Song reviews

Modern day jazz is the name of the game for Alba Plano and “Out There” shows she has enough class to make in it in any uptown supper club. Will that be enough to get Alba Plano some attention for herself? The cognoscenti will undoubtedly think so.

Lots of attitude helps “Under The Moon” make a positive impression for Danish artist Rebecca Lou even if the mix of downbeat tone and loud guitars makes the song more a soundtrack to a montage than an old school chart challenger.

Now this song was rather more interesting than I expected with Floor Eight neatly turning “Mr Blue” into a hybrid of hard rock and jazz rock and pulling it off like a band with considerably more power chord miles on the clock than they actually have. Thumbs up for this one.

Although “Voices” by Canadian band Ellevator seems to play by the rules of the guitar led indie genre, the female vocals are an altogether lighter, even ethereal, proposition that are more folk rock of the past than playlist friendly today.

Another song for the iPod generation with Cecilia Gault sticking to the straight and narrow all the way through her song “If You’re Gonna Lie” thus guaranteeing her addition to the playlist of the commercially oppressed everywhere.

About as far from unpleasant as you can get, “Both Hands” has more than enough old-time sentimentality in its lyrics to attract Nashville attention for Lora Kelley. Her voice is perfectly pleasant too making this song sweetly endearing.

It’s been a good week for elegance with Jill Barber’s “Girl’s Gotta Do” striking forth with sharp lyrics and more than enough melody to keep the charts interested. Many might say that the pop song has had its day but not on the evidence of this song.

Armed with the kind of wistful melancholy that lesser singer songwriters may only dream of possessing, Susie Scurry strolls with eloquent style through her song “The Elvis Hour” but, let’s face it, any song about Elvis will always be fine with me.

I like a bit of minimalist synth pop yet, with that said, even I was unprepared for the laconic glory that the voice of Catherine McCandless brought to “Frontier”. I will now be steering my spaceship towards Young Galaxy.

New City make a brave attempt to inject some soul in to what is a perfect example of the synthetic pop song so beloved of the iTunes generation and “Getting Closer” will no doubt find its three and a half minutes of fame on iPhone playlists throughout the land.

Now this one is interesting. BARQ had all the hallmarks of a modern urban/jazz funk hybrid band yet manage to stand out from the crowd with “Earthquakes” by throwing in a sense of emotional scale and a hard edged, almost oblique, musical style. Fresh, as they used to say back in the day.

It says here that La Bête Blooms are a post punk band from Hull but their song “Take Arms” is a muscular mix of political commentary and dark days attitude that is more old school punk than a product of today. The revolution is back!