Will Alphabeat make it over to the US, and if so, will they be huge?

As a fan of New Radicals, you have me excited...to iTunes I go!

Also check out Fascination, a big 80's style pop song which would have stormed Eurovision for Denmark had it been entered. They have some videos on youtube if you want to check them out before you buy.

As for making it over to the US. I'd be surprised and no, they won't be big. Album only just came out in February in Denmark so I wouldn't be surprised if it was still a while before it came out anywhere else if it ever does. It's been 2 years or something since the second Junior Senior album came out and it's only just about to get a US release and still no sign of one in the UK.

Album out in the UK on Monday.

Surprised they haven't been discussed more thoroughly on ILM but anyway - Alphabeat: true or false?

Is it wrong of me to love "Fascination"? Their schtick would annoy if the hooks weren't so strong. The way the chorus lifts into the "Wo-ah Wo-oh-ah" bit is pretty magical.

Wookie Rookie correct upthread - the secret to this band is that their tweeness is surprisingly muscular, it's that post-Motown bass+piano attack.

Like, "10,000 Nights of Thunder" (which is a weaker song) has those amazing Journey-style power chords in the bridges!

Also I think I have a slight crush on the male singer's earnest preppy stylings and habit of looking directly into the camera so sympathetically.

Wow, this Fascination song is great! I'd buy a record by these guys.

They do have some kind of worrisome Maroon 5-esque tendencies, like on the bridge of "Boyfriend." But other than that they're pretty enjoyable.

They seem maybe a little too knowing, though I've only heard Fascination. It's admittedly very catchy.

The album is really a bit hit or miss. Both of them. "Fascination" is an astonishing single (half Pointer Sisters, half "Footloose"), "10000 Nights" is pretty good, and "What Is Happening?" is an absolute monster. About six of the ten songs off the Danish album hit hard, the other four are more or less forgettable or bad. So when I heard the international edition would have some new songs and some old ones, I was thinking, oh yeah, this is going to be great.

But they kept "Rubber Boots" and "Nothing But My Baby" which are the two worst songs on the Danish album, and they removed "In The Jungle" and "Ocean Blue" both of which I thought were strong songs. The new mix of "Boyfriend" is better than the old one, though.

And yeah, if "What Is Happening?" is not the next international single after "10000 Nights" i will be very cross!

oh fuck me, i love "fascination" :(

The word is on your lips

i also like the hairspray soundtrack

The 'male' singer looks really...slow, like not even in an insulting way he just really has a slow moving face. The girl is totally his sister. They might do okay-ish in the US if they tag themselves onto some 'clever' advert.
I think I die a little everytime they say 'What's the word?'
WHATDOYOUMEANWHATSTHEWORDYOUKNOWWHATTHEMOTHERFUCKINGWORDISITSTHETITLEOFYOURSONGYOURABIDLYINANECHEERFULCHEESYBASTARDS.

They're saying 'Say the word" though.

Found it now, and I like it. But I am a bit surprised because they have use so much guitars and "conventional" instruments - I would have expected such an outspoken non-rock band to have a larger amount of synths in their sound. Fun it is anyway, but they aren't that far removed from what The Feeling and The Hoosiers are doing.

(Except they have a girl singing - which may make all the difference for those who prefer current mainstream pop to past mainstream pop)

I dunno, I haven't heard enough of The Feeling etc. to comment, but Alphabeat's use of rock instruments seems to be taking its cues from mid-80s corporate rock-pop (Huey Lewis & the News, Phil Collins - American Psycho music basically) more than anything else, and the result is so inorganic that it's actually hard to tell where the guitars stop and the synthesisers begin.

Belle & Sebastian - idiosyncratic charm + The Hoosiers = why bother?

Wonky pop?

I'm failing to see the "wonk" of which they speak, unless they mean "using a little bit of guitar" in a pop song.

i just saw the Fascination video. hated it (and them) for the first 30 seconds but was completely won over by the end! the band's puppy-dog sincerity would make them very punchable if the music didn't follow-through with its complete lack of irony - pretty rare for such an obvious 80s throwback. the groove is undeniable and the build-up during the 'say the word' bit is absolutely glorious. great song!

Yeah that was exactly my reaction. I was VERY suspicious for about half a minute.

Bestest fun song of the year so far, for me anyway.

puppy-dog sincerity makes them even more punchable. 'fascination' is deeply annoying, everything else is blahhh. awful band.

SAY THE WORD

lex correct

it's like a revelation

NOT

this could just as well be some aesthetically stunted jesus-pop bargain bin number

I agree with jabba and Tim!

still love the Bimbo Jones remix of 'Fascination' (a euphoric 00s euro-house-thru french-disco-lens cheese triumph to match Galleon's 'So I Begin', Triple X 'Feel The Same' and numerous others) (and the Linus Loves one too only not as much). not into the original.

"Fascination" sounds remarkably flat and unwelcoming for a joy-pop song. But basically, lex and Tombot otm.

Lex correct thirded.

No way their going to make in the US. They look far too sincere to be taken seriously. Factor in the male singer's resemblance to Rick Astley and they've got zero chances of a career in the States.

Worst case scenario -they do become huge for a moment and twenty years after their fall a hit musical and a movie are penned in their honor and style. Mama Mia!

go see 'em, haters! the live show's thoroughly irresistible.

I've only got so long to live.

i know right, i'll never get back the 10 minutes of mp3 time i wasted on them :/

jesus-pop

Funny you should say that because "10,000 Nights of Thunder" reminds me of a Relient K song I kind of like.

one person i showed the video to was completely freaked out, in a 'these people are serial killers' way. they're not creepy, they're just...danish.

I had found Alphabeat quite disappointing thus far, but 'Boyfriend' has just got me and I've been listening to nothing else all day. It's crammed full of hooks. I was a bit surprised to find this thread and learn it's more than a year old. I'll need to give a bit of time to their other stuff.

I really like how controlled it is (so maybe the American Psycho comparison isn't that far out). It feels like they're dying to let rip and play the song at twice the speed, especially the drums which are way too ferocious for such a slow song, but all that frustration comes out in the chant at the end

There seems to be a lot of this 'Punchable Pop' around at the moment. I had to suffer repeated listenings of the Hoosiers late last year because they became my son's favourite band (for a period of about one month). That was bad enough but Alphabeat are ten times worse. Mercifully my son hates them too.

I'd never have linked this to the Hoosiers if it wasn't for this thread. I still don't, really. It's just a fantastic record

I saw them compared to Deacon Blue somewhere and still consider that absolutely spot on.

The Pete Hammond remix of "Boyfriend" is one of the greatest things I've heard this year, though I was already in the bag for this band anyway.

"Fascination" is a great song. The happy-clappy exuberance of the video is a bit much, but I don't require them to be human beings for whom I feel any affinity. Apropos of VeronaInTheClub upthread, they should probably rename themselves The Rabidly Inane Cheerful Cheesy Bastards. But then, that would be irony, and everything would be ruined.

Punchable Pop is the greatest genre name ever. "Fascination" kinda fits the label, as in, waht the fuck are the lyrics about besides vague gibberings about "teenage" and "young dudes" and ghastly twee tidbits like "passion is our passion". Also, the male singer in the video is just asking for a punch with the way he's acting. Nevertheless, great groove and toon.

Boyfriend is a lot better than original mix of Fascination

dont understand how people could hate this!!!!

i think listening to too much balearica has made me soft

they do an acoustic cover of "digital love" that i really like despite having a distaste for 'acoustic' covers

no and yes

I don't get this mob's appeal at all, and I'm not anti-pop by any means.

what is a current pop song you like?

Well I'm not really keeping much of an ear on the charts at the moment. I generally like stuff GA and The Sugababes put out, fairly standard really.

i like my pop songs catchy, so Alphabeat fail by some margin. this is the most baffled i've been since people i typically consider sane came out for the Guillemots.

Fascination and Boyfriend are two of the catchiest European chart Pop songs of the year

i don't even think they're that great or anything but to deny they are catchy just seems so ludicrous

i've heard both but can't remember how either go. (not that i'm complaining, mind.)

is "i can't even remember how they go" the new old "and now or soon to be found at the bottom of the bargain bin in MVE" lazy worthless dismissal among critics?

curiously divisive, this lot. everyone has an opinion!

The funny thing about a band like Alphabeat is that each camp (lovers/haters) tends to assume that they, uniquely, understand, while the other side just dont get it (this sounds like a truism, but as per jabba hands, the whole process is more divisive here). They are the indie equivalent of Ashlee Simpson or even early Britney Spears in this specific sense. Like, pretty much every dismissal of this band I've read implies that lovers of a song like "Fascination" are the indie equivalent of gullible sheep pop fans who can't see how the wool is being pulled over their eyes. There's an implicit Alex in NYC anti-pabulum edge, although of course it's being wielded in reverse.

I think the truth is more complicated. All of my alarm bells went off with this song but I love it anyway, like it turns its dodgy qualities into a plus. Whereas an example of a song that I still like but remain sufficiently conflicted about that I can't love unambiguously is Mint Royale's "Don't Falter".

"Don't Falter" >>>>>>>>>> "Fascination".

And I love "Fascination".

This lot also wouldn't go down at an office party either. Stick to Rihanna and Bon Jovi for that.

i made a bunch of people listen to this and no one liked it :(

Edward, perhaps my feelings are affected by actually being friends with a Britpop/indie-pop revivalist at the time that song came out. She would take me to clubs where everyone dressed up like they were auditioning to join My Life Story and that song and "The Boy With The Arab Strap" would play and everyone would go "crazy" and do skipping-dances on the dancefloor while mouthing the words.

In fact if i went to such a club now I'd probably sour on "Fascination" very quickly.

"Fascination" reminded me of some lost Disney movie song and dance number from, say, "A Goofy Movie."

turns out the Goofy Movie songs I was thinking of in particular were written by Prince for the movie. Mind status = blown, etc

zmfg "DJ" is an earworm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHp-BP4d90o

I like that considerably more than any other Alphabeat tune I've heard.

they have a great producer (no idea, just judging from the way the verses are stacked/constructed).

So there's a new Alphabeat album... I had a viscerally negative reaction to the title track but it's kind of burrowing its way into my head. Since I Met You is my favorite so far.

Had a soft spell for The Spell when that was out, until the middle-8 with the geezer started , "Oi mate, you should be rapping".

started *singing* that should read. The lady looks mightily unimpressed in the video.

Listening to the album clips on Youtube; they've taken a hefty melodic swipe from the 'How Will I Know' chorus in one of the tracks.

Stine released a new single a couple months ago. It's...okay.

But I'm just now listening to the third album from 2012. I put it off so long because I hated The Spell so much. Express Non-Stop turns out to be a HUGE improvement. I wonder if they're done now.

Stine released an entire mini album! It's great, 'Not What I Came For' is my choice pic

AH, so I see. "Karma Town" was the song I'd heard, but after playing "Prototypical" and "Move Forward" I'm a little more into it.

yeh karma town gets a bit annoying after repeated listens
for some reason i thought there was a 10 minute version of prototypical but i'm failing to find it anywhere

Inspired by this thread to listen to 10,000 Nights of Thunder, which is still amazing. Looks like The Spell is on Spotify, but I've never seen Express anywhere.

ENS was apparently only released in Scandinavia, though two of its singles are on US Spotify.

wow they really shit the bed on The Spell, huh? Not that I gave it the most extensive listen, but then, if an Alphabeat song doesn't grab you right away, what's the point?

if an Alphabeat song doesn't grab you right away, what's the point?

Ha! This is so otm.

I never listened to The Spell except for "Always Up With You", which works on account of basically being Felix's "Don't You Want Me".

New single (after a 6 year hiatus). It's decent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p08vwkde3GM

It's weird how much I love this new single.

This is... fine.

This one is pretty boring.

huh.