Those colourful Danish wags, Alphabeat, are back with yet another piece of pop brilliance.

Of the many versions that are available, there’s a remix that places Boyfriend straight back into the 80’s.

Alphabeat aren’t one of those bands you listen to looking if you’re…say looking for the meaning of life. Or anything deep like that. What you’re more likely to get is pure bubblegum pop, and Boyfriend hits the spot on so many levels.

Far better than 10,000 Nights, this latest single provides hints that Alphabeat are an unstoppable pop machine. Here’s a song that’s purely dedicated to warning other women off her man - in the nicest possible way!

Of course, with our normal cynical attitude to the record buying public, we wonder how well Alphabeat’s upbeat pop patter will last when the second album comes around.

Until that time, check out the superior Pete Hammond remix version.

Boyfriend is the third single from their debut album, This Is Alphabeat.

When we first heard about the new Pussycat Dolls single, it was tempting to gloat about Nicole Scherzinger coming back with her tail between her legs.

OK, it’s fair to say that Nicole’s solo stuff didn’t set the charts on fire, despite some high profile collaborations. But secretly we’re glad she’s back where she belongs. Aren’t you?

The song is a fairly standard riff on every kids dream of being famous.

Now, When I Grow Up isn’t quite up to the same standard as Don’t Cha, but it isn’t a bad start. Interestingly, the Armored Stereo blog says that it sounds like Scherzinger is still peddling her solo material, but recognises that she’s got a great voice all the same…

For our part, it’s nothing like a vehicle for Scherzinger. Her solo stuff was mostly too-smooth R&B material. Pussycat Dolls do loud, ballsy pop with infectious choruses. Their image is younger, scrappier and more fun than anything Nicole did alone.

It’s still debatable whether this will be the high-impact single the Dolls need to secure their return to pop. However, it’s a good enough start, and the video’s a pretty hot reminder of why we liked the Pussycat Dolls in the first place.

When I Grow Up is due for release in the UK on 8 September 2008.

So…Have you heard all the buzz lately about The Saturdays? You can’t escape it. And they’ve released their first single, If This Is Love, and it’s already gone Top 10.

And since they’ve toured with that veteran pop act, Girls Aloud (veteran in pop terms anyway), you could almost take that as a sign that they’re the ‘approved’ successors once Cheryl or Nadine pull the plug on that group.

As a debut single, If This Is Love doesn’t offer much more than a jolt of pure pop. On one hand, they’ve regressed to a period of pop that pre-dates the Xenomania-infused tunes we’ve seen from Sugababes and Girls Aloud.

Wongie says “so far my reaction is kind of ‘eh’“, and that’s pretty much how we feel too. Angry Ape are similarly lukewarm in their review. The Saturdays are five stunningly good looking girls, and they fit the girl group template extremely well. However, the single itself isn’t groundbreaking enough to stand out.

Fraser over on Chartblog said it best - they’ve released a safe song and they’re going to follow up with a belter. Watch this space? What do you think?

If Katy Perry got criticism for Ur So Gay, she’s redressing the balance on I Kissed A Girl, America’s massive #1 hit single this summer. It’s held the Billboard top spot for around six weeks.

You’ve got to love America’s fascination for a song about a wee bisexual fling. Better still, the lyrics are juicy and overflowing with lustful intent. There’s nothing coy in Perry’s delivery, and you kind of imagine her overpowering the nearest girl for a quick snog.

We love the lyrics in the chorus, like…

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it

That last line’s a stroke of genius - why would he mind? He’s probably uploading the video of it to YouTube right now to share with his friends!

We can’t help wondering if this track will be directly responsible for some bi-curious fumbling among teenagers this summer. Hell, the Emo crowd don’t exactly need any more encouragement, but mark our words…Katy Perry will take it to the masses.

An excellent tune, I Kissed A Girl is winging its way toward a UK release very soon today, actually.

There’s never been a better time to remind you about Stonefoxx - a girl group we first wrote about last September. The girls have been great about keeping in touch with us ever since, even inviting us along to their gig supporting Shayne Ward in Belfast a couple of months ago.

Although we couldn’t make it that night, we got sent a brilliant showcase DVD and CD featuring some of their music. Given the woeful state of British pop music and the fact that Girls Aloud may disintegrate over the next 12 months, and you’ll start looking for the next big UK pop group.

Stonefoxx - Gem Allen, Stacy Burton and Lizzy Williams - have been on the scene for a couple of years, and are steadily working their way up the fame ladder here in the UK - Gem was pictured alongside a young Amy Winehouse and Billie Piper when they went to school together.

As we mentioned above, they’ve just finished supporting Shayne Ward on his UK arena tour, and as a result, Louis Walsh has invited the girls to open “Live at the Marquee”, one of Ireland’s biggest music festivals.

PopJustice also featured their song Crystal Clear as their song of the day a while back and ran a front page feature on the group. And they’ve also been picked by Nintendo to launch a new video game - Battle Of The Bands - which is helping to bring them to a whole new audience.

As you know, we’re big fans of Stonefoxx at Unreality Music, so we strongly suggest that you check out their music on MySpace. Hot Summer and Crystal Clear are fantastic tracks, but conspicuously missing is the best track of all, Pop Music which is a really unique, quirky pop song. You’ll love it!

This week’s top ten is dominated by female artists - Rihanna, Gabriella Cilmi, Sara Barielles, Duffy and…Jordin Sparks?

Yeah, it seems like there’s still life in Miss Sparks’ career after all.

Better yet, we have the return of Ne-Yo and his more youthful counterpart, Chris Brown. Brown makes a double appearance in the top ten with Forever and duetting with Jordin Sparks on No Air.

1. Coldplay - Viva La Vida: Another shovelful of audio pleasure from Coldplay, proving that Violet Hill wasn’t a one-off. A deserving number 1 this week.
2. Ne-Yo - Closer: A leading member of the Axis of R&B Evil,, Ne-Yo releases yet another boring and predictable chick-focussed tune. Which is selling by the barrow-load. It figures.
3. Rihanna - Take A Bow: Not hearing this one much at the moment. We might be massive Rihanna fans, but not so much of her slower songs.
4. Sara Barielles - Love Song: On the contrary, Sara’s love song is just about everywhere at the moment.
5. Chris Brown - Forever: Anyone heard this one yet?
6. Gabriella Cilmi - Sweet About Me: Such a good song, slightly obscured by the female-heavy chart this week. Just don’t underestimate the smoky vocal and sexy, old-school track.
7. The Ting Tings - That’s Not My Name: They call her Hell, they also call her Stacey. But we know better, don’t we readers?
8. Mint Royale - Singin In The Rain: Dear record industry, if a kids wins a reality TV show on the basis of a ton of hormonal girlies voting for him, those same girlies will spend a fortune on the track that he danced to. Idiots.
9. Duffy - Warwick Avenue: In a bizarre twist of fate, Warwick Avenue is so good that it even makes us warm to Mercy when I hear it on the radio. The ‘welsh warbler’ might just be winning us over.
10. Jordin Sparks - No Air: Again, Jordin Sparks has been off Unreality Music’s radar since her debut. Is this any good? You tell us.

So, Gabriella Cilmi is the latest in a long line of female artists seemingly exploiting the old jazz/blues/soul genres. Sweet About Me is reminiscent of Norah Jones and Katie Melua at their absolute best, cool and subtly flirtatious (well, Melua in that respect).

PopJustice wittily remarked that Sweet About me could become #1 by Christmas, noting that the single has had a slow burn effect, gradually climbing into the top ten after initially entering the charts at a very low position.

The thing that surprised us here at Unreality Music was that Cilmi is deeply involved with the Xenomania team - best known for their cutting edge work with Girls Aloud and Sugababes. Take a listen to the other songs on Gabriella’s MySpace page and you’ll discover a far more musically diverse set of songs than you might expect.

This is refreshing for us - Cilmi is obviously not going to be pigeonholed (as so many young female artists are these days) into the ‘who’s the new Amy Winehouse this week’ box.

The song itself is just brilliant - a sexy vocal performance, with Cilmi alternating between strong and bluesy on the “If there’s lessons to be learned” line and girly-innocent on “Nothing’s sweet about me”. Yes, this tune gets a thumbs up from us.

As Eric Zimmermann writes:

I think it speaks of being Middle Aged.  I think that we all look at ourselves in the mirror sometimes and wonder just if our lives are what we expected when we were 18.

And that’s the one thing that Hollow Man taps into - that sense of waking up disenfranchised and wondering what’s the point of everything. Stipe’s lament through the chorus is “Believe in me/Believe in nothing” and his resulting desire to be “something”.

Instantly recognisable as R.E.M., but with a jangly acoustic rock sound that’s always a delight to hear. My only complaint is that it’s too short, but it does leave you wanting more.

And I could have picked some tunes out on YouTube, but I’ve come to the conclusion that YouTube actually degrades the listening experience and makes videos virtually unwatchable. It’s just poor quality all round. Better to switch on the music channels at home and crank up the volume!

1. Rihanna - Take A Bow: The pop princess returns with a slower track that sticks the knife in a former lover. In a musical sense - I doubt Rihanna’s had her heart broken before ;)
2. The Ting Tings - That’s Not My Name: Catchiest tune of the moment, this is the album that will launch the Ting Tings into the limelight.
3. Madonna ft Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes: Because Timbaland is the brains behind this release, it’ll linger in the charts for easily the next decade.
4. Will.I.Am ft Cheryl Cole - Heartbreaker: Still smooth, Will.I.Am has regained respect with this mix of R&B and the sexiest female in British pop at the moment.
5. Sam Sparro - Black & Gold: No comment.
6. Wiley - Wearing My Rolex: Still class. I wonder if there’s a new grime movement waiting in the wings ready to take over the charts?
7. Duffy - Warwick Avenue: The Duffster comes over all Katie Melua on us, and pulls off a silky smooth tune that far outshines Mercy.
8. Usher ft Young Jeezy - Love In This Club: The word ‘anthemic’ can’t be used enough to describe this song. Epic R&B track.
9. September - Cry For You: Lightweight dance track not worth commenting on really.
10. Coldplay - Violet Hill: Chris Martin and his comrades pull off a minor miracle - convincing me that they’re a good band after all. Excellent tune.

Rihanna has revealed on GMTV how much she’s enjoyed teaming up with Maroon 5 on their next single, If I Never See Your Face Again.

Speaking to GMTV’s Carla Romano in LA, the Good Girl Gone Bad said that working alongside the pop rockers was “Awesome for me”.

She went on to heap praise on the lads, saying: “Maroon 5 are one of my favourite bands and when they approached me to do this record, I was like, ‘Any song – I don’t care if it’s a song that I don’t like - I want to do it because Maroon 5 is dope’. But fortunately I love this song – I think it’s a smash.”

Maroon 5 frontman, Adam Levine, said there was such chemistry on set he found it hard to concentrate. “Well I always find it hard to concentrate - so she doesn’t make it any easier.”

Adam continued to rain compliments on the Umbrella star, revealing just why he wanted to work with her: “She’s obviously beautiful and talented and amazing, and I just thought, ‘Hey, there’s really no better choice.’”

“Yeah, we do have chemistry,” he continued. “You don’t really know until you show up and do the video. So the fact that it worked out today is incredible because you can also…it can go the opposite direction. So thank god we did have chemistry.”

The chemistry was also felt by Rihanna who, when asked to describe Adam in one word, said “Hot”.