Song reviews

A reflection on the protest movement of a time gone by if my French is up to translating Pierre Emberger’s intentions correctly, “You Know It’s Not Over” plays out like a spirited middle of the road song that it should be.

“Jolene” is a thoroughly modern pop song with both solid beats and words replete with attitude. It is to Natii’s credit that she manages to make her song work without becoming a mere reflection of someone else.

You can’t say anything other than that FO Machete follow their own path with glee, determination and guitars. Add in some oddly girlish vocals and some off the wall lyrics and “Sleeper Cell” hits the mark square on.

You don’t more gloriously upbeat than Prisoner with their energetic reinvention of that retro garage rock sound filling my ears with ready and willing female vocals, guitar and organ. They are French, by the way, so they do what they do with style.

Another song overflowing with what the old folks might call a bad attitude, “Miss Ego” also has the riffing guitars to match while the feisty Kit Major stands out front and emotes her message of non-compliance with no small degree of spirit.

So downbeat this song could even had ended up as a country song or a murder ballad, “Monster” juxtaposes some rather hard hitting lyrics with musical influences that cross the ocean and decades of time. Interesting.

“New Museum” is an endearingly quirky song. Of that there is no doubt and it does Maniac Maison’s musical credibility no harm whatsoever to ramble amiably across genres with their sights aimed at the adventurous listener.

Bunnyblack are considerably more bleak than bouncy with their song “Eat Me”looping 8 bit minimalism into their darkwave coat of one colour and that colour, as all the vampires already know, is black. It’s into the night once more.

Upbeat to the point of being festival friendly, Copper Lungs hit the road to commercial success with “Sweet Temptation” and, with all those indie rock moves taking the song to the bridge, it is not hard to imagine this one keeping an advert company.

“Break The Machine” is long form rock in the traditional manner from Bastion Rose with the requisite powerhouse vocals and guitar riffs taking the song for an, almost melodramatic, stroll down the street of musical purpose.

Staying right in the middle of the road are Monday’s Monsoon yet, despite taking few musical chances during their song “Something New”, their mastery of mixing melody and melancholy makes this one distinctly listenable.

Dagny takes a style pill and lets “Closet Disco Queen” out to do its thing on the dancefloor. The loops and the retro Madonna feel are present and correct but so is a certain ironic quality that this song more than the sum of its synthetic parts,