Alphabeat - This Is Alphabeat (Album)

I've mentioned before how high my hopes were for Alphabeat's debut and it certainly doesn't disappoint. 'This Is Alphabeat' might as well be called 'This Is Pop Music' because it really is the definition, every song contains elements of pop hits from the previous 30 years. It's almost unfair not to call this album eclectic because it takes in so many styles from such a large time period that just happen to be covered by the umbrella of pop, not that umbrellas are anywhere in sight on this CD (except possibly 'Rubber Boots') because this is made for the sun. The first three songs will be famailiar to most as they are the first three singles (in the same order) these are followed by a run of 4 more outstanding tracks that shine in their own retro pop way, after that it takes a turn for the weird with a melacholy ballad that could be about fetishes, safe sex or not getting a cold, a cover of 'Public Image' by PiL and the closer which doesn't seem to borrow from such obvious previous chart music, all of which are enjoyable in their own way but unfortunately outshone by the form set in the first seven tracks. Every song on this album is more than capable of lodging itself immovably in your brain and i found the only way to get one song out was to listen to the next one and have that stuck in there for a while instead. 'Boyfriend' is a good example of this, listen to it once and i guarantee you'll find yourself plodding around singing 'don't you touch my boyfriend, he's not your boyfriend, he's mine' or having a go at the echo-ey faux-rap towards the end. Yet again my housemate came up with the best description: 'the sign of a great pop song is when it's so catchy you think you've heard it before' and that couldn't be truer of this album.

Buy it now before:
a) The radio plays it to death
b) Record companies start signing anybody who can pinch a hook from a chart hit and saturate the market with 'surrogate' bands
c) The sun goes away
d) It stops being cool to be kitsch
e) You miss out on all the fun

Alphabeat - Boyfriend

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Alphabeat - Fantastic Six

A few Sundays ago i was slumped in front of the TV in an unusual mood, for some reason i flipped over from the Hollyoaks omnibus and found one of the music channels available on freeview, it was playing all of the videos for the top 40 songs in the charts. After having sat through my umpteenth dull, uninspiring, overproduced, mass marketed 'pop' song dreamt up by some 45-year-old-long-haired-media-male 'Fascination' by Alphabeat came on and single-handedly renewed my faith in pop music. I was going to post that track but i thought i'd go for one that some might not have heard before. 'Fantastic Six' was their single before 'Fascination' and possibly their first, it is yet more pop brilliance dressed up in the bright colours of the late 70's/early 80's to disguise it's incredibly dance-able nature.

Alphabeat played at Audio on Sunday night and i took my friend along because we both needed a bit of cheering up. Despite the lead singer having a sore throat they sounded incredible for a live band, as near to their polished-pop recorded sound as it is possible to get. They started the set with a version of 'Fantastic Six' really extending the intro to create a funky, bass guitar driven, dance tune that could easily have been a remix by optimo. Having only really heard the 2 tracks i've already mentioned, i thought they would be just a good-time pop band but during the set they described themselves as playing 'club music' and as the gig progressed it was clear that they definitely had as much dance in them as pop. Some of their songs were full of vocal harmonies but others contained tropical club rhythms, one even had a heavy grinding synth solo and they all contained impeccably timed climax choruses that made me tingle all over despite how grim i was feeling. To top it all off they got the 2 support bands to join them on stage for the en-core which was a cover of Daft Punk's Digital Love (you can hear it on Alphabeat's myspace). As i left the gig i was beaming from ear to ear and my legs ached from having subconciously bobbed up and down so much. This is going to be a great album when it comes out.

'Fantastic Six' should still be available on 10" vinyl (i got my copy from Rounder Records) it comes in a nice white sleeve that must be the nearest to the cardboard version of corduroy i have ever seen. It includes 2 remixes, the first is a laid back carnival-esque percussion led track with sparse but timely use of the chorus by Radioclit and the other is a more club orientated track with heavy distorted bass by Nightmoves.