The Concretes — Say Something New

Every music poll needs a token Swedish entry. Give a warm welcome to The Concretes, then, an indie-pop band from Sweden (naturally. Because if they were from Finland, it would mess things up some what). Say Something New does the standard trick of stealing the drum beat from Be My Baby (the poor thing — it's like one of those petrol stations that you hear about; one that gets robbed one day, then the robbers come back the next day, and the next), and combines it with odd, slightly stilted female vocals. Shut up. It's nice, and indie-sounding, and I realise that this probably isn't causing you to rush to Kazaa or HMV to check them out, but every once in a while, it's good to curl up with something that reminds you of five years ago, heading down to Vinyl Exchange and Piccadilly Records on a Thursday morning to get the week's new singles (yes, while most people's grant money went on cigarettes and alcohol, mine went on CDs and concert tickets).