Ace of Base Youth? Spawn of the devil? Pop geniuses? All of the above? It all depends where you stand on Alphabeat - but surprisingly, even if you're not a fan of their ubiquitous summer hit 'Fascination', you may find something to love (or at least grudgingly enjoy) here. In fact, it wouldn't be completely unreasonable to suggest that 'Fascination' is a misrepresentation of the Danish sextet - their debut album This Is Alphabeat veers a course between classy pop-rock and irritatingly catchy happy-clappy nonsense.
Thankfully, the latter is at a minimum, although there are a handful of songs that sound like they should be soundtracking a cheerleading montage from a John Hughes film. Undeniably purveyors of pure pop, Alphabeat may wear clothes bright enough to damage a blind man's eyesight, but they're also capable of spacey, Erasure-style electropop (Touch Me Touching You) and downbeat rock (Nothing But My Baby). Heck, there's even a superfluous cover of PiL's 'Public Image' here, which sits brazenly alongside the early-Madonna referencing Boyfriend and the brilliant sleazy funk-pop of Go-Go.
And even though lyrics aren't Alphabeat's forte, (i.e. rhyming 'super dooper with 'space trooper', or the refrain of sleepy number Rubber Boots, which repeats: "You should wear rubber, always wear rubber" ad infinitum), it's forgivable. Why? Well, simply because this album is fun.
You'll have no problem dancing to This Is Alphabeat - being drunk might help - and what's more, the little people in your life will probably adore it, too.
