Awww…

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[5.88]
Jonathan Bogart: Cole Porter and Martha & the Vandellas would both be ashamed.
[3]
Dan MacRae: For a silly little pop outfit, Alphabeat’s singles have a weird talent for getting me emotionally invested. I’m not entirely sure why I go nuts for the “Ride On Time” bit of wailing (I only got around to listening to Black Box a couple years ago), but with every listen it just makes my heart skip a bit. I’m probably just a sucker for overstimulation.
[9]
Jer Fairall: I don’t see myself ever missing the hollow synths and 4/4 thump of A Night at the Roxbury-style 90s club pop, but I’d at least appreciate the opportunity to test that theory.
[3]
Erick Bieritz: If songs like “10,000 Nights of Thunder” recalled the late ‘80s of the Fine Young Cannibals, “Heatwave” suggests Alphabeat has kept the throwback dial at about 20 years relative to today and dove headlong into continental pop-house. Previously twee singer Stine Bramsen gets her Evelyn Thomas on and the band members speculate what the dance floors of must have sounded like back then (their answer: “Ride on Time,” like, a lot).
[6]
Edward Okulicz: They don’t know, they don’t know, they don’t know anybody else. But they do know their way around old S’Express, Snap and Black Box records, and the verses here are belting. Stine Bramsen is no Martha Wash or Loleatta Holloway no matter how much you “Ride On Time”-ise her on the chorus, mind you, and her “ooh-ooh-ooh” is a little G-rated to get the pulse racing, but this is so damn agreeable it doesn’t matter. I still prefer the thick misery of “Hole In My Heart”, though.
[7]
Martin Skidmore: This seems to have considerably more energy and punch than most of theirs; even if it doesn’t have much of a tune, she sounds a bit tougher and sharper, and we are spared his terrible singing.
[6]
Zach Lyon: I’m a much bigger fan of Alphabeat 2008 than Alphabeat 2010, but this is alright. Serviceable beat and the diva-ambition of her vocals is nothing but endearing.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: Some entrepreneurial programmer should develop a Winamp plug-in that would zap Stine’s voice into any mediocre dance-pop thing. This can be the demo.
[7]
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