Danish cool kids Alphabeat pay tribute to the 1987 movie Innerspace in their new video ‘Hole In My Heart‘. Stine is inside Anders SG’s body and in the end destroys his heart…

The single is out on February 22nd, while parent album ‘The Spell’ finally gets a UK release on March 1st.

WAPS’ kitty has been crawling the web to report on his most anticipated albums of 2010. And here they are…

First up will be Ke$ha, releasing her debut ‘Animal’ on January 5th (US) / 11th (UK) [WAPS]

Toni Braxton’s much delayed new album has been slated for a release in February [Toni Braxton]

Alphabeat were supposed to release their second album ‘The Spell‘ in October 2009 but this has been pushed back to 2010

After a bad year, let’s hope the Sugababes will have more luck in 2010 with Sweet 7 scheduled for March 8th [Sugababes forum]

Kylie Minogue is expected to release her it’s not a comeback album in March and has been working with Stuart Price among others.

Kylie is not the only one getting help from Mr Price – Scissor Sisters are expected to release their 3rd studio album in March [Popjustice]

Electro darlings Goldfrapp are coming back with a poppier album than 2008’s ‘Seventh Tree’. Entitled ‘Head First‘, it’s due in March [Goldfrapp]

After the lacklustre success of ‘Fantasy Ride’ Ciara went straight back into the studio, working with Darkchild. [Ace Showbiz]

Christina Aguilera has been working on her ‘Light and Darkness’ album for ages. It’s about time she released the thing. [Prefix Mag]

Nelly Furtado is expected to release her new English album May 25th [Best Damn Blog]

Britney Spears will supposedly be back with a new album in June [Gimme Britney]

The hardest working girl in the business, Lady GaGa, has been talking about releasing her third album sometime in 2010 [Prophet Blog]

And here are some others we’re not anticipating quite so much: Diana Vickers, Lil Wayne and Usher. Why not let us know who you are looking forward to in 2010?

It’s been a busy year in pop, and WAPS has been delighted to guide you through it!

Looking back over our articles prompted us to compile a rundown of 2009’s best pop songs – you know, because there really aren’t enough lists flying around at the moment…and with this in mind, we whittled a shortlist of almost 200 tracks down to 50. There were arguments, believe us, but here they are.

We hope you’ll agree that our selection represents the year in pop rather well, and we apologise if your favourite song or artist fell by the wayside. The list is presented in alphabetical order by artist because we think each track is equally important (not very scientific, but there you go.)

Finally, to celebrate our Top 50, Nokia Music have generously supplied us with two vouchers – worth 50 songs each! – which we are giving away to two lucky readers (one per winner). If you’re a winner you could download our entire Top 50 from the Nokia music store – or 50 entirely different tracks, the choice is yours!

To be in with a chance of winning*, all you have to do is leave a comment telling us your favourite track of 2009 and why you love it. The winners will be selected at random.

* Nokia Music Store is only supported on PC with Internet Explorer. Prize draw open only to UK residents. Competition closes at 31st December 2009. Terms and conditions apply.

	Alexandra Burke ft Flo Rida – Bad Boys With the public behind her and celebrity backing from Beyonce, X Factor 2008 winner Alexandra Burke couldn’t go wrong with her first ‘proper’ single, ‘Bad Boys’ -and yet for some curious reason Flo Rida was roped in for a cameo. If you’re reading, Flo, she’s not called Alexander. Mispronunciation-issues aside, ‘Bad Boys’ was a pop song you couldn’t help but bounce along to. Swanky video, too.
	Alphabeat – The Spell Exuberant Danish pop group Alphabeat bounced back from label limbo with their strongest single to date. ‘The Spell‘ was an irresistible take on early 90s dance acts such as Black Box and Snap, but sadly failed to translate into mega chart succes
	Beyonce – Halo Although ‘Halo‘ pretty much marked the point that Ryan ‘One Republic’ Tedder’s sound became overly familiar to the world and his wife, nobody minded because the sound was coming from Beyonce. Emotional pop of the highest order.
	Beyonce – Sweet Dreams A ferocious slab of electropop that showed Beyonce – sorry Sasha Fierce – at her most deadly. Ms Knowles stole the show with her rendition of this single at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards.
	Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow WAPS declared BEP’s ‘Boom Boom Pow‘ almost unlistenable the first time round, yet by the end of the summer it was rarely off our ipods. A bizarre dancefest of epic proportions that kickstarted six months of world domination from the Peas.
	Britney Spears – 3 An odd year for Britney – her ‘Circus’ tour ran to 97 dates and made millions, while its star released a series of increasingly lackluster singles that she failed to promote. ‘3‘ was the only new one, and was intended to showcase her frankly unnecessary ‘Singles Collection’. The pervy ode to threesomes divided fans, but WAPS loved it.
	Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone Scottish producer/electro-bod Calvin Harris was unavoidable in 2009, and unfortunately so were his vocals – but his refusal to hire a guest vocalist didn’t stop ‘I’m Not Alone’ from storming to the top. His mega-wacky Jedward stage-invasion, however, may yet become his defining career moment. D’oh.
	Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love What is there to say about Cheryl Cole that you haven’t heard already? How about: ‘Fight For This Love‘ is actually brilliant and deserved to be a number one smash. It also resulted in one of the best X Factor performances of the year. Shame her album’s a bit ropey, but hasn’t she got lovely hair?

(more…)

Give It Up To Me - the second single in the US

Someone other than Alphabeat also seems to have been studying 90s dance act Snap – parts of Shakira’s ‘Give It Up To Me’ video look so retro it makes us want to break out our best ‘big box, little box’ moves… classy. We love the dance routine though.

‘Give It Up To Me’ is the second US single from ‘She Wolf’, though the track does not appear on the international edition of the album.

Alphabeat will release their new album 'The Spell' November 2nd

Forget about eighties-inspired synth pop, it’s all about the nineties darling! Glowstick, glowstick, glowstick. No, seriously, get your glowsticks out!

Sorry, we got a bit carried away, but, we’re not alone; Alphabeat is declaring their love for 90s dance music with their excellent new single ‘The Spell‘ (out 12th October), and to make it even more special, they’ve just dropped off a slick 30 minute mixtape that is, in their own words:

“a quirky combination of music of their own, mashed together with some modern classics and accompanied by a set of the catchiest beats you ever did hear”.

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• Click here to download the full 30 minute mix in MP3 format.