If You Wanna Believe

White Rose Movement, "Alsatian" (original mix) - Y'know, I'd spent this whole year thinking that the big lesson pop music had to teach the world was to be careful about getting overexcited for bands/songs/albums (be honest, when was the last time you listened to OMG TEH BEST ABLUM EVARR Silent Alarm?), but that was before White Rose Movement started taking steps towards seemingly critical mass. As far as I'm concerned, White Rose Movement's shamelessly broad pop ambitions make them instantly more compelling than %99 of the rest of the bands coming from the Nu-Britpop scene; after all, writing something for the entire pop marketplace is a much harder task than it appears to be, especially if you're coming from a scene so permanently ripe to latch onto the next ascending star. It really took the original mix of their current single "Alsatian" (as opposed to the mindfuckingly awesome Phones remix still available elsewhere) to register, though - it's the first track of theirs I've heard that genuinely sounds like Paul Epworth actually going pop, as opposed to simply working his way through a Duran Duran phase (with admittedly incredible results). It's also worth pointing out that "Alsatian" is in no way about stuff like the price of gas or singing to someone in French; it appears to be as perfectly generalized as "Mr. Brightside", which isn't as flat-out perfect a pop song as I may have ever heard in my life for nothing. So, uh, yeah, you might as well get excited for this one - we've been due for another Lexicon of Love for a while now anyway. (Click here to order the "Alsatian" single from Amazon.co.uk)

Daft Punk, "Human After All" (Emperor Machine remix) - In light of the Prins Thomas motorik-inspired remix of "Tito's Way", you might think it would only be a matter of time before Emperor Machine signed on for some choice guest work; I'm not sure if there's anyone better in the world right now when it comes to remixes that bring you thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisclose to losing your cool without going over the edge (in a good way). Here, for instance, they achieve the unthinkable by transforming the lead track from Daft Punk's anti-human opus Human After All into something remotely relatable simply by punctuating all that crazy synth panic with quick beats of quietude - all of a sudden, what was once an imposingly mighty wall of racket is transformed into a lost Neu! single, and I am stricken by how easy it might have been for me to have actually enjoyed that goddamned album after all. Then I start thinking about how much fun they could have with something like "Too Much Love" or "Cone Toaster". Then I need to change my pants. (Click here to order the "Human After All" single from Juno)