Michou

Inevitably, Archie had to choose Veronica. Betty was a doormat. Her eagerness to please would have eventually grated on Riverdale's favourite redhead, driving him to over-the-top partying with Jughead, constant philandering and other clichéd midlife trappings. The moral of the story: earnestness and kowtowing are off-putting. Which brings us to smiley Windsor, ON outfit, Michou. The four-piece's shiny pop and emo-grade lyrics were tailor-made for 1990s teen soap operas. Obsessive compulsively clean, from an upper-register sing-along to a cloyingly chipper trumpet, the band's El Mo set was a syrupy affair that edged uncomfortably close to the uncanny valley (not quite human but a repulsively close facsimile). Incidentally, whatever happened to sad trumpeters?