Song reviews

Although clearly steeped in the ways of power pop, Glasgow’s Piranhas and Sharks nonetheless season their song “Red Road” with a sprinkling of Scottish guitar pop edginess that nicely complements their sentimental lyrics. It’s singalong in a cardigan time.

“These Are Not The Drugs (You Are Looking For)” is the kind of song that might make you regard Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5 as hippies of our times. Or, alternatively, you might regard this band as purveyors of the kind of party songs that are themselves narcotic in nature. Be smart for they, and their songs, are.

“Miles From Home” might well be minimalist electro pop but, in the land of sequenced repetition, it is all in the detail and Boston’s Miss Geo follow their chosen path with a convincing mix of innocence and enthusiasm. If the coffee shop isn’t really your thing then this is the kind of song that will make your iPad shuffle.

Surprisingly robust for a Glasgow band, Proud Honey stomp the streets of this no mean city like a proper rock band should with their song “Weekend Millionaires” nudging them, in no uncertain manner, on to the last bus to the stadium anthem. The guitar, once more, is where it is at.

Sounding like he was defrosted from a fridge bought in the eighties, HÔN nonetheless demonstrates that the synth pop thing can still be cool with his song “Honeydream” simmering with the kind of repressed emotion that makes the midnight hour so special.

“Rewind” is a pleasingly melodic mainstream country song from Kalsey Kulyk. The song has enough Ashley Monroe style seasoning to take it to the airwaves and enough Stepford Wives in the lyrics to make you wonder if she is really as conventional as she purports to be.

Once in a while I get to hear what I like to call music for grownups and “Frozen Out” by the Deadline Shakes is most certainly the kind of song that will bring joy to the ears of those who have been around long enough to develop a taste for the finer things in life. This is power pop done right and may the Deadline Shakes be forever blessed.

Sinuous and eminently classy, Nova Heart right click on the satisfaction icon and make their song “We are Golden” candy for all those electro pop ears out there.

Downbeat, lyrically and stylistically, Mono Sideboards determinedly avoid the yellow brick road and instead take their song “Time Goes Backwards For Frank” along the back roads to the cliffs of indie guitar band despair.

A considered piece of music, “This River So Red” provides more than enough evidence of the benefits of a musical education with Tvärvägen easily escaping any accusations of being a soundtrack cue on his journey to classical salvation.

Although she is from Romania, Navi takes a very American approach to her song “Eyes Wide Shut” and, while the piano may well be much to the fore, it is her heart that truly drives the song forward.

The time of the protest song might well be long gone but there are, fortunately, still some who write with intelligence about the state of the world that we live in. Reflecting on what money doesn’t get you, “Everything I Own” demonstrates Silent Sleep – aka Christopher McIntosh – is such a man.