix," the latter of which made it onto Disco 4. Both mixes follow the Boys' common (but by no means universal) pattern of adding support vocals by Neil to the mix, although in this case those additions are considerly subtler than they were for, say, Madonna's "Sorry." What's even more noteworthy this time around is that Chris's voice—somewhat distorted, as is so often the case—appears in the mixes as well. The PSB mixes are reportedly derived from what was essentially a preliminary Killers recording that featured only vocals and some guitar tracks; everything else in their remixes was added by Neil and Chris. Additional instrumental tracks by the Killers arrived too late to use for remixing purposes.

Hallo Spaceboy (Bowie/Eno)   by David Bowie with Pet Shop Boys

Neil has attested to the fact that he has long admired David Bowie, so the Pet Shop Boys must have been quite pleased when Bowie consented, at Neil's suggestion, for them to remix this track (or perhaps to produce a complete re-recording—which I'm not sure) from his 1995 album 1.Outside for release as a single. The result was a major U.K. hit for Bowie, reportedly his biggest-selling single of the 1990s.

In addition to the Boys' remix duties, Neil adds prominent support vocals, essentially transforming this song into a Bowie-Tennant duet. (Bowie contributed some new vocals as well.) Significantly, Neil interpolates lines from Bowie's first hit, "Space Oddity" ("Ground control to Major Tom…"). Bowie was reportedly rather concerned at first about this interpolation, but then agreed that it worked well after all. (In a radio interview at the time, Bowie apparently said that he loved what the Boys had done to his song, although when he first heard the second verse, he felt that Neil had shown some "nerve" to "chop up" his lyrics and then sing them himself.) Especially noteworthy are the delightful lines, "Do you like girls or boys? It's confusing these days."

The Boys appear in Bowie's video for the song, and they shared the stage in performances of it both at the 1996 BRIT Awards and on Top of the Pops. When Chris and Neil were putting together their Somewhere stage show, they decided to add this number to the set, thereby making it a full-fledged "Pet Shop Boys track" available on VHS and DVD. And with Disco 4 the Bowie/Boys version finally made it onto a PSB CD "proper."

Integral - PSB Perfect Immaculate Mix

Walking on Thin Ice (Yoko Ono)   by Yoko Ono

The Pet Shop Boys were among several remixers of this tremendously successful 2003 re-release of one of Yoko Ono's best-known songs. The original version has the distinction of being among the last recordings that John Lennon ever worked on, having done so earlier the same evening on which he was murdered. (In fact, according to The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll, he was holding a tape of "Walking on Thin Ice" at the very moment he was shot.) The Boys figure on three remixes: the "Pet Shop Boys Radio Mix" (the lead-off track on the ten-cut CD single and the most likely candidate for airplay), the "Pet Shop Boys Electro Mix" (which is the one that appears on Disco 4), and the "Pet Shop Extended Dance Mix."

Sorry (Madonna/Price; additional music and lyrics Tennant/Lowe)   by Madonna

It came as no great surprise that "Sorry" should be chosen as the second single from Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor. Even before the album's release it had been mentioned as a strong candidate, and its single release in late February 2006 was confirmed shortly after the album came out. What came as a total surprise was word in the last few days of 2005 that the Pet Shop Boys had just done a remix. Chris and Neil's primary mix, which features Neil's added vocals, is titled the "PSB Maxi-Mix." It was originally released on both CD "maxi-single" and 12-inch vinyl before eventually finding its way onto Disco 4.

According to a report by the U.K. paper The Sun, Madonna herself asked the Boys to do a remix for her after running into them at a party last year and telling them that she thought they were "brilliant." (I always suspected that Madonna was a woman of extraordinarily good taste, her Sex book notwithstanding.) With the release of Confessions, PSB followed up with her on this, contacting her and asking, "OK, how about it?" And she agreed. As it turns out, Neil and Chris were actually somewhat apprehensive about handing their mix over to Madge for her first listen because they had added a bit of new music featuring Neil's singing; they apparently feared that she would think they were trying to share the spotlight or even upstage her on her own record. "It was cheeky," she later said, but, much to their relief, she loved it! In fact, it's been reported that Madonna feels that the PSB work on "Sorry" is one of the—if not the—best remix ever done of one of her songs! (That she decided to base her live performance of "Sorry" during her 2006 tour on the PSB mix—featuring a recording of Neil's vocals—only provides further evidence of this apparent fact. Madonna's The Confessions Tour - Live from London DVD and CD both include this rendition, and judging from the immediate reaction of the U.K. crowd, I would guess that they indeed recognized Neil's voice.)

Neil's brief vocal additions are the repeated lines "I'm sorry, so sorry. I'm sorry—please forgive me." One of my site visitors has astutely noted a strong resemblance in mood and style between these added segments and the opening of the Boys' own "It's a Sin," at those times lending the track an almost quasi-religious tone. If that seems a bit of a stretch, consider that, after all, the album is titled Confessions on a Dance Floor.

Hooked on Radiation (Fil OK)   by Atomizer

The Pet Shop Boys remixed this 2003 "electropunk" single, which was the first release on the Boys' own Olde English Vinyl label. (It was also released on Atomizer's label, Gigolo Records.) Like PSB a British duo, Atomizer consists of Fil OK (aka Fil Jones) and former KLF member Jonny Melton (aka Jonny Slut), whose real names are Pat Krimson and Jeff Hypp. The "PSB Orange Alert Mix" appears on Disco 4.

Mein Teil (Schneider/Lorenz/Lindemann/Landers/Kruspe-Bernstein/Riedel)   by Rammstein

It's reported that the Boys created as many as seven remixes of the track "Mein Teil" by the German alternative metal band Rammstein, two of which were included on the single released in late July 2004. Rammstein, which counts PSB fans among its members, approached Chris and Neil about the remixes. The song—the title of which translates as "My Part" or "My Piece" (though reportedly it could also be idiomatically translated as "My Cock"; Neil concedes it's a double-entendre)—concerns the infamous 2003 case of a German cannibal who advertised online for a mutually consenting meal and the gay man who responded. Sardonic PSB humor comes through in the remix titles: the "You Are What You Eat Remix" and the "There Are No Guitars on This Mix," the latter of which is included on Disco 4.

The original track is completely in German, but Neil added a few bits of English to the latter mix: namely, an oft-repeated "You are what you eat" and possibly a few other words so grossly distorted that they're all but indecipherable.

I'm with Stupid - PSB Maxi-mix

All songs were written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe unless otherwise noted.

Copyright © 2001-2008 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary; it is therefore believed that they constitute Fair Use under U.S. copyright law.