Song reviews

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!

“Captain of The Rugby Team” has the twisted splendour of a song that is forever destined to forever orbit the art house crowd which is a shame for Sweaty Palms are a band that should surely own all the shadows of the city streets.

Jazz ain’t my thing yet Meg Cavanaugh had no trouble convincing me that her song “Good Ol’ Boys” was a thing of uptown elegance and supper club sophistication. Make no mistake about it - this kitten has class.

Suzi Island have tried harder than most do to make their song “Show Me The Way” interesting to the ear and, if you like modern day pop music, you will no doubt judge them to have succeeded with this one.

A bit of time travelling here from London band Dead Man’s Knees with all the right seventies rock moves – right down to the guitar solo - being added to their song “Pleasure”. This is loud. This macho. This is fun.