Song reviews

It’s not been a week for uplifting songs with Eden Mulholland’s “Wild Animal” adding a dash of nihilism to his neo folk influences and duly taking his song on a leisurely paced journey through uncertainty and shadows.

I suppose it is a sign of the times that happy songs are becoming something of a rarity and it is therefore no surprise that “Run Out” by Nina Smith is another slice of well crafted bleakness that echoes the lack of joy in life today.

Drifting and downbeat, Frøkedal neatly updates the fey folk-rock sound for the listeners of today whilst adding her own poetic viewpoint. “David” is duly hypnotic and jingle jangle at the same time and that works just fine for me.

A rather splendid mix of angst and muscle power, “Double Down” has more than enough substance and street smarts to escape from late night radio and make you run all the red lights on the way to nowhere. Slothrust could well be cool!

“The Waiting Room” may indeed be predictable fare for an up and coming sensitive singer songwriter but Taylor Janzen has literacy on here side and she duly gifts her song with honesty and the potential to be the soundtrack to a montage on one of the better television shows.

“The Flood” is a modern day torch song lost forever between the murkiness of a distant piano and the smoky torment of Koschka’s voice. I drift therefore I am Koschka and there is no colour in my world and, yes, downbeat drama does it for me every time.

Paola Bennet has the courage to leave some space around her words thus making her song “Desert Sky” seem a song about space than a song that fits in a space with her voice adding enough mainstream appeal to get her a place on the bus to Nashville.

A rather angular example of what the better Glasgow bands are producing these days, “The Nightmares Leave Us All Inoperational” by Verse Metrics reeks equally of arthouse pretension and intellectual indie intentions. Ponder at your peril.

Everything about this song screams of distortion yet it is that very distortion that makes Fime’s “Hover Hand” more of an anthem to Cobain style guitar powered alienation than an attempt to find their own friendly ears outside of their LA turf.

Maybe it is just all this sunshine we have been having recently but “In The Night” by Canadian synth rock band Favours reeks of druggy influences and, as it drifts along, it rapidly becomes the soundtrack to a trip. Far out!

It is not often these days that a song can be called wholesome yet that is the best word to describe “Fingerprints” by Annie Bonsignore with the song being, of course, a dramatic piano led ballad peppered with spiritual metaphors. Wholesome it is, then.

You can’t go wrong with an excess of retro reverb and The Purrs are the proof with their song “Late Night Disturbance” tripping in from a time long gone. Tune in, trip out and make sure that The Man takes the blame for it all. Spark me, baby!