Song reviews

An enigma on a mission, Sheila K Cameron loops and syncopates her way through “Moxie Blues” with the poise and confidence of one who knows how to play the game but chooses to play her own game instead. The result is hypnotic in an oddball sort of way.

Rather more mature than most in her approach, Glasgow’s Megan Airlie makes a fine attempt at substituting style for the affectations expected of a singer these days and thus successfully renders her song “Honey” in shades of grey.

“Hideout” is a song with ambition going from a rather twee start to a diversion through a forest of folk music influences before making a muscular attempt at chart success. All credit therefore to Natalie Holmes for her sterling attempt at taking what should be hers.

A Glasgow band goes Britpop in these troubled times? It happens more often than you might think and The Hector Collectors use the upbeat yet curiously sentimental “Edgelords” to tell it like it was back when music troubled the charts. Shazam!

An oddly compelling mix of electronica, ethnic influences and dramatic vocals, “Princess of Ukok” is definitely more than the sum of its parts. Maria Matveeva’s voice is worthy of worship and, despite the lyrical pretension, she makes you want to hear more.

Funny how seeing an artist nail it on stage affects your viewpoint on their music. Only a couple of weeks ago I would have passed on by “Let’s Don’t” by Jessica Lynn but now I just can’t get enough of this purveyor of Nashville commercial songs. This one might even make the charts.

A predictable exercise in hard rock turning into metal, Global Warning aren’t looking to push the boundaries of the genre with “Broken Dreams” but their honesty and sheer motive power shines through and will give the song a life on the streets.

Glasgow retro thieves Free Love snatch every handbag on the dancefloor with their song “Free Love” and, perhaps as a sign of the times, they carry it off like it all happened yesterday. This could just have been a song for after midnight but it survives well into the dawn. Bless them with your money!

"Hook Line + Sinker" shows that the mainstream pop song is here to stay and this synthetic concoction from Canada’s Michaela May is as good an example of the genre as you are likely to find. This song will no doubt be found on iPhone playlists throughout the land.

Kalyna Rakel mixes enough quirkiness and bad girl attitude into her song “Who Knew” to make it all but irresistible to the coffee shop crowd and uptown SUV owners yet I suspect there is more to her than the audience for this song might suspect.

Deep, dark and moody is definitely the vibe for Gareth Dunlop’s song “Can’t Stand Myself” nonetheless the song reeks not of singer songwriter self-pity but of heartfelt emotion. Not a song to make you smile therefore but perhaps one to make you think.

Indie rock is a genre that has fallen out of fashion yet Habberdash are nothing less than another indie rock band. “Like A Lover” may not therefore give anyone a surprise but at least the band has a certain volume dependent honesty in their favour.