Alphabeat And The Joy Of '80s Pop
The recent waves of global Robbie-love, Whitney-appreciation and Burke-enjoyment have proven one thing above all others, everyone loves a good comeback.
So, everyone? Remember Alphabeat? Alphabeat...this is everyone.
, which is three things:
THING 1: A really great pop song
THING 2: A giant leap on from their slightly-homemade pop sound of yester-month.
THING 3: Available in the shops.
And if you read on, you will find out what happened when I spoke to Anders SG about the issues raised by THING 1 and THING 2.
THING 3 doesn't really need going into in any great depth, I'd have thought...
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ChartBlog: First of all, congratulations on the new single, cos it's a big leap on from where you were first time around...
Anders: Yeah it is! When we started doing the first album, that had a very band-y sound, cos we were very young when we made it and we didn't really know how to make the kind of pop music that we wanted to make, y'know. We were really into Stock, Aitken & Waterman, that kind of sound, and we wanted all of our songs to sound like that. Basically, we were 18 and 19 years old, so we just went into a studio and recorded everything, and hoped that our producer could make it sound like that, and he couldn't. He didn't really know about that...
Then when we re-released the album in the UK, and around Europe, we had the chance to re-do some songs, like 'Boyfriend' was re-produced, and we started really getting into the production of it all. We started to have some really clear ideas of where we want to go with the music.
So now this new album is just where we wanted to be all these years. It's nice to have a whole album with a sound we really love.
ChartBlog: It's nice that your personality still comes across. The one thing you could always level at Stock, Aitken & Waterman productions was that the performances were a bit devoid of personality.
Anders: Yeah, exactly, but I think the fact that we've produced it ourselves and no-one's really been interfering with it, it's really a personal thing to us. So, I definitely think that that's the reason why it sounds a lot like us. C: And are you getting good responses from people?
Anders: Yeah! You know those people who'll say, like "I've never really listened that much to your music" because they didn't really like the last record, and then they really like this! That's always really nice, but we've really been amazed at how the reactions have been. It's good times!
ChartBlog: Which Stock, Aitken & Waterman songs did you like?
Anders: [laughing] I think 'Never Gonna Give You Up' is a brilliant, brilliant song. And another song that I really like is 'You Spin Me Round' by Dead Or Alive. I read that when they produced that record, they had like the old school disco lights in clubs, right? The ones that are triggered by the bass and the treble and stuff. They had one of those in the studio, and they mixed that song to make the lights go as crazy as possible! We really like that, y'know. We haven't done it yet, but it'd be fun, wouldn't it?
ChartBlog: I could never get on with the really supercheesy pop songs they did...the Big Fun/Sonia end of things...
Anders: Yeah, a song like 'You Spin Me Round', we really like that because it's so dancey, and still it's really dark, and we've had that for some of the songs on this record, that we could turn the cheeriness down a bit and then turn up the dance element of the song, because in that way it balances. We have a theory that the more dancey a song gets, the more you get into a good mood, so you can take the mood down to balance it, I guess.
ChartBlog: Yeah, if you go too happy, you end up with 'Barbie Girl' by Aqua.
Anders: Yeah, exactly!
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Comment number 1.
At 24th Oct 2009, spirit wrote:FASCINATION is a first rate pop song , and I really like the SPELL.
The recent waves of "global Robbie love . "
Looking in my thesaurus it tells me that global means universal and total !
So Fraser after you gave Robbie's comeback single "Bodies " 2 stars and labelled it a "dud" , have you now finally changed your mind on this song , that contributed to ROBBIE winning the OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC AWARD at THE BRITS ?
lol
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Comment number 2.
At 24th Oct 2009, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:Lord no! It's a mess, that song. As for the Brits thing, it's nice for him to win an award, he's good, Robbie.
But if there's a song of his that deserves accolades, it's 'She's Madonna'.
That's a work of ART, my friend.
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Comment number 3.
At 26th Oct 2009, thranjax wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 4.
At 26th Oct 2009, spirit wrote:Yeah SHE'S MADONNA with it's PET SHOP BOYS influence is a corker.
Seeing ROBBIE at the ELECTRIC PROMS last week was a real highlight of my year.
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Comment number 5.
At 26th Oct 2009, thranjax wrote:I will rephrase:
Lawks alordy, the lead singer of Alphabeat is called Anders.. Why mr. spirit, could you not have warned me of this circumstance in a timely fashion?
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Comment number 6.
At 26th Oct 2009, spirit wrote:My dear Jax , if I would have been consulted at an earlier stage of your project , I may have been able to steer your ship in a different direction.
You took your project on without enlisting my guidance , in the assessment and planning stages . (I only found out at a very late stage , remember ? )
We may need another meeting to discuss a PLAN B.....
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Comment number 7.
At 26th Oct 2009, thranjax wrote:Plan B? Jaxys Midnight Runners?
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Comment number 8.
At 26th Oct 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:What are you guys chatting about? Talkingg of which I remember a post, not so long ago, where you were all chatting abour your TV appearances and such. I remember being confused at the time (these people are on TV?!) but I cant find which post it was on to confirm what I read. Im sure one of you will reply with something suitably confusing but anyway, thought I'd mention it.
The Spell is far more of a mess than Bodies. Its awful. Loved their previous work but The Spell makes me doubt the 'comeback'.
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Comment number 9.
At 27th Oct 2009, MozFoz wrote:It's okay but I don't think it sounds that different at all. It's a bit more dancier but it's not exactly a bold new direction. I think they've had better, more interesting songs than this anyway. I think it's because the lyrics aren't ... kooky enough. It's making the age old reference to how her infatuation is like she's had a magic spell put on her. And more discussion about said infatuation. Yawn. They're more imaginative than that surely?
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Comment number 10.
At 28th Oct 2009, almost witty wrote:One of the great things that Alphabeat v1 had going for them was the fresh sound. It sounded clean, unfiltered, uncluttered, simple and yet fantastic.
This new one... sounds far too complicated.
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Comment number 11.
At 28th Oct 2009, RandomEnigma wrote:I hate Alphabeat and all their songs! There way too cheery for my liking!
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