Song reviews

Amy Steele has a nice voice and can clearly deliver a song with more than a bit of style but “Graces” is more an album filler than the song that might make a career. That said, I could see this song being used in an advert promoting the ownership joys associated with a Renault Twingo.

Funnily enough, I did not like this song at all the first time that I heard it. After some wasabi peas, I decided that I liked “Burning Out” a bit and even got to thinking that Emma Miller had a voice classier than a supper club in downtown Londonium. Then, after a satisfying bag of chilli peanuts, I remembered that Ms. Miller is actually from Elgin and that her wistful approach to a song was but a distillation of the beauty surrounding the town of her birth.

Providing evidence that she is something of a mistress of understatement, Marle Thomson’s “Home” effectively demonstrates that it is more important to exude class these days than actually attempt to push your song into people’s ears by any means necessary. Some might even class this song as too cool for school.

Downbeat – as is her style it would seem – Maria Kelly piles on the melancholy to fuel the fire underneath her song “Torn in Two”. Those in the mood for reflection rather than excitement may find comfort here.

Many smarter than average female musicians have trodden this musical path before but Marlene Enright, to her credit, pulls her song “Alchemy” neatly towards the nirvana of seventies class acts like Lyndsey De Paul and Carole King. Quirky but complex as all such songs should be.

Much as you would expect of a modern day musician outing his inner sensitivity, Tiny Eyes looks at the world through piano chords and downbeat lyrics with “Falling” being about as accurate description as you could get of my mood as I listened to this song.

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.