Entschuldigung!

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2013
Original album - (none)
Producer - Stuart Price
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - bonus track with the single "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct"

Neil and Chris wrote this song—the title of which generally means "Sorry!" or "Excuse me!" in German—to "apologize" for not being able to speak the language despite spending so much of their time in Germany, particularly Berlin. It was released in early September 2013 as part of the digital bundle for the single "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct," to be followed nearly a month later by its inclusion on the CD single.

Essentially an instrumental with occasional vocal interjections, it has throbbing electronic instrumentation highly reminiscent (appropriately enough) of the pioneering German electronic band Kraftwerk. In fact, it's quite possible that this and its stylistically similar accompanying bonus track, "Get It Online," were inspired at least in part by the Boys' attendance at Kraftwerk's Man Machine concert at London's Tate Modern Museum in February 2013. The first voice we hear is emotionless—another "Kraftwerkian" characteristic, and not sounding like either Neil or Chris—repeatedly intoning the words "Ich nicht sprechen Deutsch," which is bad German (of the sort stereotypically spoken by non-Germans, utilizing both poor grammar and poor pronunciation) for "I don't speak German." (It would more correctly be rendered "Ich spreche nicht Deutsch" or "Ich spreche kein Deutsch.") The English words "I said" are also thrown in, emphasizing the speaker's native tongue. Neil soon joins in with the same words, adding an occasional "Entschuldigung!"

The Boys are surely employing poor grammar and pronunciation on purpose to underscore the song's underlying premise about their not being able to speak German. Given the meager lyrics, this is the sole interesting aspect of the song from a lyrical standpoint. It's strength must ultimately be judged in terms of its musical merit. As is their common pattern with what were once aptly and often still archaically referred to as "b-sides," its style is very much in keeping with that of the album from which the single is drawn. It comes across, more or less, as an Electric outtake, albeit a seemingly underdeveloped one—the kind of track they can knock off in their sleep.

Annotations

As noted above, the German word Entschuldigung (roughly pronounced ent-SHUL-dee-gung) is most commonly translated into English as "Sorry," "Excuse me," or "Pardon me," although as a noun, depending on the context, it can also mean "excuse," "apology," or "defense."
It's perhaps no accident that this song, with its awkward and apparently apologetic German, serves as bonus track with a single ("Love Is a Bourgeois Construct") that includes the line "Speaking English as a foreign language." What's more, its "fellow" bonus track, "Get It Online," also includes snippets in other tongues. It would seem, for some reason, that languages are on the Pet Shop Boys' minds at this time.

List cross-references

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