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Alphabeat - This Is Alphabeat
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Just squeezing into the Scandinavian pop dynasty, Denmark's Alphabeat bless us with hook-filled, sunny melodies, flirting with irritation and throwing in the odd curveball to boot. Fed on a diet of ABBA, A-ha, Annie and Robyn, we think we know what to expect from the colder edges of mainland Europe - and by and large, these six primary-coloured indie kids don't disappoint.
Opener 'Fantastic Six' is their statement of intent - “It's the making of a miracle!” - a politely power-chorded, kitsch exposition of their descent to Earth on “atomic jets”. It's fun, they're “sci-fi”, and it's the catchiest thing on the planet until 'Fascination' beams in seconds later.
The squirming pop magic of that single is the best thing here; that's no insult to its friends, but when you've caught lightning in a bottle it's a tough call to repeat the feat. They try, of course, with '10,000 Nights' ('Fascination' in heavier boots) and it's fairly lovable but slight.
And “fairly lovable but slight” is a decent epithet for the album. 'Boyfriend' and 'Go-Go' are disco-lite, which is pretty flimsy when you think of the standard mass of a disco track, and by the time we reach 'What Is Happening’ we're in Bay City Rollers sing-along territory, waving scarves and wondering where it all went wrong.
But just when it seems that we have Alphabeat's number – and it's a rather sticky one – they swoop in with a jolly and jolly splendid cover of Public Image Ltd's 'Public Image' that swings and whistles in all the stupid places. It sounds like the England World Cup Squad (remember them?) tackling The Cure's 'In Between Days'. Weirdly, that's meant as a good thing. That's Alphabeat.
Matthew Horton
