8 / 10
In their longships they came to destroy Western civilisation - THE VIKINGS!
Ace Of Base were sold to us as 'Abba 2000' but were in fact a well dodgy Scandinavian white reggae band, one of whose members was a former neo-Nazi. And they were brilliant! Killer single after killer single and then one day - POOF - they were gone and never heard or seen ever again. Spooky.
Their formula was simple, brutal and devastatingly effective. A Dave Clark Five-style 4/4 cod reggae beat with a Euro-disco synth going "noodle noodle". Genius! And on top of that we got a woman with an utterly emotionless but strangely seductive voice delivering lines that were, well, just wrong.
"All that she wants is another baby", she sang on the all-time pop classic 'All That She Wants' - a song that has absolutely nothing to do with pregnancy. "It's a day for catching tan", she sang and who could possibly forget, "She's the hunter, you're the fox"? Awesome.
We also get 'Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry', 'Don't Turn Around', 'Love In December', 'Hallo Hallo' and the fucking amazing 'The Sign'. Go on, show some taste. Sell all those shit indie albums and use the money to buy this instead.
NEW! For the latest music videos and backstage interviews, check out our brand new sister site, NME Video.
Comments do not always reflect the views of NME, or IPC Media, for guidelines visit our Ts & Cs page