Song reviews

“Wolves” is the kind of downbeat electro-pop song that surrounds you with an atmosphere of oblique melancholy deployed eloquently by the hypnotic voice of Jenny Gabrielsson Mare. Perhaps not a hit but certainly an enticement into the shadows.

Clearly unwilling to follow the path of the righteous, Sweden’s Kristoffer & The Harbour take their song “Right This Wrong” in many, often bleak, directions before deciding that the final destination is actually happiness. This is a band with a sense of adventure.

Like the spaced out lounge lizards that they are, Deer Eats Birds casually meander through their song “Goose” as if time had less meaning than being in the zone. I’m not quite sure why that approach works but it does.

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.