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.
One of the acts I’m proud to say I supported from obscurity to success on This Must Be Pop is Alphabeat. I ordered their debut album, originally just named Alphabeat, for a crazy price on import and became quickly obsessed with their bouncy, uplifting and very Scandinavian twee-pop sound. The Alphabeat album was one of the best by-products of a time when we had to look to indie-pop for the energy and classic pop melodies that mainstream music was failing to provide.
This album is not totally consistent in quality, but if all the songs had been as good as 10,000 Nights and Fascination, Planet Pop may have actually exploded. Also, when Alphabeat launched in the UK they renamed the album This Is Alphabeat and added two new songs, including the brilliant Touch Me Touching You. It’s still my favourite Alphabeat song to hear live and was a highlight of their London gig last year. I don’t think there will ever be another group as infectiously joyous as Alphabeat and for that reason alone they will always have a special place in my heart.