Song reviews

You can’t get more lo-fi than recording on to a genuine wax cylinder and The Winter Journey do just that with the words of their song “Little Consolation” duly resonating as if they were sung by reincarnations of lost voices from the past.

Rolling down the singer songwriter road like a man with something in his heart and a song in his head, Scott Park uses melody and a lot of guitars to give “Fly Up” all this song needs for it to end up glued to your normally fatigued ears.

There’s plenty of that nineties retro sound to be found in “Oh, Love” by Echo Riders and their relentlessly upbeat approach towards taking it to the dancefloor loops around you just like it did when rhythm was the dancer.

If you keep thinking that it could happen to you then “Too Much Too Soon” by QUAD90 might well be a welcome addition to your personal soundtrack with convincing female vocals making you want to see the strobe lights in the night again.

A song of the city, Vanarin’s “My Circle” is as artificially enhanced as a song gets these days yet I reckon the cool kids will take a positive viewpoint on the song’s quirky approach to looping around the block before fading into the distance.

Some songs seem destined to make you feel all warm and cosy and “Flowers Grow In The Saddest Parts” is one such song. Silver Lake - Marleen Hoebe and Jesse Koch – add the sunshine that takes away the shadows in your day.

Flora Smith smoothly mixes intimacy into her song “Thinking Of You” with all the poise and precision that singer songwriters had back in the days when mainstream was the place to be. In other words, this song is really rather elegant.

Pleasing complex in execution, “Running” plays out with all the hallmarks of an intelligent pop song with Fredrik Svabø’s hand always steady on the tiller. Classy vocals from Thea Wang fit right into the song and make it soar.

Peter Nordberg mastery of mixing moody melancholy with laconically delivered lyrics is always evident in his song “Run”. Maturity is much in evidence here and this song will undoubtedly be added to the more discerning Spotify playlists.

Somewhat murky in the matter of lyrical intent, NNancy then uses as almost theatrical tempo shift to jump her song “Murder On My Mind” from the shadows to the dancefloor. The cool kids will like this one.

For a minute I thought I was going to dislike “Skeletor” by F.O. Machete but the supersoft vocals and cinematic swoop of the song convinced me that this band were more than capable of successfully mixing the enigmatic with mystical enchantment.

Peter Capaldi goes for retro eccentricity with his song “Is It Today”. Half sung and all drowned in reverb, he takes it to the bridge with all the verve that a respected thespian can and dives right into the river of artistic intent. Oddball it is.