New Music

Alphabeat - DJ

Rumoured to be the second single from second album The Spell, so far yet to receive a UK release, despite having come out in their native Denmark, DJ owes a hell of a lot more to the more general early 90's vibe of the album as opposed to lead single The Spell which was like a mid-80's Madonna production. I thought this was good on first listen but it keeps growing with subsequent listens. Is it up to the standard of Fascination, Boyfriend and 10,000 Nights? Probably not, but then few pop songs are...This album and its singles are hardly comparable to those from This Is Alphabeat as the sound is so completely different this time. The stuttering beats and sliced vocal effects in this song remind me of early 90's Kylie singles such as Step Back In Time and What Do I Have To Do. I don't expect it will be a big UK hit if The Spell couldn't be, but it's brilliant nonetheless.



Robbie Williams - You Know Me

Having never been a Robbie fan before as such, I was surprised to find that I really loved comeback single Bodies when others were calling it average. Whereas that was a high budget pop song in the Supreme mould, second single You Know Me is more of a classic production, a very classy pop song. To me this is like a slower version of Something Beautiful, but a lot more classy. The doo-wop backing vocals remind me funnily enough of many of the songs on the recent 60's girl group inspired recent album, Standing Tears Apart by Remi Nicole. I bought Robbie's new album on Monday and though I don't love every song on it, there are certainly more than enough excellent tunes to justify its purchase. You Know Me is excellent and is already knocking on the door of the top ten on the iTunes chart before promotion even kicks in, so hopefully it will be another big hit for the comeback king.



A1 - Take You Home

Mere days after it emerged that British/Norwegian boyband A1 had reformed and were rumoured to be participating in MGP next year, do I find this!!! Take You Home, A1's first single since 2002's Make It Good seven years ago, very much picks off where they left of, but with a modern sound like a much poppier Coldplay. The song is the official single for Red Nose Day in Norway and has entered the Norwegian charts at #12 this week, although no UK release appears to be on the agenda at the moment unfortunately. Here are Ben, Mark and Christian performing the song on Norway's X Factor a few days ago;