The Spell (Alphabeat album)
Encyclopedia
The Spell is the second studio album
by Danish pop
group Alphabeat
. It was released in Denmark on 26 October 2009 by Copenhagen Records
. Alphabeat stated their second album moved away from the pop roots of their debut album, Alphabeat, in favour of popular dance
acts of the 1990s such as Snap!
and Black Box
. Lead single "The Spell
" uses keyboard chords very similar to Cut 'N' Move
's 1991 classic "Get Serious", with band member Anders SG saying the song was especially inspired by Black Box's 1990 song "I Don't Know Anybody Else
".
The album was originally set to be released in the United Kingdom one week after the original Danish release, but was eventually released on 1 March 2010, followed by the second single, "Hole in My Heart". As announced by the band through their Facebook
page on 27 January 2010, UK and international pressings of the album were retitled The Beat Is... including the bonus track "Till I Get Round".
In November 2010, the album earned Alphabeat the Danish Music Award for Danish Group of the Year.
" was released in Denmark on 21 September 2009, serving as the lead single from the album. It topped the Danish Singles Chart
for four non-consecutive weeks, while becoming a top twenty hit in Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. "Hole in My Heart" was released as the album's second single in the UK on 22 February 2010, peaking at twenty-nine on the UK Singles Chart
. "DJ
" is the album's third single overall. Released as the album's second single in Denmark on 9 January 2010, the track peaked at number six in Denmark. For the UK release on 31 May 2010, the single was remixed by Biffco and promoted as "DJ (I Could Be Dancing)", but failed to chart within the UK top 100. "Heat Wave" is overall the album's fourth single, released in Denmark on 21 June 2010. It charted at number four in Denmark, the group's second highest-peaking single in their home country. The video for the single was released on 11 August 2010.
, which assigns a normalised
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 58, based on 7 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". K. Ross Hoffman of Allmusic viewed the album as "an even glossier, more unabashedly poptastic affair than their first album. Continuing in the overtly dancy direction signaled by the tracks added to their debut's re-release (in particular 'Touch Me Touching You') and the popular Pete Hammond remix of 'Boyfriend
,' and slightly updating the band's oh-so-'80s touchstones, Beat takes its cues from turn of the '90s club music: Hi-NRG
, Euro-beat
, hip-house
, and the Scandinavian synth-reggae
of Ace of Base
." Hugh Montgomery wrote for The Observer
that the album finds the group "appropriating the handbag house
sound that was the cornerstone of provincial clubs circa 1995. Thus jittery piano riffs and hands-in-the-air breakdowns abound, while singer Stine hollers dancefloor doggerel
." Simon Gage from Daily Express
described the songs as "chirpy and silly with witty lyrics", while calling the music itself "Euro-nonsense at its finest." The Guardian
s Michael Hann, however, believed that "[t]he glee that infused that first album has been swamped by endless staccato
synth or piano riffs, all of which sound like a score of minor hits from a generation ago." Mike Diver
of BBC Music
agreed, stating, "With its makers performing like they'd rather be elsewhere, compositions finalised by playing percentages rather than the passion that fuelled their debut, The Beat Is… represents a nadir for a group once heralded as purveyors of the very brightest pop."
Stephen Kelly of the NME
commented that "Alphabeat have bravely stripped away all the bubblegum
that originally made them popular in favour of the Euro-dance
years of the late-'80s/early-'90s. The result is stronger than you might think, but too inconsistent and devoid of depth to stand out on a battlefield where Gaga
rules all." The Times
critic Peter Paphides
opined that "their second album varies the tempo and tone without sacrificing the joyful execution. The ultra-catchy single, 'The Spell', is an apt microcosm of a whole that peaks with the Italo-house
urgency of '365 Degrees'. But, if 'Chess' resemblance to Ace of Base strikes you as a bad thing, the rest may not appeal to you either." Michael Cragg of musicOMH
noted that "[t]hings start promisingly, [...] with the first four songs zipping by in a blaze of joyfully cheesy beats ('The Spell'), '90s rave piano ('Hole In My Heart') and neat vocal interplay between singers Anders SG and Stine Bramsen ('DJ')", but felt that the remainder of the album "lacks any sparkle or panache
, with the band falling foul of a very current musical disease; the Auto-Tune
obsession." Lauren Murphy from entertainment.ie
concluded that "Alphabeat may have lost some of their magic, but they admittedly make reparations with the damned catchy 'Heat Wave' and 'The Right Thing', two of the peppiest tunes on offer here. Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to prevent this album from being something of an anticlimax. A highly stylised one, sure – but a disappointment, nonetheless." Aaron Lavery was emphatic in his review for Drowned in Sound
, referring to the album as "an absolute abomination of a record", while adding, "Gone is any sense of personality or charm that Alphabeat once had, to be replaced by masses of Autotuned vocals, processed beats and batteries of keyboard sounds that haven't been aired since Ace Of Base and 2Unlimited
ruled the waves."
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Danish pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
group Alphabeat
Alphabeat
Alphabeat are a Danish pop band from Silkeborg, fronted by singers Stine Bramsen and Anders SG and signed to Polydor Records. Their single "Fascination" was a major hit in Denmark during the summer of 2007 and a significant hit in the United Kingdom in 2008...
. It was released in Denmark on 26 October 2009 by Copenhagen Records
Copenhagen Records
Copenhagen Records is a mainstream Danish independent record label formed on 5 January 2004 by former EMI Recorded Music Denmark staff members to give artists more artistic autonomy. It houses artists spread over a wide range of genres, from goth rock to rap, and from pop artists to comedians.-...
. Alphabeat stated their second album moved away from the pop roots of their debut album, Alphabeat, in favour of popular dance
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
acts of the 1990s such as Snap!
Snap!
Snap! is a German Eurodance project formed in 1989 by Frankfurt-based producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti. The act has been through a number of line-up changes over the years, but was most successful when fronted by rapper Turbo B, who performed on the UK number 1 singles "The Power" and...
and Black Box
Black Box (band)
Black Box was an Italian house music group popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The members of the group included a trio made up of a club DJ , a classically trained clarinet teacher , and a keyboard and electronic music "wiz"...
. Lead single "The Spell
The Spell (song)
"The Spell" is the first single by Alphabeat to be released from their second album of the same name. The song uses keyboard chords very similar to those found in Cut 'N' Move's Get Serious....
" uses keyboard chords very similar to Cut 'N' Move
Cut 'N' Move
Cut 'N' Move was a dance/hip hop group from Århus, Denmark.Their debut album was released on Epic Records in 1991, which was a moderate success in dance clubs in Europe. In 1994, their remix of the KC & the Sunshine Band song "Give it Up" went to No. 1 in Australia for 4 weeks. The track reached...
's 1991 classic "Get Serious", with band member Anders SG saying the song was especially inspired by Black Box's 1990 song "I Don't Know Anybody Else
I Don't Know Anybody Else
"I Don't Know Anybody Else" is a 1989 song recorded by the Italo-house music band Black Box. It was the second single from their debut album Dreamland and was released in the first months of 1990 in most of countries worldwide....
".
The album was originally set to be released in the United Kingdom one week after the original Danish release, but was eventually released on 1 March 2010, followed by the second single, "Hole in My Heart". As announced by the band through their Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page on 27 January 2010, UK and international pressings of the album were retitled The Beat Is... including the bonus track "Till I Get Round".
In November 2010, the album earned Alphabeat the Danish Music Award for Danish Group of the Year.
Singles
"The SpellThe Spell (song)
"The Spell" is the first single by Alphabeat to be released from their second album of the same name. The song uses keyboard chords very similar to those found in Cut 'N' Move's Get Serious....
" was released in Denmark on 21 September 2009, serving as the lead single from the album. It topped the Danish Singles Chart
Tracklisten
Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl...
for four non-consecutive weeks, while becoming a top twenty hit in Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. "Hole in My Heart" was released as the album's second single in the UK on 22 February 2010, peaking at twenty-nine on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. "DJ
DJ (Alphabeat song)
DJ is the second single by Danish electronica-pop group Alphabeat to be released from their second album The Spell, becoming a top ten hit in their native country....
" is the album's third single overall. Released as the album's second single in Denmark on 9 January 2010, the track peaked at number six in Denmark. For the UK release on 31 May 2010, the single was remixed by Biffco and promoted as "DJ (I Could Be Dancing)", but failed to chart within the UK top 100. "Heat Wave" is overall the album's fourth single, released in Denmark on 21 June 2010. It charted at number four in Denmark, the group's second highest-peaking single in their home country. The video for the single was released on 11 August 2010.
Critical reception
The Spell received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalised
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 58, based on 7 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". K. Ross Hoffman of Allmusic viewed the album as "an even glossier, more unabashedly poptastic affair than their first album. Continuing in the overtly dancy direction signaled by the tracks added to their debut's re-release (in particular 'Touch Me Touching You') and the popular Pete Hammond remix of 'Boyfriend
Boyfriend (Alphabeat song)
"Boyfriend" is a song by Alphabeat.A new version, produced by Mike Spencer, was released as their third UK single. BBC Radio 1 proceeded to place the song on their prestigious A List....
,' and slightly updating the band's oh-so-'80s touchstones, Beat takes its cues from turn of the '90s club music: Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...
, Euro-beat
Eurobeat
Eurobeat is a form of italo-disco/hi-NRG music that developed in the late 1980s.In the United States, Eurobeat was sometimes marketed as Hi-NRG and for a short while shared this term with the very early freestyle music hits....
, hip-house
Hip house
Hip house, also known as house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip-hop. The style rose to prominence during the 1980s in New York and Chicago...
, and the Scandinavian synth-reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
of Ace of Base
Ace of Base
Ace of Base is a pop band based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Its original lineup consisted of Ulf "Buddha" Ekberg, and three siblings, Jonas "Joker" Berggren, Malin "Linn" Berggren and Jenny Berggren...
." Hugh Montgomery wrote for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
that the album finds the group "appropriating the handbag house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
sound that was the cornerstone of provincial clubs circa 1995. Thus jittery piano riffs and hands-in-the-air breakdowns abound, while singer Stine hollers dancefloor doggerel
Doggerel
Doggerel is a derogatory term for verse considered of little literary value. The word probably derived from dog, suggesting either ugliness, puppyish clumsiness, or unpalatability in the 1630s.-Variants:...
." Simon Gage from Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
described the songs as "chirpy and silly with witty lyrics", while calling the music itself "Euro-nonsense at its finest." The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Michael Hann, however, believed that "[t]he glee that infused that first album has been swamped by endless staccato
Staccato
Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...
synth or piano riffs, all of which sound like a score of minor hits from a generation ago." Mike Diver
Mike Diver
Mike Diver is a British music journalist. He started his career at music website Drowned in Sound, where he became editor, before moving on in 2008 to become editor of Clash magazine's website. He has contributed to several magazines including NME and Rock Sound.Diver is currently album reviews...
of BBC Music
BBC Music
BBC Music is a team working in the department of Audio and Music Interactive at the BBC. Responsible for the BBC Music website - the portal site to music content across the BBC website....
agreed, stating, "With its makers performing like they'd rather be elsewhere, compositions finalised by playing percentages rather than the passion that fuelled their debut, The Beat Is… represents a nadir for a group once heralded as purveyors of the very brightest pop."
Stephen Kelly of the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
commented that "Alphabeat have bravely stripped away all the bubblegum
Bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...
that originally made them popular in favour of the Euro-dance
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
years of the late-'80s/early-'90s. The result is stronger than you might think, but too inconsistent and devoid of depth to stand out on a battlefield where Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
rules all." The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
critic Peter Paphides
Peter Paphides
Peter Paphides is a British journalist and broadcaster.Between 2005 and 2010 he was employed as the chief rock critic of The Times and presented The Times weekly music podcast for Sounds Music supplement...
opined that "their second album varies the tempo and tone without sacrificing the joyful execution. The ultra-catchy single, 'The Spell', is an apt microcosm of a whole that peaks with the Italo-house
Italo house
Italo house is a form of house music popular in Italy, Britain and United States since the late 1980s. It fuses house music and Italo disco. The genre's main musical characteristic is its use of predominantly electronic piano chords in a more lyrical form than classic Chicago House records...
urgency of '365 Degrees'. But, if 'Chess' resemblance to Ace of Base strikes you as a bad thing, the rest may not appeal to you either." Michael Cragg of musicOMH
MusicOMH
musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...
noted that "[t]hings start promisingly, [...] with the first four songs zipping by in a blaze of joyfully cheesy beats ('The Spell'), '90s rave piano ('Hole In My Heart') and neat vocal interplay between singers Anders SG and Stine Bramsen ('DJ')", but felt that the remainder of the album "lacks any sparkle or panache
Panache
Panache is a word of French origin that carries the connotation of a flamboyant manner and reckless courage.The literal translation is a plume, such as is worn on a hat or a helmet, but the reference is to King Henry IV of France...
, with the band falling foul of a very current musical disease; the Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform apparently perfectly tuned vocal...
obsession." Lauren Murphy from entertainment.ie
Entertainment.ie
entertainment.ie is a Dublin-based Irish website which provides extensive cinema, TV, live music, theatre, comedy, exhibition and festival listings for free, as well as celebrity gossip, music and movie news, movie and DVD reviews, CD reviews and up-to-date lottery results.The site was developed in...
concluded that "Alphabeat may have lost some of their magic, but they admittedly make reparations with the damned catchy 'Heat Wave' and 'The Right Thing', two of the peppiest tunes on offer here. Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to prevent this album from being something of an anticlimax. A highly stylised one, sure – but a disappointment, nonetheless." Aaron Lavery was emphatic in his review for Drowned in Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
, referring to the album as "an absolute abomination of a record", while adding, "Gone is any sense of personality or charm that Alphabeat once had, to be replaced by masses of Autotuned vocals, processed beats and batteries of keyboard sounds that haven't been aired since Ace Of Base and 2Unlimited
2 Unlimited
2 Unlimited is a Dutch Eurodance/Hi-NRG act formed in 1991. The project was the brainchild of Belgian producers Jean-Paul DeCoster and Phil Wilde, and was fronted by a Dutch duo, rapper Ray Slijngaard and singer Anita Doth. During five years of enormous worldwide popularity, the act scored 16 chart...
ruled the waves."
Track listing
Weekly charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Danish Albums Chart IFPI Denmark IFPI Denmark is the Danish branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Denmark.-Gold and platinum awards:... |
5 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
96 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
39 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification |
|---|---|
| Denmark IFPI Denmark IFPI Denmark is the Danish branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Denmark.-Gold and platinum awards:... |
Platinum |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2009) | Position |
|---|---|
| Danish Albums Chart | 36 |
| Chart (2010) | Position |
| Danish Albums Chart | 22 |
Release history
| Country | Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Denmark | 26 October 2009 | Copenhagen Records Copenhagen Records Copenhagen Records is a mainstream Danish independent record label formed on 5 January 2004 by former EMI Recorded Music Denmark staff members to give artists more artistic autonomy. It houses artists spread over a wide range of genres, from goth rock to rap, and from pop artists to comedians.-... |
| United Kingdom | 1 March 2010 | Fascination Records Fascination Records Fascination Records is a UK-based record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as an imprint of Polydor Records. The label was launched in spring 2006, and is managed by former TOTP Magazine editor Peter Loraine... , Polydor Records Polydor Records Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone... |
| Germany | 2 March 2010 | Universal Music Universal Music Group Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations... |
| Netherlands | 12 March 2010 |