Song reviews

Providing us with something akin to an antidote to the usual avalanche of Christmas sentimentality, Sofia Talvik applies her poetic abilities to tell a parallel story of survival that puts the festive season into its proper perspective.

It’s getting to be a lot like Christmas, as they say, and “Immanuel” is indeed a Christmas song in the best Christian tradition and Ruth Campbell’s gloriously pure voice makes all that spiritually sweetened sentimentality perfectly palatable.

With piano to the fore and introspection inspiring his lyrics, Vara takes his song “My Lighter Weight” for a casually paced stroll down downbeat street with melancholy in pursuit. Bleak, sparse and rather effective.

The redoubtable Dropkick return with “Primary Colours” and they once again plough their preferred furrow of jingle jangle pop just like the world used to love back in the day. Polished and decorated with harmony, this song is easy on the ear

Retro electronica works for me and “Do You Want Me” by Australian duo Pines is precisely that. Elements of the dancefloor are present but sequenced with soundtrack style swooping through the sound banks for best sonic effect.

Some songs just have mist woven through them and Carolina Lee have little difficulty using said mist to turn their song “If I Try” into a wistful, and rather effective, take on viewing sentiment through the windows of a time machine.

I have to admit to liking the almost cutesy theatricality of Sohodolls and “Thread” duly sounds like the work of the villain in a stage play about falling victim to the cartoon demons of the past in the basement of a musician’s house.

You can take the man out of the blues but you can’t take the blues out of the man and, with a touch of irony, “The Blues Ain’t What It’s All Cracked Up To Be” gives David Perry the opportunity to reflect on all that was. Traditional but true.

You can’t get more lo-fi than recording on to a genuine wax cylinder and The Winter Journey do just that with the words of their song “Little Consolation” duly resonating as if they were sung by reincarnations of lost voices from the past.

Rolling down the singer songwriter road like a man with something in his heart and a song in his head, Scott Park uses melody and a lot of guitars to give “Fly Up” all this song needs for it to end up glued to your normally fatigued ears.

There’s plenty of that nineties retro sound to be found in “Oh, Love” by Echo Riders and their relentlessly upbeat approach towards taking it to the dancefloor loops around you just like it did when rhythm was the dancer.

If you keep thinking that it could happen to you then “Too Much Too Soon” by QUAD90 might well be a welcome addition to your personal soundtrack with convincing female vocals making you want to see the strobe lights in the night again.