Icona Pop, XOYO - music review

Swedish duo Icona Pop were responsible for the huge summer hit I Love It, a nihilistic chart topper with its "I don't care!" refrain that dogged me during an Italian holiday.

While their frantic pop precision might get a little wearing on record, Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo made an enjoyably artless double act on stage.

Ahead of next month’s debut album, they showed off a sleek, less angry dance-pop sound that targets the US market. Yet there was still a giddy sense of abandon during In the Stars, the pair leaping around in their rubbery, monochrome dresses like friends getting ready for a night out.

It was an efficient operation, the duo singing, dancing and teasing, belching electronic effects from behind a console that looked like a Seventies sci-fi film prop.

Their slick female solidarity anthem Girlfriend, performed arm in arm, may have lacked the experimental intrigue of 2011 track Manners. But even when resembling Katy Perry on thumping new single All Night, Icona Pop still had an egalitarian edge their starry US rivals lack. It’s certainly hard to imagine Perry playing a wheezing kazoo, as Hjelt did on Then We Kiss.

A few fans were pulled on stage for the inevitable encore of I Love It, a shouty singalong only slightly spoiled by the officious security guard who clearly didn’t love it.