Fictitious [+] is a reissue of a rare album with two live tracks added (hence the +). Fans of Fictional who own the original pressing of Fictitious may be disappointed, but fans who missed buying it before Zoth Omnog, Fictional's original label, went under, will be over the fucking moon. And anyone else out there might be mildly interested.... The fact is, Fictional is an acquired taste, like eyebrow rings and octopus. If it's cooked right, or if it's on the right person, tastefully done, okay. If not... Fictitious [+] stretches the boundaries of the listener's expectations in ways that have to be unique.

One of Fictional's first songs was a cover of the Pet Shop Boys' "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)". Fictitious [+]'s first track is "The System", which is not actually a cover, but sounds so much like "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" that it may as well be it. The distorted, echoing vocals, the accent (the vocalist, Gerrit Thomas, is German, but his English is the BritEnglish of movie villains), the slick urban sound and the heavy synth all conspire to make Fictional's homage to PSB sound more like a deep obeisance.

Fictional's industrial sound should be fairly familiar; there's a little bit of Nine Inch Nails in there, and some of the rougher/faster stuff recalls White Zombie; at times, Fictional veers towards Rammstein territory. They do this stuff much better than Stabbing Westward, whose "Guilty" makes me think the title should be "Guilty of stealing this from Trent Reznor". Their sound is consistent throughout the album; you could put this CD on at the beginning of a party, never change it, and no one would ever lose a beat. Danceable industrial music is a small subgenre: NIN, Ministry and KMFDM were huge on radio and the pop charts, but they were also among the few bands that attempted pop industrial dance. Fictional's lyrics, although largely incomprehensible and not particularly varied, are also not nearly as violent as those of many other bands in their genre -- if you don't agree, compare "On Dreams"' dry "I had a girlfriend/ now she's dead" with NIN's animalistic "Closer". Indeed, there's something wry and offhand about "On Dreams" that suggests -- you guessed it -- the dry lyrical anti-humour of the Pet Shop Boys.

For reasons that I can't quite pinpoint, many of my cohorts see The Pet Shop Boys as either an embarrassment or as the Boyzzzzzzzzz (i.e. a quicker sedative than sleeping pills). This is a mistake. Tennant and Lowe's unbridled feyness might make a few less-than-secure straight guys a bit nervous, but it deserves to be embraced. Leave your personal willies out of it. While you're at it, be novel -- embrace Fictitious [+].