ok, so i love the new pet shop boys album 'fundamental' i just mentioned i bought. it's perfect. and the great thing is that it's so political without seeming so. one of the things i love about the pet shop boys is how they reference politics and social commentary in the midst of seemingly innocent and innocuous dance songs. if you weren't paying attention, you'd never know what you're hearing. anyway, check out these lyrics to a few of their latest songs:

"Twentieth Century" (i'm see this as the story of how the 'solution' of taking over iraq created more problems than the supposed problem before it):

Oh, I learned a lesson
from the Twentieth Century
that I don't think we can just dismiss
After one hundred years
of inhumanity
the lesson that I learned was this:

Sometimes the solution
is worse than the problem
Let's stay together

Well I bought a ticket
to the revolution
and I cheered when the statues fell
Everyone came
to destroy what was rotten
but they killed off what was good as well

Sometimes the solution
is worse than the problem
Let's stay together

Stay with me
this century
Together we're better

Oh, I learned a lesson
from the Twentieth Century
It may seem somewhat hit or miss
If you've certainty
'bout the way it's all meant to be
the lesson that you need is this:

Sometimes the solution
is worse than the problem
Let's stay together

"The Sodom and Gomorrah Show" (i see it being about finding one's freedom to be gay even when the world is saying that it's full of destruction and horror; plus it just has that tinge of political campaigning against gays by conservatives to win over voters through wedge issues):

I lived a quiet life
a stranger to champagne
I never dared to venture out
to cities of the plain
I'd heard about their way of life
took it with a pinch of salt
The freedom and the time to play
a life so easy
it intrigued me
when you called to say:

"Are you gonna go
to the Sodom and Gomorrah Show?
It's got everything you need for your complete
entertainment and instruction
Sun, sex, sin, divine intervention,
death and destruction
The Sodom and Gomorrah show
is a once-in-a-lifetime production"

I think it's true to say
my life was changed that night
In the liberated
atmosphere
all around me
Someone found me
whispered in my ear

"Are you gonna go
to the Sodom and Gomorrah Show?
It's got everything you need for your complete
entertainment and instruction
Sun, sex, sin, divine intervention,
death and destruction
The Sodom and Gomorrah Show
is a once-in-a-lifetime production"

Then we went on
after-hours
there was place down below
It was there I realised
the meaning of the show

You've got to love
to learn to live
where angels fear to tread
I did it and I don't regret the day
Even now
I think of how
you turned to me to say

"Are you gonna go
to the Sodom and Gomorrah Show?
It's got everything you need for your complete
entertainment and instruction
Sun, sex, sin, divine intervention,
death and destruction
The Sodom and Gomorrah Show
is a once-in-a-lifetime production"

and
"I'm with Stupid" (the story of Tony Blair and his relationship with George W.; so brilliant!)

Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid

See you on the TV
Call you every day
Fly across the ocean
Just to let you get your way
No one understands me
Where I'm coming from
Why would I be with someone
who's obviously so dumb?
Love comes
Love grows
every time you rise to meet me
take my hand to greet me
Love comes
Love grows
and power can give a man
much more than anybody knows

Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Before we ever met
I thought like everybody did
you were just a moron
a billion-dollar kid
You flew up all the way
like a hawk chasing a dove
I never thought that I would be
a sacrifice in love
It comes
It grows
and now we're tied together
everybody knows

Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid

Is stupid really stupid
or a different kind of smart?
Do we really have a relationship
so special in your heart?

Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid

I have to ask myself
like any lover might:
Have you made a fool of me?
Are you not Mr Right?
You grin
I pose
It's not about sincerity
Everybody knows

Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid
Oh-oh, I'm with Stupid

Is stupid really stupid
or a different kind of smart?
That's how you stole my heart
I'm with Stupid