Song reviews

Almost post punk in intent yet imbued with rather more in the way of style, Deleo demonstrate that they can make a song work as more than mere entertainment. “Assholes and Ashes” has all the attitude it needs to prove that.

Delicate female vocals lead “We All Deserve to Be Beautiful” over a landscape of loops and laconic lyrics which, most likely, have more meaning than purpose. The art is strong in Arc Iris so the cool kids will like this one a lot.

Eriika neatly ploughs the retro synth pop groove with her song “Public Bathroom” but there is, fortunately, more to her than reincarnating the styles of yesterday and her words are worthy of a listen if those loops don’t do it for you.

ABS draws heavily on those time honoured urban beats as many have done before yet her words have a lot more than the expected depth and “Hunting Season” duly presents a commentary on today and can therefore be considered fresh.

Funny how when your hear some songs, you think you have heard them before. “Memories of Fall” is such a song and The Melody Chamber sound like they have fallen out of a time bubble when indie pop and post punk coexisted.

Lighter and fluffier than your average cloud, “Angels Are Crying” shows that Flora Smith can deliver a song that is of the heart, for the heart and from the heart. I don’t usually get sentimental but, if I were to do so, this would be my soundtrack.

NATI walks the commercial path once more with her song “Joan”. She’s in fine voice and her words show a notable degree of maturity in both content and emotion and she duly has little trouble rising above the heavy handed production.

I don’t suppose Samfire cares much for conventionality as “Fishtank” is most definitely on the arty side of the pop megasphere. That said, she throws enough drama into all that she does to make it all work out in the end. A sudden end at that.

Fitting right into the expectations of the pop genre of today is Alexis and her song “Hate It Here” duly delivers square peg in a round hole lyrics on top of a looped to the beat production that has been polished to a shine. Radio play is likely for this one.

Sunny Luwe has the kind of confidence in her voice that makes you want to keep listening and “It Won’t Be Long Til I See You Again” gives her a valid vehicle to take you on a journey to the bridge of dreams. That works for me.

Presumably an exercise in style, “Burns” sounds about as moody as a song about obsession could likely get and Tralalas adds his gravelly voice to the mix and duly makes this song sound like the soundtrack to madness.

“Maraschino” is a fine example of a hard edged commercial song that has more purpose than to sell something for somebody else. Arabella and The Heist crank up the volume right up and make it mandatory to listen.