Caught by the fuzz

You might want to think back over the last five years and consider the great pop moments. It's a fair best that amongst them will be a performance by Horowitz - a series visceral, life-changing moments when you realise that pop music can bring people together for two and half minutes. All of those brief episodes are on the new Horowitz album, 'Popkids of the World Unite!'

This record brings together Horowitz songs from 2004-2009, and the hits don't stop. Anyone with half a brain knows how great the likes of 'Tracyanne', 'Hug Target', 'Government Center', 'Drop the Hat', 'How to Look Imploring' are. Instant pop hits mainlined straight to your brain, but also real passages that stay with you forever.

Sure, Horowitz on record are nowhere near as blistering as they are live - but then all things are relative. Moments like this don't come around very often, to whimper about sound quality seems a little churlish.

it's Christmas in a few weeks. Remember when you were little and wrote lists of presents you wanted Father Christmas to bring? Well, this should be right at the top of it. In a year of glorious pop albums, 'Popkids of the World Unite!' is a fitting bookend.

'Popkids of the World Unite' is available now to pre-order on CD in a gatefold digipack with immediate digital download from Thee SPC.