Song reviews

So relentlessly downbeat as to make Leonard Cohen seem like S Club 7, Jim Clement takes us on a musical journey to the oblivion that is apathy with “The Advice Song” and I suppose that makes it as much a song for today as you are likely to get. Curiously appealing, for all that.

Canadian alt rockers Still Eighteen take a shot at capitalism with the lyrics to their song “Carnivore” yet still fill the sonics up with all the power chords and take it to the bridge in a Camaro attitude that The Man likes. You will probably like it too.

“Call Me” is exactly the kind of high emotion ballad that makes the playlists of the better class of radio stations on both sides of the Atlantic these days. Does that make Sarah Klang the new Adele? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Too clever to be conventional, Secret Treehouse take the electro pop vibe and decorate it with wistful drama and the type of melodic insistence more readily associated with rock music thus making their song “Kind of Special” just that.

Those who favour a fair degree of synthetic brutality in their electronic music might well find “Imma Be” by Watgood to their taste as the song resonates with right angled dancefloor influences and chopped up samples. This song made we want to steal a Subaru.

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.