By the mid-2000s the Pet Shop Boys had seemed to shift into an apparent elder statesman mode, but Fundamental blew up those expectations with a striking set of songs and a sense that they were still listening and paying attention all around. The seemingly diffident “I’m With Stupid” was a barely hidden slam against the geopolitics of the Iraq War, while songs like the merrily irreverent “The Sodom and Gomorrah Show” and the focused, beautiful sorrow of “Minimal” added themselves quickly to their canon.

– Ned Raggett