On this site we talk about all kinds of music. There’s punk and metal, post-rock and cock-rock, electronica, new-rave, chill-wave, improv and who cares what else, but in this hugely musical diverse town there’s precious little top-notch pop, the stuff that probably got most of us listening to music in the first place, the kind they used to make back in whenever-we-were-young that we convince ourselves wouldn’t survive in these X Factor times. Alphabet Backwards cunningly expose the lie of the assumption that pop is an inherently commercialised, cynical, factory-generated cash cow by the trick of writing simple, direct songs and playing them with energy and upbeat enthusiasm. It’s really that simple. This EP sounds like they’ve been out for a month collecting joie de vivre and then spent a weekend getting friends round to help them squashing it down into 5″ discs; like orange juice their music is sweet, full of sunshine, a great way to start a day and probably full of vitamins as well.

At only three songs and scarcely twelve minutes it’s a bit generous to call this an EP, but as a single it’s got plenty to it and is perhaps a more satisfying package for the complete absence of filler. The lead track, ‘Blink of An Eye’, is almost built to be a radio-bothering single, and that cuts both ways; it’s basically two choruses stuck together with a short breather of a verse, and while it’s a bit simple it’s a great bouncy summer track and feels like it’s over almost as soon as it’s got going. Opener ‘Collide’ is a better all-round song; it’s another energetic summer anthem but with much more depth in the lyrics, showing a flexible songwriting talent. It’s a very chirpy take on mid-20s yearning and nostalgia for childhood, pitched on the cusp of growing up, when you’re “old enough to know better and young enough to go out without your sweater on”. ‘Yesterday In June’ is by no means a weak link either; it’s slower and more melancholy, but with a Fell City Girl-style prog build in the middle which, though ultimately a climax-free tease, adds more colour to the Alphabet Backwards palette.

The sound is rich and full, but also light and fluffy. It’s led mainly by drums, acoustic guitar and pleasingly Oxonian-accented harmony vocals, but the magic really comes with the synths, dextrous and shimmering in the manner of The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ or Stornoway’s ‘On The Rocks’ – they’d still be good songs without it, but it’s the crucial bit of extra seasoning that tips it all from good to great. This EP should make Alphabet Backwards a lot of friends. A full album of songs of this quality, in the right hands, should make Alphabet Backwards a household name.