The 13 least likely subjects for pop songs that the Pet Shop Boys nevertheless turned into pop songs

At least in my own personal opinion, a baker's dozen listed in chronological order:

  1. Jazz-loving nonconformists in occupied France distrusted by the Nazis and the Resistance alike ("In the Night")
  2. Privitization of U.K. national industries by the government of Margaret Thatcher ("Shopping")
  3. Political circumstances in the Balkans during the 1930s ("Don Juan")
  4. A Russian composer forced to reevaluate his career following the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union ("My October Symphony")
  5. A closeted gay man tormented by his all-too-knowing girlfriend ("Can You Forgive Her?")¹
  6. A British schoolmaster contemplating suicide ("Hey, Headmaster")
  7. A man's life flashing before his eyes in reverse chronology after picking up a transvestite and getting into a fatal automobile accident ("One Thing Leads to Another")
  8. Homosexual truckers, dancing (?) at a highway rest stop, no less ("The Truck-Driver and His Mate")
  9. A bitter but prideful lipsyncing drag queen ("Electricity")²
  10. Victorian graverobbers ("The Resurrectionist")
  11. An aged Casanova suffering from impotence ("Casanova in Hell")
  12. Terrorist suicide bombers who believe their murderous actions will guarantee them a place in heaven ("Fugitive")³
  13. A dictator who doesn't want to be a dictator anymore but can't figure out how to extricate himself without getting himself killed ("The Dictator Decides")

¹Made into the subject of a U.K. Top Ten hit, no less. How many people in 1993 were paying close attention?

²Mind you, this more than a decade before RuPaul's Drag Race came along.

³Despite considering it from the start, I initially resisted including this song because I felt its timeliness in the wake of the 9/11 attacks made it perhaps "not so unlikely." But the particular perspective that the Pet Shop Boys take, examining the subject from a seemingly sympathetic angle—with the emphasis there on "seemingly" since Neil has been very forthright in asserting that he certainly does not condone such beliefs or actions—makes it indeed a rather unlikely subject.