"Holiday," the lead track from the Swedish duo
Tough Alliance's second single, is a revelation, a pure blast of electronic indie pop joy that should be blasting out of radios, TVs and Ipods around the world. The label's promo sheet describes the song as a cross between the
Oasis classic "Wonderwall," Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You" and
Usher's "Yeah" and while you can usually take that kind of nonsense with a ten gallon hat's worth of salt, here it makes some kind of sense. The music is skittering, electro beats with sweet layers of disco strings and wild electronics thrown on top, the vocals are gob smacked and blissful. Probably more "Come Together" (by
Primal Scream) than "Wonderwall" but still very ecstatic. For sure
Primal Scream is on their minds as the single also contains a short and, in the wake of what has preceded it, throw-away cover of their "Velocity Girl" (here re-titled "Velocity Boy"). The other track on the single is "Pole Position," a minute-long collage of trippy waves of synths, hazy vocals and bells. It sounds like the intro to a great song which never starts. Maybe it will be on their full-length. Swedish pop whiz kids Eric and Henning should be riding "Holiday" to the very top of the world, more likely it will only be heard by loads of lucky Swedes and very few others. You should do all that you can to be one of them, this song is that good. ~ Tim Sendra