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Music is a very subjective thing and so it is hard to say something is 'good' music without adding what that really means is that it is good for me. I had assumed for quite some years that the fact I regarded almost all the popular music I heard on the radio or TV as dismal crap was more indicative that I had reached a certain age where I was just perminently out of phase with younger tastes, rather than some sudden collective inability of the modern pop music industry to be creative... No, it had to be me. Maybe 10 years ago there was a narrow tributary off the seething mainstream that I could swim in musically, but that was clearly no longer the case.

Well, maybe not. Whilst wandering past the Virgin Megastore on the King's Road in Chelsea yesterday I heard what sounded like a rather danceable bit of vaguely sinister pop/darkwave/electronica that sucked me into the shop irresistibly.

Upon asking at the desk what was being played, I was surprised to discover it was a track called Vertigo (extended mix), which is a remix of bubblegum popstress par excellence Holly Valance's latest song 'State of Mind' on a CD EP single. It sounds like Siouxsie & The Banshees (think 'cities in dust') being morphed with Kylie at her most virally and annoyingly catchy… yeah, yeah, I know… hard to imagine. I bought the extended play CD single and slunk out into the street worrying about the state of my 'cred'… and have been unable to stop playing it since.

Anyway, I guess it is nice to know that, circa 2003, a teen singer in a tiny skirt can front something that brings a pleasing snarl even to the lips of a doomed and jaded old geezer such as myself… plus I rather liked the delightfully arrogant and essentially meaningless video for 'State of Mind' on the CD. Ah the joys of Western civilisation.

Holly does darkwave, sort of... and surprisingly well