Song reviews

A troubadour with pronounced country influences, Whitebeard crosses the water for his song’s title and sentimental inspiration before name checking his way around the rest of the world. He handles it all like a seasoned pro and that works just fine for my ears.

Displaying a notable maturity, Izzie Walsh walks the dustbowls of Americana once more with “Sidelined”. This is a roots festival friendly song without a doubt, but she adds enough special sauce to her musical recipe to whet your ears for more.

Despite being a song that sounds like a folk song of today, “Shame” shows that Runah has a message for today to bring to our ears rather than simply being a teller of tales told too many times already. The future will be hers if your ears will only listen.

It’s doesn’t seem right to comment upon something as sequenced as “Fractions” – by Denmark’s dark electro purveyors Sparkling – as being perfectly poised yet the balance between bleak arthouse drama and robotic rumblings means the song is nothing less than that.

Robust and muscular in the best grindhouse rock tradition, Saint Sapphire kick out the week and bring in the weekend with their song “Rule The World Tonight”. It’s a song designed to be played loud and, given that it has all the right influences, it goes well with beer too.

A rambling storyteller in the best punk poet tradition, The New Consistent takes the soap opera that is reality and gives it a name. “Petrol Station Flowers” might seem to some the words of an underachiever but we need more wilderness voices like his.

“Gravity” is oddly appealing despite its minimalist conventionality and this electro pop song unsurprisingly strikes out in a time honoured dystopian direction. Candy Says are truly a band that appreciate the irony in giving the machine a voice.

You don’t expect a Glasgow band to go genre hopping but that is exactly what HYYTS have done and “Car Crash Carnivore” resonates with both urban retro influences and literate lyrical discontent. Blessings are duly bestowed upon them.

You can’t go wrong with some energetic indie pop and, duly, Good Kid do not disappoint with their song “Slingshot”. Whilst frenetically delivered, the lyrics are rather more considered and the result has more than satisfactory substance.

There is plenty of mainstream appeal to be found within the three minutes of “Lovers” with the duo known as KEØMA pulling enough retro influences to make fans of nineties music happy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this song turn up in an advert.

Some might accuse Plotz of simply ticking all the indie pop style boxes with their song “Baby Shakes” yet the offbeat lead vocals suggest the resulting quirkiness is more affection for rather than blind adoration of the fan’s expectations of the genre. I feel the warmth.

Whilst definitely downbeat and seemingly low on positivity, “Low” by Sal The Musician is nonetheless not really a lo-fi slacker anthem as the song takes an inspirational turn towards the end. The song could do with more musical polish but his heart is in his words.