The Pet Shop Boys have steadfastly refused to bring their unique brand of intelligent dance/pop/electronica into the 21st Century and Fundamental is no exception.

With Trevor "Art Of Noise/Buggles/Frankie Goes To Hollywood" Horn at the desk it's no surprise that the sound is so Eighties. He did, after all, produce their 1988 hit Left To My Own Devices, but hey, there's nothing wrong with this tried and trusted approach when the end product is as good as this sprightly chunk of disco pop is.

Time warp music can work or fall apart badly. Listening to this record you could certainly be forgiven for thinking you'd stepped into a Tardis and ended up in 1986, with tunes such as I Made My Excuses And Left and Luna Park full of the lilting downbeat disco laments that Neil Tennant has made his own. But it works, and quite magnificently.

One of the joys of the Pet Shop Boys has been their historic knack of being able to get across bleak sentiments against an upbeat disco beat and here they remain true to form. Even when they sing of love, as on Indefinite Leave To Remain, it's steeped in gloom. There are plenty of nods towards darker direction in places, such as opener Psychological, which sounds like a Depeche Mode tune remixed by Kraftwerk, and the superb Minimal, which is classic PSB territory, but again with a heavy Depeche Mode tip.

The rather cheesy single, I'm With Stupid and closing track Integral both vie for the title of the most dated-sounding tune on the album, but both stand up well in the context of the rest of the record's material.

A return to form, or a blast from the past? Who cares when it's this good?