One for the purist retro fans with The Joshua Hotel successfully evoking memories of the super stylish synth pop sounds of the eighties. Your gran will love “Show Me Around” and there is no higher recommendation that that.
This one grew on me. The art pop influences are clearly present in Kri’s music yet it was the rather acerbic and entirely modern lyrical content that caught my interest. She doesn’t do poetry but you don’t need to when you have a point to make.
Kicking out the jams with singalong sugar on top are The Twistettes. Their song “Leaf Upon A Tree” rolls like beer and revolution are the only thing a man, woman or hamster needs to get them through the summer nights.
The Beths do their eternally endearing indie thing once more and their song “No Joy” duly bounces along on a combination of caffeinated coffee shop quirkiness and fuzzy guitars. This one makes you want a chocolate muffin.
Solid singer songwriter stuff from Margaux and she duly sweeps all the sentimentality and introspection she finds in her heart and stores it in her professionally presented song “Nothings Gonna Hurt You”. This one has solid commercial appeal.
You know its indie pop when you hear both wistful vocals and layered yet still murky guitars. Dear Boy do indie pop well and “Kelly Green” duly has little problem making its way into your affections. Especially if you wear a cardigan.
Heavily processed and sounding distinctly synthetic, “Sunshine” is nonetheless sufficiently upbeat to make you want to tap your feet. 5ON5 may have retro moves on their mind but their song isn’t stuck in the past..
An earnest pop song, “Junk Food” is catchy enough to hold the attention of your ears and Nat Dempsey does his bit with a suitably energetic vocal performance keeping those indie influences company for three minutes.
“Turquoise” tunes out to be a rather playful song with its influences drawn from the days when French pop was about as cool as you could get. Kacimi and Le SuperHomard update the sound to today but the vibe remains the same.
Delicate to the point of becoming fey, Natalie Holmes pulls together some metaphorical lyrics and some suitably wistful vocals to make “Bird Song” light enough to float amongst the clouds. A sweet and wholesome song indeed.
Josie Duncan has the kind of voice that would make you believe the world is a better place than it actually is and, with sentimentality to the fore, she duly sugar coats her song “The Wee Hours” to ensure that you want to eat it.
A rather extended and somewhat low key combination of rock moves and dancefloor beats, “Sevens” successfully shows that The Kut has more than one string to her bow. As such songs go, this one would work well on a nineties boombox.