Props to Will Harris for bringing this Danish group to my attention. God, I miss bands like this.
Let’s not mince words about the kind of music Alphabeat plays because, as Bill Hicks once said, our very lives depend only upon truth: this is not a band that wants to change the world. They just want to make people dance and sing, and there’s not a damn thing wrong with that. Indeed, if there is anything music could use right now, it’s a pure pop band that doesn’t wallow in self-pity or self-importance, and doesn’t use sex to shift units. Truth be told, we might need Alphabeat now more than we need Radiohead.
The band, in a nutshell, is ABBA crossed with the Scissor Sisters, which in my world is sixteen different flavors of awesome. (Hicks, on the other hand, would probably not share my enthusiasm.) But let’s be clear on something; this is no kitsch-driven novelty act like the Wombats. (Seriously, Bridget Jones? You name-checked Bridget Jones?) Alphabeat’s songs have massive hooks, and they could even teach the Scissor Sisters a thing or two about keeping it simple, stupid. Look at that chorus to “10,000 Nights,” and how the singers Anders SG and Stine Bramsen trade nothing but nonsense words and come up with one of the most unforgettable things you’ve ever heard.
Both: You give me 10,000 nights of thunder, but I will give them all back to you
Boy: ‘Cause you’re so ooh…
Girl: Doot doo doo…
Boy: So ahhhh…
Girl: Doot doo doo…
Boy: So cool…
Girl: Baby, you’re so super, ba ba dee oh…
Hell, yes. That’s a pop song, kids.
The disco-tastic “Boyfriend” takes a similar approach, using the setup to the chorus to create a hook as large as the chorus itself. Seriously, which is the catchier part, the “Don’t you touch my boyfriend / He’s not your boyfriend, he’s mine” part, or the “Oooooooh, no!” that precedes it? And I haven’t even gotten to “Fascination,” the band’s first big single (it peaked at #6 in the UK), but that’s mainly because I want you all to have something to look forward to as you search the interwebs for more on these guys. In the biz, they call that a tease. Are you sufficiently teased?
Just don’t begin your search on iTunes. Just like our friends the Attic Lights, there are currently no plans to release Alphabeat’s debut, This Is Alphabeat, in the States. Sigh. Thank God for YouTube, then, otherwise there would be no way to see any of their equally fun videos. Here’s the one for “Boyfriend.” Enjoy.
Yeah, I know 
The double A-side single had a nice little streak in the late ’70s; Queen alone had two. But one of my favorites didn’t chart nearly as high, and one of its sides became far more well-known than the other.
Even since Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus first realized that they had a knack for writing songs together, it’s been an accepted fact that there’s something in the water of Sweden which gifts the residents of this kingdom with the abilities to write inconceivably catchy pop hooks. I mean, I’m not saying anyone’s actually done any sort of chemical analysis – or, at least, I haven’t, anyway – but given the sheer hummability of the average Swedish composition, it seems like as good an explanation as any. As late as the mid-1990s, however, my knowledge of Swedish pop was limited to two groups – ABBA and Roxette – and neither were exactly the height of cool – but, then, neither was I, which is why I had ABBA’s 