The Singles Jukebox

Contrary to what the video wants you to believe, Alpines is a duo…

[Video][Website]
[4.33]

Brad Shoup: On OnlyLyrics.com, there is actually a section in “Tidal Wave” reserved for “-! Awesome beat -!”. I hear a simple synth line, evocative of some mid-’80s AOR opacity, but whatevs. I guess it’s awesome compared to the endless plodding kicks and strobing synths in the second half. 
[5]

Ian Mathers: There are a lot of elements here (especially the synths and the beat) that I loved when they were more novel to me, but either this is just the most pro forma example of their deployment possible, or I’ve reached my personal point of diminishing returns on this sound. It feels like the musical equivalent of a tear-jerker that isn’t working; that build just doesn’t feel like anything is actually happening.
[5]

Anthony Easton: The sound and the lyrics combine to convince us of a disaster that turns into a minor inconvenience.
[3]

Alex Ostroff: This feels less like a tidal wave and more like a normal high tide. It comes in, elevates things slightly, and then it recedes. Once it’s gone, I don’t really notice that it was here at all.
[3]

Will Adams: Shame that we don’t get any real drum ‘n’ bass until the final minute. Everything about “Tidal Wave” says it should carry the hyper tempo the whole way. Instead the middle slogs along in a leaden half time. What a waste of a great synth line.
[5]

Iain Mew: Musically “Tidal Wave” is very, very post-“Earthquake”. Which makes a neat sense thematically even if a more accurate title would be “Tsunami”. I would take Labrinth and Tinie over the pleasant but unengaging Alpines every time, though.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: Its “generic shit British dance” sounds are neither here nor there; they lack character and are inoffensive background noise even at stun volume. Where this definitively fails to work on any level even if you like generic shit British dance is Catherine Pockson’s voice, which is shooting for Jam & Spoon-level ethereal grandeur and misses entirely.
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: Pockson’s voice is interesting, alternately knotty and smooth (a little like what Ellie Goulding contorts for, perhaps?); it’s as engaging as the track isn’t. 
[5]

W.B. Swygart: I can’t tell if she’s singing “impasse” or “impact”. I’m not sure which would be worse. When I was a kid, we had Robert Miles. He was rubbish too.
[4]