Song reviews

“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,

The Howlers are back on the red meat diet and “Viper” once more takes the band on a walk down the guitar driven indie rock version of the yellow brick road. Just the thing if you crank the volume up a bit with a can of lager in your other hand,

There is strength in Mathilde Widding’s bones and that strength manifests itself on her song “Burning Pockets of Love”. Delivered with real emotional power, this song shows what she can do when she hits her groove.

Diva Duke, it says here, are from Belgium yet they sound more American than you might expect. “Again” ticks all the right rock style boxes with the guitars and the female vocals sounding convincingly energetic

Can songs sound intellectual? “Hur blev det såhär” certainly sounds intellectual and emotionally meaningful but I would suppose that is how Peter Nordberg’s usually rolls with his rather intense music.

White Birches mix the mystical and the ethereal into their song “Solace” with the result making you feel better than you when you started listening. Maybe that is something magical or maybe it is just what music can do. Either way, it works.

“Little Things” is an energetic song that starts off sounding a bit like brit pop that has been fed on red meat before a tempo shift into lower gear and a return for the high speed big finish establishes Canned Pineapple’s artistic credibility.