Prismophonic - Christophe Willem Pop Album of 2011

This Monday sees the release of the pop album of the year. Prismophonic by Christophe Willem. Combining the electronic strands of Kylie Minogue’s Aphrodite with the bolds of neon fragility of Robyn’s Body Talk, Christophe Willem has delivered a collection of songs that go to the core of why I love pop music. Prismophonic is the pop album of 2011.

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Starlite 10/10

(Zaho / Richard Stannard - James Wiltshire - Russell Small - Amanda Wilson - Tom Kent - Hawk Wolinski)

Poppers-o-clock alert! Where the hell did I put that glowstick! This includes a sample of Ain’t Nobody by Chaka. And it totally works. Starlite features the production lines of Freemasons and you can feel their magic sparkle over the anthem in the waiting. Christophe doesn’t mess with a club classic in the way Cher Lloyd abused Buffalo Stance. Rather, this is one mighty tribute to the genre of sound that courses through the album like a river that has broke its banks. Pure electro heaven. Put this song on, Pass the poppers, let the muscles expand, get onto the podium, take centre stage and dance.

Cool 3/10

(Franck Deweare / Jean-Pierre Pilot - William Rousseau - Olivier Schultheis)

After the sublime high of Starlite, Cool appears like an unsightly stain on diamond encrusted disco hotpants. Moreover, when placed next to the other pop anthems that follow Cool screams everything but its title suggests. Sorry. Maybe it's a grower not a shower.

Le temps qu'il reste 10/10

(Zaho / Steve Anderson - Karen Poole)

Absolutely stunning. With the exception of Cool, the album suddenly emerges as a love letter to London’s club world and its sparkling nightlife. Herein, the throbbing baselines wrap around a breathtaking classical string arrangement. Delicious. This is an opus.

Si mes larmes tombent 10/10

(Zaho / Steve Anderson - Karen Poole)

There are two brilliant dance-pop albums of the last ten years that I hold close to my heart. One being Light Years by Kylie Minogue and the other is Robyn’s self-titled album that contained the hits Be Mine and With every heartbeat. Both Kylie & Robyn also included ballads in amongst the pop-club epics. The stunning Bittersweet Goodbye and chilling Eclipse. Si Mes Larmes Tombent is now a member of that club. Breathtaking.

Indélébile – 7/10

(Zaho / Phil Greiss)

This only suffers from one thing: it takes sometime to take flight and as that Swedish pop royal duet once opined ‘don’t bore us get to the chorus’. Next to the love letters to London’s club scene, Indélébile is the albums only rnb moment.

Jamais Dû 11/10

(Zaho – Christophe Willem / Steve Anderson – Jamie Hartman – Tina Harris)

WOW. This is like putting on a really nice moisturizer and then feeling the softness of the skin the day afterwards. Or that breezy feeling when jetlag has lifted and you're at your destination. And the sun rises above the clouds. Body clock tells ya, you're still in the mess of London, but the warmth on the skin tells you you're miles away. Watching the sun rise over the sea with the closest of friends. You've left the streets of London and now your feet are in between the warm sands of some far away place as the hot sea lashes the shore. One of the finest pop songs of the year. By the way, love the organ in the middle eight. Altogether absolutely amazing.

Ennemis In L.O.V.E 9/10

(Zaho / Steve Anderson - Karen Poole)

Time to get funky! Madonna would kill for a song like this on her new album. It is drenched in pop brilliance. At every turn, Prismophonic offers trinkets of creamy pop which bolt into the sky soaring above recent efforts by Lady Gaga, Parade, The Saturdays and Katy Perry.

Automatik 11/10

(Zaho / Joakim Olovsson – Björn Olovsson - Isabel Guzman - Pär Andreas)

Check those credits people! Its Isabel Guzman! Of Love Song, Kill The Boy and Mysterious! Straight from Sweden, this is made for the dancefloors of London Another song Madonna would start a killing spree to have on her album. This so bombastic, it catapults itself into a place of pop brilliance and consumes the aural passages with delirious dancetastic pleasure. Automatik also includes one of the finest middle eight of the last twelve months so much so that the inner organs have found their dancing boots and are on the guestlist of Fabric by the time the song is over. Pure pop perfection.

Pas si loin 10/10

(Zaho / Kylie Minogue - Richard Stannard - Ash Howes - Carl Ryden - Seton Daunt)

How does one follow a song like Automatik & written by Isabel Guzman. Steve Anderson (the albums producer) and Christophe invite one Kylie Minogue and pop legend Richard Stannard to the Prismophonic party. With touches of Fever, Give It To Me & Aphrodite, Pas Si Loin is the icing on the cake if the cake was a drug called pop. Yummy.

Je rejoins la scène 10/10

(Christophe Willem / Steve Anderson - Lisa Greene)

I love Lisa Greene. Along with the Elouise album, I can’t wait for her album. Lisa and Steve have wrote some of my favourite songs for popstars together (Breathe On Me by Britney for example). The collaboration of the two with Christophe repeats the wonderment first realized in songs like Breathe On Me, Dentro Me, Hypnotic, Roll Over and State Of Grace. At first, Je rejoins la scène starts of small but by the end it comes out of its closet and sparkles like a firework. Its only a return visit to the song that it emerges as a throb that emerges into one permanent climax perpetually erupting into pop deliverance. Constantly stunning.

L'amour me gagne 11/10

(Christophe Willem / Richard X - Hannah Robinson)

Written by Richard X and pop pioneer Hannah Robinson, L'amour me gagne slides in-between the dark nightclubs of Berlin and the neon-lit corridors of East London. Here we have a type of song that Jake Shears would pant for. This is the lovechild of George Michael’s Fastlove and Star People layered with the spunky dna of trance hits by Infernal such as From Paris To Berlin. Glorious

Falling 11/10

(Christophe Willem / Sarah deCourcy - Steve Reed)

Absolutely fucking speechless. If it was ever possible to capture the beauty of a falling snowflake via sound without it ever melting away Falling does so. Written by Sarah DeCourcy and Steve Reed, Falling underscores why, for me, Prismophonic is the pop album of 2011. Yes, Coldplay are amazing writers and Fix You is a brilliant song but Falling runs circles around Fix You and still manages to feel so at home on an album that also contains songs written by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Isabel Guzman and Richard X. It simply seals the deal. Punctures through the need for classification, alienation and correlation. Epic.

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There has not been album quite like this released in 2011. Darren Hayes has tried his utter best to deliver an album of this quality and strength throughout his career but always comes off incredibly pretentious. Christophe Willem avoids such pitfalls and remains firmly rooted in the objective of delivering bloody good pop music. This is also an album that I could also see doing really well here in UK but also in Germany and Spain who’ll slurp up the buckets of delicious creamy pop in their droves. Excellent pop music with only one aim: to get the listener to hit instant replay once its over.