Review - Alphabeat - Express Non Stop

Danish pop group Alphabeat have been releasing a slew of singles lately, and finally it is time for their album. ‘Express Non-Stop’ is the band’s third album, and it seems to be the one with the most focused vision. Alphabeat’s entire career has been them working on this sound, and ‘NSE’ definitely has a very specific sound to it.

Sadly, Alphabeat does this ‘sound’ a bit too much, and the album blends. While the CD itself is very good (from a pop fanatic’s ears), there is very little variation on it. I love when a band (or even just one CD) has a personality all its own, but I also love when we can change it up a bit. The best CDs carry a feeling, a tone, a theme throughout all tracks, but do so in a way that still keeps us, the listeners, interested. Once you’ve heard one song from ‘Express Non-Stop’, you’ve kind of heard them all.



Now, if you don’t mind this, or if you’re the type of person who is only in it for the singles, don’t worry. Every song on the album is poptastic and a whole buttload of fun (yes, a buttload). Everything will make you dance, and Alphabeat crafted an LP that was made for singing along.

The album itself doesn’t so much show influences from the 1980’s as it sounds like it was actually made then. I don’t know too much about music back then, but if I didn’t know better, I’d genuinely think that a lot of this album (the title track especially, which also sounds a lot like the Thomas Dolby classic “Blinded By Science”) was recorded two decades ago. Bits and pieces are modernized, but most of what you’ll hear is very old-school. Again, for certain people, this will be great.

I also thought I’d mention that this album is incredibly…kid safe. At no point will you hear Alphabeat talking about sex, drugs, drinking, or staying out too late. In fact, much of the album sounds like a mix between an 80’s new dance group and the High School Musical soundtrack, thanks mostly to the lyrics and the male/female vocal harmonies.

This all is Alphabeat’s sound though, and I don’t want to knock it. Good for them for sticking to who they are and what they do best. They have fans around the world, and I believe that this is going to please each and every one of them. I can certainly appreciate that they didn’t go right for hard electro or dubstep to keep on trend in music, and I applaud the sheer amount of fun they’ve packed onto ‘Express Non-Stop’.

‘Express Non-Stop’ is apparently not available yet, perhaps not in the US?

Listen to: “Love Sea”, “Since I Met You”, “Mad About You” “Express Non-Stop”, and basically everything else if those do it for ya.