Song reviews

Symphonic metal has always been a source of great amusement to me and this melodramatic and thoroughly stylised song by Belarus band Kliodna does not disappoint with the splendidly theatrical female vocals and cascading guitars allowing "Inside Out" to tick all the right genre boxes.

A band that has been around for as long as Fujiya & Miyagi have will have learned a thing or two about keeping a song on track and it is no surprise that the sequenced electro beats and ironic vocal stylings that decorate “Flashback” do just that. To the toy box!

Striking a balance between the past and the present is no easy musical task so credit is due to folk band Velvet & Stone for neatly balancing the fiddles and feelings of the past with the solid rhythms that the festival audience of today demand. “Oh Boy” enchants!

Staying well away from surprise territory, Weston Smith strolls rather awkwardly through his series of readily recognised sequenced loops. Curiously, the song’s presentational imperfections give it rather more appeal than you might think.

I suspect that “Elevated” by Lavigne will be classed as a “banging choon” by Nissan GT-R owners everywhere but the solid rhythms and emotional vocals give the song a life outside the drifting and dancing arenas.

Ryan Valentine’s confident voice provides much of the sonic appeal of his song “Under A Spell” and lends it more than enough gravitas to guarantee what used to be called radio airplay. A song with commercial appeal, undoubtedly.

I like it when a song doesn’t quite fit into any of the modern day expectations and “Green Eyed Moron” duly avoids pigeonholing with the blues guitar and Vilma Flood’s bad girl attitude taking us on a walk down the wrong side of the road to quirky town.

It might not be clever or catchy but “Heaving” by Melbourne rock trio KOTA has the powerhouse riffs and basic honesty to encourage inadvisable beer consumption and cause the older generation to time travel their heads back to the weightier days of the seventies.

Although I can see the potential in Bianca Bazin’s voice, “Heartbroken Fool” still seems like a box ticking exercise in making a plastic pop song for these identikit times. She needs a producer with some fresh musical ideas.

Electro pop gets trendy again and, with the emphasis on exorcising those retro analogue sounds, Kap Bambino use “Forever” to blast the ears of the coffee shop crowd with enough dystopian distortion to give them caffeine powered nightmares. Light me!

I nearly thought that “Awarewolf” was going to be some sort of country song but, instead, the guitars took the song off on a rather different, almost post rock, journey into the psyche. That makes Ferri and The Fevers are worthy of a listen.

Some might regard “9 -5” as practically a textbook case of how to stay within the boundaries of the modern day processed pop song yet TAPES nonetheless have a notable appeal as neither melody nor musical extemporisation has been forgotten in their search for chart success. Bravo!