Music

After flirting with everything from contemporary alterno pop (2002’s thoroughly unconvincing ‘Release’) to the movie soundtrack (their recent score for ‘Battleship Potemkin’), these dowagers of British disco have returned to what they know best. It’s been a long ride for the pair, who’ve influenced artists from Madonna to Magnetic Fields, but ‘Fundamental’ almost equals 1990’s ‘Behaviour’ in terms of quintessential style and features their trademark setting of kitchen-sink realism/sardonic social commentary against clubby house and grand yet melancholic orchestrations. It’s a balance best illustrated by 2005’s ‘Back To Mine’ compilation: Neil Tennant chose tracks by Harold Budd and Elgar; Chris Lowe opted for Queen and ’80s Italian disco dude Mr Flagio.

The scales are just as expertly weighted on ‘Fundamental’, which reunites PSB with producer Trevor Horn. Lead single ‘I’m With Stupid’ – inspired by Blair’s fawning relationship with Bush – is all walloping syn-drums and high-gloss, ’80s production, while ‘Integral’ (a direct attack on the proposed introduction of ID cards) is a thumping, Euro-trance anthem of almost Tatu-like absurdity.

By contrast, opener ‘Psychological’ is set to a moody electro pulse, Tennant’s menacing vocal marking metronomic time until that creamy, billowing, inimitably PSB synth sound floods in, making sweet light of the darkness. ‘I Made My Excuses And Left’ is more symphonically fabulous than any song about the shell shock of catching your beloved staring into the eyes of another has a right to be. Second single ‘Minimal’ is a killer, all broken beats, New Order bass line and boogietastic electro breakdown, while ‘Luna Park’ (‘Tiny Dancer’-era Elton united with Air) is plain lovely. The weak spot is ‘Numb’, a hideously schmaltzy ballad written by Diane Warren, who should have given it to Robbie Williams instead. Still, one brickbat for a dozen-strong bouquet ain’t bad. Take a bow, Boys – and welcome back