Alphabeat! *muted applause*

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Unexpectedly my Pitchfork review of Alphabeat has gone up!

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/144636-alphabeat-this-is-alphabeat

Feel free to castigate me if this has been up on Poptimists before, but this is the Pete Hammond remix of "Boyfriend", pointed out to me by koganbot (who reps for the superb longer - oh, what the hell, call it by its name, TWELVE INCH - version). It's my favourite Alphabeat thing.

Comments

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Nice beat, but as your article observed, the self-consciously over-retro nature of it all is frustrating. I liked the first 20 seconds but was bored by the second minute.

Plus the bunny-boiler quality of the lyrics is a bit unappealing.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

The funny thing about this remix is that it basically jettisons everything about Alphabeat that, to me, makes them who they are, and leaves only this totally blank, totally replaceable voice that threatens to do more harm than good with a few nasalisms anyway but generally blends into the (far more interesting) background. It improves them overall but also makes them expendable. (More obvious in the 12" mix, which blankets the song itself in even more "background," making the background the foreground.)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The chorus sounds great for 2 seconds but then fails to capitalise on that Casio-preset #3 cowbell noise.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Needs more cowbell -- try the 12"! (http://www.zshare.net/download/1501102102ab959a/) Makes chorus failures much less prominent.