Song reviews

“Low Blows” is a nicely balanced midrange song that exudes the kind of confidence and old style FM radio friendliness that could make Meg Mac less a stranger than a friend to your ears.

There’s angst everywhere in the desert that we call the city and The Little Miss has harvested it to bring life and purpose to her song “Doubt”. Oddly enough, the press release tries to pass this off as Americana – the music of the nearly but not quite dead - when it is in fact it is downtown, down home and driven by a deadly guitar right into the sunset. Redemption is what it is.

Many good things come from Belgium – Westmalle Trippel springs immediately to mind – so it was no surprise that Benjamin Schoos, and his song “Visiter La Lune”, demonstrates that style still has its place in modern music even if the ghost of even classier Frenchmen like Joe Dassin haunts the lyrics.

Given its simplicity, it is remarkable that Krrum’s song “Moon” achieves the level of ear friendliness that it does. No doubt he has a hipster beard but there is still enough feeling between the sequenced beats to make this a song of the heart rather than one of the street.

Always a class act and one who can evoke emptiness with minimal effort, Luna Green twists her song “Lotus Interception” out of shape as if reflecting the contradictions inherent in passion. Listen to it twice (at least) for maximum benefit. I am your doctor and you can trust my judgment on this matter.

Middleweight is the fighting class for the siblings Ryan, Daniel and Brianna with their song “Trouble Making” taking care to offend no one in the battle for musical victory with the meandering guitar taking the role of coach throughout.

A neat and tidy example of mid-paced modern day electro pop, “Face On” shows that duo Ider have learned the lessons of modern pop music and then distilled it all into one, soon familiar, song. The inherent irony of such an approach has clearly not been forgotten either.

High on laptop melancholy, Dylyn throws the big betrayal into the lyrics of her song “Secret” making the end result burn with a quite decent level of intensity. She sounds like she should be more famous than she is.

There is no doubt that “Human” shows that Eckoes has the imagination that many musicians lack with her song mixing together the kind of samples that will enchant the intelligentsia with the kind of streetwise rhythms that will attract the masses. Top the song off with some entrancing vocals and the job is done and done well.

You can’t really grow out of the three minute pop song – God knows I’ve tried – so I took an immediate liking to Canadian band Fake Shark’s song “Heart 2 Heart”. OK, so the song actually runs 16 seconds over 3 minutes but the combination of eighties electro pop groove and good time lyrics proved irresistible. May the force be with them always.

Pleasing enough to the ear with the festival friendly polish that we have come to expect from Nordic artists entranced by Americana, Sarah Klang coasts through her moody song “Strangers” with both a heavy heart and wistful intent.

Oh, she’s Canadian. Not that it really matters as Stacey has clearly targeted Aimee Mann territory with her song “First Move” and scores valuable points for a confident and pleasing voice that lasts longer in the memory than the song that brought her to my attention.