This month I’m featuring my top 20 albums of the past decade, to celebrate 10 years of This Must Be Pop! Click here to see all the Decade of Pop posts so far.
When I visited Stockholm for the first time in 2004, I heard Alcazar everywhere I went. At this time, the UK charts were populated with overproduced R&B, landfill indie and novelty songs, so Swedish music was truly a breath of fresh air. In Sweden, you couldn’t walk down the street without hearing the latest hits by Da Buzz, Melody Club and E-Type, but the most ubiquitous band were Alcazar, who were at their peak and releasing the best songs of their career.
Dancefloor Deluxe was a strange mix of a greatest hits and new studio album. It featured three glorious new songs – This Is The World We Live In, Physical and Start The Fire – alongside a selection of their past releases. The album epitomises Alcazar’s unpretentious, cheeky and uplifting disco-pop sound, and the writing and production credits are amazing. Alexander Bard and Anders Hansson both feature heavily, along with Anoo Bhagavan, Niklas Von Der Burg, and even the Pet Shop Boys!