Song reviews

Manic pop from The Magnettes with “Hollywood” being easily comparable with the best songs of the sequenced pop princesses of the past like the Pipettes. This is one song that deserves to be released on vinyl.

Ever endearing, Allie & Ivy stays in the sunshine with her song “Best Friends” and the positive vibes radiate from every sequenced note of this fresh little pop song.

There is no shortage of lo-fi electronica about these days yet Computer Magic manages to add enough wistful urban charm to her looped up song “Gone for the Weekend” to distinguish it from the crowd. I liked this more than I thought I would.

“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.