Song reviews

In the great lake of bleak Scandinavian electro-pop, the boat that floats Elsa & Emilie is one made of hardwood and delightful harmonies thus ensuring that “Au Volant” will not need a favourable wind to get to its destination.

Steering a steady course through their time-honoured influences comes naturally to Scottish band Rebel Westerns with “Atomic Blonde” efficiently demonstrating that the past can be made the present.

Greg Pekk’s impassioned vocals lead “Someone I Know” through the field of heartbreak on the The Tweed’s journey into power pop land. It’s a retro thing to do but, as is often the case, there is value to found in doing things the old fashioned way.

If there is such a thing as mainstream pop music on the radio these days, Romance & Rebellion’s song “Vanity Fair” would surely make the high rotation playlist with the aspirational commentary in the lyrics highlighting that this is a band with more than just good looks in their favour.

Bleak low-key synth pop is hardly a rarity these days but Glasgow’s Hausfrau successfully catches that vibe of urban despair thus making “Night Tides” one of those songs that effortlessly becomes a soundtrack to post-midnight rain and the yellow glow of sodium streetlamps.

Just when you thought you had heard the last of the sensitive singer songwriter, another one appears. Fortunately, youthful Scottish troubadour Harry Young stands out from the crowd by looking further than his own reflection for his lyrical inspiration and that makes his song “Cocktails and Dreams” both a rewarding listen and a more than adequate demonstration of his future promise.

The Regrettes are another band from California that make you want to make the trip to the sunshine state. Raucous rock girls they might be but all the best things come out of garages and their guitar led song “Hey Now” is proof of that.

Downbeat and with enough old school folk rock influences to make you wish you were listening to vinyl, “Under My Skin” highlights Amy Blaschke’s smoky laconicism. Life is, after all, about love and cigarettes.

Intelligent Scandinavian electro pop from Norway’s Highasakite with “Samurai Swords” displaying enough additional arthouse pretension to convince the better minds of the quality of this band and consequently turn Ingrid Helene Håvik into their new poster girl.

The Tambo Rays strike the right balance between bittersweet lyrics and upbeat indie pop with their song “Get It Right Now”. Retro synth sounds keep the anguish alive but It must be all that sunshine that they get in California that gives the song its undeniable warmth.

Yes! That’s what we need. The bleak tub thumping nihilism that underpins “Senior Pictures” crashes through the oppression of conformity with the kind of relentless dirty needle sharing pretension that would surely earn this band a place in the gutter next to any number of overdosed luminaries from rock’s car crash past. Vomitface – I worship you!

I should hate this song. “First Day Of Summer” is cursed with more than its fair share of awkward thesaurus rhymes yet Jesse Ruben manages to make this throwaway song into a smile inducing sunshine song.