Song reviews

A live track, it would seem, from Australian musician Michael P Cullen but, despite the courage that such an approach entails, “Black Dog” still seems a less than impressive performance of a characterless song.

It’s always nice to hear some proper musicianship and Dhruv Visvanath does not disappoint with his guitar skills and easy going vocal style making his song “Four” an easy on the ear choice for summer evenings.

OK, so the boy writes thinly disguised, if acidic, show tunes but our very own Angus Munro knows that it is all about the ending and he duly takes his song “Bleed It Out” right through the repeat-repeat-repeat-chorus barrier into a rather splendid big finish that made my day. I even felt an urge to sing along but I am, of course, too cool to do that.

There’s nothing in this world that an excess of roughshod guitar riffs mixed with sweet female vocals can’t solve as Wooing demonstrate with their quirky song “Tear World”. It’s not your standard fare but it's none the worse for that.

Even in the sunshine that blesses Australia downbeat electropop survives with “Release Me To The Sea” allowing singer Jessica Evans the opportunity to overdose on dramatic melancholy. The hipsters here and out there will like this one.

If you like your Australian bands big on volume and low on subtlety then High Tropics might just be your thing with just enough of the indie ghost haunting “15 Years” to make you wish for summer.

As always a fine example of how to do big city power pop, Anya Marina fingersnaps her way through her song “Cut You Loose” with all the poise and emotional precision that your heart and ears need.

Funny how a name bring backs memories for Pangea was also – a coincidence I’m sure – an Indian restaurant that sold me a curry of doom. You know what I mean… however, Liverpool band Pangea are a rather more uplifting proposition with their song “Something Bad” echoing better times for all its three minutes and ten seconds.

There are times when you get to thinking that all Edinburgh bands are unadventurous to the point of self-parody then along comes one like Miracle Glass Company with an offbeat and appealing seventies style pop confection called “T.R.O.U.B.L.E.” and I am, once more, dancing in the street.

Once more in the retro-electro groove, Lines stamp their sequenced feet to the beat of their song “Weekend” as if time has stood still. That said, there’s enough in the chorus to get you in the groove too.

One might say that Blonder's song “In and Out” is the work of a mind with his finger on the pulse of modern music yet the energy in his voice suggest that he may be a lot less cynical than he makes himself out to be.

Distinctly hypnotic in the way that afro-beat is, Amadou & Mariam nevertheless stamp some class on to their song “Boufou Safou” with the curiously familiar riff driving the song back on to the dancefloor for one more spin.