Alphabeat - 'Boyfriend'
What is it about the Scandinavians that gives them such an innate ability to create good pop songs? Is it the climate? The diet? The landscape? I mean, don't get me wrong here; in no way am I trying to suggest that the British don't know how to make good pop music. It's just that it does have a bit of a history here of being tainted with the whiff of the naff, that it's for kids and that there's something fundamentally wrong with adults making or enjoying straightforward honest-to-goodness pop music unless it's somehow alternative or, heaven help us, 'ironic'.
I only ask this because I was wondering what the likelihood was of the UK ever turning out an Alphabeat of its own, and it seems unlikely somehow. I think the sheer earnestness that's inherent in all of their songs would never work for a British band (unless that band is , and it still remains to be seen how they'll cope in the real world). We tend to need our homegrown pop to justify itself either by pretending to be rock music (band has guitars) or by adding more of an envelope-pushing edge (song has lots of samples and synths and suchlike).
Not that any of these are bad things, of course - it's just a relief that we're still able to get fresh unpasteurised pop from alternative sources so that there's something available for everyone.
To the song at hand: 'Boyfriend' was Alphabeat's first single in their native Denmark, and their third, I believe, in this country. There are definite '80s touches to the song, indeed if you focus in just on the backing, it could almost pass for the default Stock/Aiken/Waterman production which you can find on pretty much every track of Kylie's first handful of albums. It is, however, dressed up in far more sophisticated clothes, with all the finesse you'd expect from these expert popticians.
My only major beef with this song is that the chorus isn't as catchy as I would like it to be; I can't help thinking that there's something slightly weak about "don't you touch my boyfriend/he's not your boyfriend/he's mine", however immense the "oooooohhhhhhh no!" leading up to it might be. The bridge into it ("it's just because I'm crazy in love/crazy in love") is more memorable somehow.
It probably sounds like I'm being harsh here, but I have my reasons: I'm grading on a curve. 'Fascination' and '10,000 Nights' were both Fantastic; this song, by comparison, is merely Very Good. It does seem to make more sense as a later release from an album rather than a lead single, but it's still so blissfully hummable that it entirely justifies its existence as a single in its own right.
Download: Out now
CD Released: August 25th
(Steve Perkins)
Comment number 1.
At 18th Aug 2008, Psychology101 wrote:I agree about British pop music and I love Alphabeat too. This is actually my favourite song of theirs because, like their others, it's so catchy. I like the video too and even though the band seem a bit geeky, some how the video has an air of coolness about it.
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Comment number 2.
At 24th Aug 2008, Paul McCluskey wrote:I think 'Boyfriend' is a fantastic song!
It brings back that lovely fresh feel-good pop music of the 1980s a la Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, early Kylie.
It's going to be huge!
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