Home > Fundamental >

Psychological

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2006
Original album - Fundamental
Producer - Trevor Horn
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - promo

The first song on Fundamental 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." Years later, in a promotional piece for the 2017 reissue of the album, he noted once again how this opening track is about "aimless, generalized fear that is used to sort of fuel a political agenda sometimes."

Annotations

• Neil told the New York Daily News that the title of the song was inspired by a book he read about Oscar Wilde: "In the 19th century, they called gay people 'psychological.'" He reasserted this in the booklet accompanying the album's 2017 reissue.
  
  
• The word "psychological" is of course the adjectival form of "psychology," a term with a longer history than one might think. Its origins are uncertain, but its first recorded use (as psychologia) dates back to the late medieval period, with the Croatian Christian humanist philosopher and poet Marko Marulić. "Psychology" is derived from ancient Greek to mean "the study of the soul."
  
  
• This track contains a sample from a remarkably obscure source: a 2002 recording of "The Song of the Most Holy Theotokos" (Theotokos is a Greek term meaning "Mother of God," in reference to the Virgin Mary) as performed by (and apparently composed specifically for) soprano Tatiana Melentieva, excerpted from Svete Tikhiy ("O Gladsome Light") by the contemporary Russian composer Alexander Knaifel (born 1943).
  
  
• One of my site visitors has offered a most intriguing interpretation (or at least a suggestion of a possible inspiration) of some of the more cryptic lines in this, one of the Pet Shop Boys' more cryptic songs. Could the references to "an asymmetric haircut and a painted eye" as well as "a bowler hat" have been inspired by the murderous, ultra-violent "droogs"—who sported those features in their "look"—in the 1962 Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange and its 1971 film adaptation? A connection is strongly possible, perhaps even likely, especially when you consider the intense psychological underpinnings of the book and movie.
  
  
• The line "An undertaker in a bowler hat" didn't strike me as particularly noteworthy since in the United States, where I live, the attire of funeral directors—as undertakers are usually referred to these days—is by no means standardized aside from the general expectation that they dress well, conservatively, and in dark colors, usually but not always black. But one of my site visitors (providing some support documentation as evidence) has pointed out to me that, in the United Kingdom, traditional undertaker attire generally included—and apparently often still does include—a top hat. (Neil himself wears a top hat—or, technically, a half top hat, which is shorter in height—on the cover of Fundamental, and it was part of his standard outfit in live performances specifically associated with the album.) Bowler hats, however—more commonly known in the U.S. as "derbies"—started to become an acceptable alternative during the years of the First World War, though they were still regarded as an exception to the rule. So "an undertaker in a bowler hat" is at least a bit out of the ordinary, which may suffice as the reason for being called out this way in the lyrics of this song.
  
  
  
• Another somewhat cryptic line, "Down in the cemetery—cellophane," has been neatly explained by a site visitor as an allusion to the fact that people often leave flowers wrapped in cellophone on the graves of their departed loved ones. After the flowers have rotted away, the cellophane is left behind.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

• Mixer: Robert Orton, Pet Shop Boys, and Trevor Horn
  • Album version (3:58)
  • Instrumental promo (3:59)
    • Promo only
• Mixer: Alter Ego
  • Alter Ego Remix (6:09)
    • Available on the Fundamentalism bonus disc accompanying the limited edition of Fundamental
• Mixer: Ewan Pearson
  • Ewan Pearson Vocal Remix (8:33)
    • Available as a bonus track on the "Numb" 12-inch vinyl single and on a promo-only CD
  • Ewan Pearson Dub [aka "Ewan Pearson Instrumental"] (8:26)
    • Available on a promo-only CD
  • Ewan Pearson Mix (7:36)
    • Available on Ewan Pearson's remix collection Piece Work

Official but unreleased

• Mixer: unknown
• "Pre-release version" (4:01)

List cross-references

• Evidence that death haunts "the Fundamental era"
• PSB songs with "Russian connections"
• PSB tracks that contain samples of other artists' music
• The key signatures of selected PSB songs
• What it's about: Neil's succinct statements on what a song is "about"

 

---

All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2020 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Billboard Media, LLC.