Van She - Idea Of Happiness

If Sydney’s Van She’s second album is an attempt to reflect the climate of their hometown, then the electropop foursome have outdone themselves. ‘Idea Of Happiness’ is a relentlessly, resolutely sunkissed cruise through a midsummer night’s dream of synth pop Utopia. It’s also a bit cringeworthy in places – but maybe that’s the point?

Van She are unquestionably an efficient, well-oiled synth machine. Nary a note, noise or nod to the 80s is out of place. Even the songtitles leave little room for manoeuvre – ‘You’re My Rescue’, ‘Calypso’, ‘Tears’. ‘Coconuts’ could be a Toto instrumental and the spectre of Wham! is never far from view – in fact, the entire album is positively drenched in Club Tropicana opulence. ‘Beat Of The Drum’ is a shameless Human League pastiche although is a little too smooth to match the cold heart of Sheffield’s finest.

The nature of ‘Idea Of Happiness’ ensures that all cynicism needs to be checked in order to enjoy even a smidgen of the album. If anything, the twelve cuts are primed to become wide-eyed club anthems, Tropicalia for the twenty-first century. And if Van She ‘feel Calypso’, who are we to judge them? This album is dizzyingly uplifting, as camp as a weekend at Butlins and effortlessly iridescent.