Song reviews

The return of the singer songwriter continues with Mike Evin and his song “Recovering Romantic” successfully striking out for the sentimental high ground. Now, this has been done before but his song makes a refreshing change in these days of plastic emotion and sequenced sterility.

You could almost call “Fighting Feathers” by Coco Bans a sterling sample of the electropop genre with the synthetic beats effectively counterpointed by the emotive vocals to therefore lift the oppression of sequenced repetition and allow her heart to shine through.

“Beykoz” is a curious combination of dated psychedelic influences and quirky modernity but, nonetheless, Umut Adan manages to inject more than enough spirit and hypnotic persistence into his song to make it rather compelling.

Old style and old school but there isn’t much that ElectroBluesSociety could do wrong with their cover of “Little Red Rooster” especially with Boo Boo Davis roped in to lead them along the path to blues righteousness and our listening pleasure.

Singer songwriters might not be as common as they used to be, but Roman Harris makes his mark with “The Smell of Heather” seasoning, as he does, the song with heart on his sleeve sentimentality and perhaps even a dash of better day motivation.

Indie rock from Finland might well sound much like the British variety but Pastis demonstrate that it is actually all in the song with “Around Here” resonating with unexpected energy, edgy guitars and a nice big hook to keep your ears interested.

“Breathe” is one of those songs that transcends its low key presentation and restrained musicality to capture, and indeed charm, your ears. Add in a degree of lyrical maturity and you have more than enough reason to pay attention to Hajk.

Although almost self-consciously stylish, Eulene mixes enough originality into the sequenced familiarity to make her song “Momma” a successful, if somewhat oblique, hybrid of urban and bleak synth pop influences.

Staying on the straight and narrow comes easy for Fife band Paris Street Rebels with “Freakshow” maxing out the combination of indie rock volume and post punk attitude to ear pleasing effect. Not quite angry young men but their enthusiasm is never in doubt.

Can’t say that I had heard of Marlene Oak before “Come Home” made it all the way to my ears but she clearly knows how to inject emotion into the performance of a song. It’s an old school approach but one that still holds a certain organic appeal.

Pause for a moment and consider the fate of the Glasgow singer songwriter in these EDM is everything days and duly wonder if Jamie Button’s sentimental song “Afterglow” is actually akin to a demand for the kind of yesterday that exists only in the hearts of musicians.

Occupying the hinterland between indie pop and the genre’s spiritual jingle jangle guitar roots, Norway’s I Was a King demonstrate a mature approach to the art of song making that belies both their country of origin and their limited years on the planet. “Bubble” indeed.