Album: Neon Neon, Stainless Style (Lex)

From Gorillaz to Gnarls Barkley, collaborations between innovative popsters and dance producers has become one of pop's most rewarding strategies.

The latest duo allies Gruff Rhys with Boom Bip, who become Neon Neon for this concept album based on the rise and fall of automobile tycoon John DeLorean. Set to variations on Eighties electropop, full of chattering, sequenced beats and sleek synths, much of the album resembles a graceless Kraftwerk; perhaps appropriate for the bogus glamour exemplified in "Dream girls in cold cars/ Cold girls in dream cars".

There's a Pet Shop Boy-ish tone to DeLorean's imagined mea culpa "Belfast", while Spank Rock and Har Mar Superstar lend a Hi-NRG tone to his coke-fuelled hedonism in "Trick For Treat", but neither is quite as apt as Fatlip's rap on "Luxury Pool", celebrating the swindler as a hustler.

Download this: 'Trick For Treat', 'Luxury Pool', 'Stainless Style'