At First – Alexia Vegas (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

At First, the new one from Alexia Vegas is lots of things – infectious pop, a gently effervescent dance groover, an instantaneous and accessible, chart-friendly song – but more than anything else, it proves that pop music doesn’t have to let the standards slide. It reminds us that in a world of dance routines and guest rappers, off-the-shelf beat patterns and predictable musical moves, there are still artists who understand that pop can be sophisticated, seductive, soulful and scintillating.

And so it is here. At First might be music aimed squarely at the mainstream, but it is also revelatory in its way for the hight of the sonic benchmarks that it sets for itself, benchmarks that mean that this isn’t just more of the same old, same old. Far from it.

Running on pulsing digital beats and bass lines, it has a poise and polish that you expect from the more mature end of the pop world. For sure, but there is also a deftness and delicacy at work here that leans the song slightly towards more ambient and creative dream-pop territories. And it is this marriage of the obvious and the obscure, the mainstream and the more measured, the catchy and the ornate, the popular and the more discerning that means that not only will such a song find favour with the usual pop-pickers, but it will also be a hit with those who look beyond the usual, chart and radio playlists for their musical fix too.