PC Music: the future of pop or 'contemptuous parody'? Read more

PC Music first presented its ridiculously saccharine and relentlessly weird dance-pop to the world three years ago, and were greeted with a mixture of fervour, revulsion and skepticism: was it a deliberately crap parody or digital music taken to bracing new extremes? It never quite disrupted the mainstream, but has made inroads into proper pop through collaborations with artists such as Carly Rae Jepsen and Charli XCX. Now, with the hype muted, this second compilation provides an opportunity to appreciate the music on its own terms – and it feels more beautiful and progressive than ever before.

Highlights include Hannah Diamond and her slickly plaintive musings on online life, GFOTY introducing nu-rave and industrial influences into the PC universe, and head honcho AG Cook’s sublime postmodern pop song Superstar.

The latter, which balances on a knife’s edge between sincerity and pastiche, is proof that Cook and his gang are the cleverest, most thoughtful people in British pop.