Song reviews

Sweet sentimentality mixes with melancholy as Sophie Colette shows us just what is in her song writing heart and there is just enough wistfulness in her voice to gain escape velocity from the orbit of planet coffee shop.

I was about to class “Dreamers of the Night” by Brighton band Levity as upbeat indie rock but the song is too good for that justly maligned genre. The song isn’t different enough to scare you but a lot of work and imagination has clearly gone into making it different from the crowd.

Pleasingly sludgy, Little Junior twist that perennially popular guitar pop sound all out of shape with their song “Crooked Teeth”. This might well be more posturing than anger but it grinds against you all the same.

Guilt Coins score bonus points for managing to mature the indie rock sound in a cask of power pop influences to thus allow their song “Iza Crime” to emerge into the singalong sunshine with both immediate appeal and hidden depths.

“Circles” introduces us to the laidback rock sound of Glasgow band Red Hearted Vibrations. The song seems more American than Scottish in presentation but the female vocals are notably appealing to the ear. That said, a bit of editing to trim the fat from the six minute running time would have been beneficial.

“Necessaries” is as low key and wistful a song as a hipster might want in these troubled times but even those without an ear for fashion will find the grace and poise of Many Voices Speak more than sufficient reason to pay attention.

Doing the downbeat melancholy thing is always popular with singer songwriters the world over and Endika Sangroniz throws his heart into the ring with his song “You Never Knew Me”. No surprises therefore but a fair amount of emotional intensity keeps your interest.

Pleasingly upbeat with just enough retro to be counted as cool, Meera hit the mark with their song “Fine Without You” and duly take you right along with them as they dance in the sunshine on their way to a beach party.

“Home Fires” by Tranquil Sea sounds like it has been squeezed flat to fit into the indie rock genre with all the artistic flourishes that such a song needs getting pummelled by the incessant, and repetitive drums. Time for a remix, methinks.

Oddly appealed in a heavily sequenced way, “We Will Never Rule The World” by Lines escapes the dancefloor by the wicked addition of decadence courtesy of Dolores Haze. Is this what discontent sounds like these days? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Another example of bedsit electronica, “Undo” by Searmanas features all those synthesiser sounds that we know and love and tops them off with some ethereal and melancholic female vocals and that makes the song more effective when listening late at night.

If you are going to drown in your own influences then it makes perfect sense to dive deep into the bay of Britpop. Animal House do just that with “No Mamma” and find themselves floating quickly to the surface as their song turns out to be distinctly buoyant.