Crash! Bang! Wallop! What an application!
Alan Partridge creators Baby Cow have hit the back of the net with a new app, designed to make it feel as if Steve Coogan's iconic comedy DJ is playing your songs on his North Norfolk Digital radio show.
'Radio Alan' is a bargain-basement priced, catchphrase-tastic app which inserts clips of Alan broadcasting on the radio in between your songs -- pray silence please, for comedy.
If any of your tracks match up with songs 'Alan' recognises, the app will comment specifically on that music ('Keep your clubs away from his young, it's Seal!' And so on).
You can also ask it to rate your music library, only earning a precious stamp of Alan Approval - a digital tie-and-blazer pack, if you will - when enough songs match his favourites playlist. So, Wings? They’re only the band the Beatles could have been. Annie Lennox? A beautiful man with a lovely voice. You get the idea. You've got to keep the energy up.
In-app purchases include a 'Partridge Playlist' which lists Alan's favourite tracks, and directs you to buy them in the iTunes store.
Additional audio clips are also available as another in-app purchase, so the whole experience doesn't become to mind-achingly repetitive - it's revolution, not evolution. Or the other way around.
So is it any good? Or - we'll rephrase the question. Can we… no, actually, we'll just repeat the question: is it any good?
Well the app has been released "to coincide" with the release of Alpha Papa later this week, so it does have the feel of a movie tie-in about it. And the presence of in-app purchases for more Alan clips you probably own on VHS, Blu Ray and Audiobook are also a bit galling.
But it also looks a pretty fun experience for superfans and those with a giant Alan face tattooed on their chest. And it will sound great on those supplementary, auxiliary speakers you bought to go with your midi Hi-Fi system.
Radio Alan costs 99p on the iTunes store. And a special prize to whoever can count all the Alan references in the above article.