Lopez Blogs

BeFour are one of those happy happy acts that you will either love everything they do by or be left immensely cold by their chirpy pop stylings. Despite releasing a third album in less than 12 months, they have yet to hit the top ten in their native Germany and that is quite sad because i'm in the camp that finds their euro pop-dance grooves simply delightful. Think back to an era when Steps ruled the charts, when S Club were yet to smoke pot and when All*Stars were wandering around in the Land of Make Believe. It's music that plays to the lowest common denominator, doesn't take any chances and just aims to put a big smile on your face for the time that you spend listening to it. That isn't a criticism - far from it; it is music that has no pretentions. Approach it as such and your experience of it is greatly enhanced.

Surely there must be a reason this sort of music faded out from the British charts? Not cool enough? I find it hard to believe there isn't a huge pre-teen market for this relentlessly cheerful brand of pop. The lead off single Live Your Dream is probably the type of music the A*Teens would be making if still together - or something (as I suggested here) that Same Difference could work their magic with. Happy Holiday literally clears the grey from the skies with it's devil may care summer vacation whistling and slightly rave-esque backing track (which does grate a bit as you get towards the end but then luckily it finishes!) Two songs in and i'm in danger in being overwhelmed by bleeps and beats. Then Listen To Your Heart comes along with a sweet little melody and everything is ok again. Nice plinking piano in the background of the chorus too and I do like mushy songs about being true to yourself, etc. It makes me feel all glow-y inside!

Apart from the single, there are two clear stand out tracks hiding in the middle of the album. The title track, We Stand United, is one of those anthemic pop tracks that seems to work on every level. More feel good factor is baked right in with a lush harmonic chorus that may be a tad sickly sweet but by golly it sure does feel so right when you are listening to it. The other track I shamelessly love is the could-have-been-a-disaster SMS. I mean, remember when Clea did Download It and it was dreadful and no-one did? This infuses a great Liberty X type pop song with cutesy sound effects that probably won't age well. However, in the here and now (woohoo! My least fave steps song) it works well and I suggest in the future they could change it to "i'm sending you an SOS" to make it more topical. Clea can hardly change download it to "free with the sunday observer" now can they?

Zabadak perhaps shows most clearly the influences of other groups like Abba and Ace of Base in the music with some quite amusing bass vocals from the boys. A cover of Give It Up is a cheerful winner if only for the complete lack of cynicism in it's delivery and the album closes with the only ballad - the quite lovely You Gave Me Life that can now replace Il Divo and G4 songs as the mothers day tune of choice. The delivery is quite dreamy in a Never Had A Dream Come True sort of way, and the writers will probably score big when Simon Cowell steals it for Westlife at some point in the future. It may sound at times like i've been harsh on this album - and for sure, it's not a perfect piece of work and at times a little repetitive. But in terms of an unabashedly shameless pop effort, you could do a lot worse.

LINK: BeFour's website