September: 'Cry For You - The Album'

Pop in 2009 isn't all about the girls - Tinchy, Dizzee and Calvin are doing quite nicely, thank you very much - but it's got a definite feminine bent. Lady GaGa and La Roux's Elly Jackson are the year's biggest new stars, Florence and the Machine has the fastest-selling debut album, and hits by everyone from Pixie Lott to Agnes are dominating the airwaves. Few would claim that this is a bad thing, especially given the music industry's notoriously sexist past, but it hasn't worked out swimmingly for everyone. One victim of the trend is Swedish dance-popper September, who was recently denied a spot on the Radio 1 playlist, insider rumours would have us believe, because there was too much "lady-pop" on there already.

Such is the influence of The Nation's Favourite Radio Station that the single in question was promptly cancelled and September's UK debut has been reduced to a download-only release. This is a real shame, because Cry For You - The Album turns out to be an unexpected gem. September - Petra Marklund to her mother - has been knocking out hits in her homeland for half a decade now, and most of them appear here in what is essentially a greatest hits collection with two footnotes. One, she's recorded a couple of newbies especially for us Brits; two, most of her old Swedish singles have been scrubbed up for 2009, gaining a somewhat ironic "UK radio edit" tag in the process.

What September does isn't innovative - her music is either Eurodance at its most poppy or Europop at its most dancey, depending on your point of view - but it's certainly effective. The likes of 'Cry For You', a top five hit last year, 'Until I Die', that aborted single, and 'Satellites', which tips its cap towards the Jacksons, are club bangers that won't take no for an answer. Most of the rest comes pretty close. 'Midnight Heartache' manages to make something fresh out of its rather obvious 'Bette Davis Eyes' sample, while the string-swathed 'Flowers In The Rain' proves that September can even pull off a ballad.

Most surprisingly of all, there's a bleakness to the lyrics that belies the euphoria of the music. On one track September's "living in the wasteland of loneliness and treason"; on another she "wakes up screaming halfway through the night". Then there's this couplet from 'Cry For You' - "Since I was lonely from the start, I think the end is mine to write" - that says more about breaking up than many more credible pop songs ever did. Of course, a couple of tracks stray the wrong side of cheesy and a sense of saminess does creep in towards the end, but mostly this is thoroughly satisfying listen. More banger than clanger, Cry For You beats Cascada to the very last throb.