Album: Alphabeat, The Beat Is...(Polydor)

Seeing audiences responding to Alphabeat on Lady Gaga's Monster Ball tour is a thing of joy, and The Beat Is... could be the record which wins over doubters.

Their Scandipop is a little less wonky and more streamlined second time around, but the Danes have miraculously evaded the mature-equals-boring trap. Some of the techniques (house piano riffs, breakbeats and left-right filters) are very much of the French school, but there are enough touches of Abba to keep things Nordic. A delicious lesson in the art of pop.